The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-12-22

nounced that no more were to be had.
Says Col. Mapleson in his Memoirs
Long before daylight the Would-be pur-
chasers of Patti tickets had collected
and formed into line, reaching the length
OF some three or four streets; and from
this time until the close of the engage
ment, some four weeks afterward, that
line was never broken at any period of
the day or night. A brisk trade was
done in the hiring of campStools, for
which the modest sum of 81 was charged.
A similar amount was levied for a cup
of coffee or a slice of bread and butter.
AS the line got hungry, dinners We're
served; also supperS. High prices We're
paid, to obtain a place in line, as the
head of it approached the box Office, re-
sulting only in disappointment to the in
tending buyer, who was of course una
bic to procure ticket. Large squads
of police were on duty the whole time,
and they were busly employed in keep
ing the line in its place, and in defeating
outsiders in their attempts to make a
gap in it. Later on, it was announced
that limited number of gallery tickets
would be sold, when rush was made,
carrying away the whole Of the Win
| SPECTATORS were offering seats at from
$40 to $50 each, places in the fifth row
| of the dress circle fetching as much as
| 500, being 400 per cent above the box office
price. They found buyers at rates which
would have shamed Shylock. Later in
the day fulminations were launched upon
my bad, and L IVES accused of taking
part in the plunGsr 1 therefore deter
| mined, as far as possible, to set this
/ right.
At length evening approached and hum
drads of tickets had been sold for stand
ing room only.
Meanwhile Chief Crowley and Capt
Short, OF the police, on seeing the aisles
leading to the orchestra stalls and dress
/! circle blocked by the vast crowd, many
i of whom were seated on campstoo1s
! which they had secretly brought with
| them, procured a warrant for my arrest
the following morning. Several hot dis
| putes occurred about this time in the
main vestibule, in consequence or num-
bers of duplicate tickets having been is
sued, and several seat holders We're I'M
| able to reach their p1eces. One gentle
man challenged anothsr to come and fight
it out on the sidewalk with revolvers
y V In the top gallery people were
literally on the heads, of one another,
| as the numbers were still; increasing. the
inspector ascertained that boards had
been placed from the top of an adjoin-
ing house onto the roof of the opera
house, from which the slate had been
taken off. and numbers were dropping,
one by one. through the ceiling on to the
heads OF those who were seated in the
gallery. Patti, of course, was smothered
with bouquets, and the Italian residents
Of the city sent a huge globe of violets,
supported on two ladders, with the Ital-
ian and American flags hanging over each
side At the end Of each act huge stands
and forms of flowers were sent up over
the footlights and placed on the stage.
On going through the tickets in the
treasury, Mapleson and his assistants
discovered upward of 200 bogus ones
taken at the door:
These counterfeits We're so good, even
to the shade Of color, that it was almost
Impossible to detect the difference from
the real ones; the public having smashed
into the opera as if shot from howitzers.
Several women declared that their feet
had never touched the ground from the
time they got out of their carriages: and
1t was with difficulty that the tickets
were sRatched from them as they passed
Many who haA paid for standing room