The daily morning journal and courier., 1904-11-17
AN AMUSING SIGHT,
TICKET SPECULAT0RS SPEND
 THE NIGRT

In Front of the Hyperion Theater En-
 trance-wainng for Place In Line
 -Great Demand for Tickets for
 aFootbam NIghts-crowd of Nearly
 One Hundred spend Night in sIeep-
 ing. singing, Dancing and Quarreling
 Arrangement Protecting General . Publie's Interest.
 Early yesterday morning, about 1 O. clock, nearly 100 ticket speeulators gathered in the passage way in front Of the Hyperion theater. and from that time until the box office opened at g o'clock they remained there. The spec ulators ranged in years from fifteen years, if not younger, to fifty years old. if not older, and they included every nationality. Despite the fact that it was a cold night. they did not seem to mind it a bit, and they made things lively in the vicinity during the night. But for the fact that Officer Cohee was present to cool their ardor it is ques- ton what might not have happened. The time was spent in various ways by the speeulators. Numbers of them were lying down on the ground in the alley way Others were singing and danc- ing, while some of them were engaging in the manly art when the officer was not looking Some were somewhat un- der the influence of liquor, and some were not, and taking the crowd all in XII s4 ;,,fa nfpf rP street life.
 They were all there waiting for place in line to procure tickets for next Saturday night-s.football night. But few of them had any money to buy tickets, and they simply got the places so that they could sell them to some one who had. One of the amusing sights of the whole affair was a Hebrew about forty years old who had with him four boys ranging in age from fifteen to twenty all of whom called him father" An urchin was heard to remark, Dat crowds good for forty plunks." The reporter asked one of the most orderly members of the crowd. New Haven boy and an old one at the business, to explain the plan He said, "You see, we stay here all night and get a good place in the line. The box office opens at g o'clock, and about 8 o'clock the people who have money and who want tickets come along and we sell our, places to the highest bidder Last year | got twelve dollars for. my place. I was about the tenth in the line" He said that in a case where man failed to sell his place he. simply srS. k. aIl a mo n buys a place in line the boy steps out, and the man takes the place. The in formant also stated that the great dan ger was to look out that during the time of waiting one was not forced out Of line. because if he was there was no chance to get back again. There is al- so no chance to get back again after once a place Is sold.
 The speculator in reply to a question as to why he did not keep his own place in line and buy ten tickets, which he said was the limit allowed to any one person, said, "It's no use trying that game, they're onto us in the box office. I stayed up one night two years ago. ard tried that, but when l went to buy the tickets the man would not sell them to me, and said, Its no use to try that game on me- so l lost ev- erything. Last year q business man on Church street hired five of us boys for three dollars apiece to stand in line to buy tickets for him. He gave us each a letter which we showed the man in the box office, but that did not work either. I have now made up my mind that unless fellow looks like ready money the only way to make good IS to get a good place in line and sell 1t before your turn comes at the box of fice''
 Owing to the fact that Saturday nights productions in both the theaters this year are exceptionally good, the demands for tickets will, if possible, be greater than ever before. The specu- lators have been held down closer than ever before, and consequently those who have tickets are asking big prices for them. Some were offered on the street yesterday at ten dollars apiece, hut they were few even at that price
 <