Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925, 1906-07-12
WOMEN THEATER-GoERs.
Many Discomforts That They Submit
To in London.

"0'y SSSo""o'eS 'Hae iHcy SupHiit
To in London.
The cablegrams telling of the recent
monster benefit for Ellen Terry cast an
interesting sidelight on theater tradl-
lions of London. Many of these would
be intolerable to Americans and they
are largely the product of the English
woman theater-goer, says the New
York Post
Regular attendants at the British
theater are, for the greater part
women. The theaters are usually very
small compared with American play
houses. There are the stalls, which
occupy one half of the lower floor, our
parquet. These seats cost item and
six" ($2.60). The extra sixpence,
which seems so absurd to add to the
gold los. piece, makes it half-guinea.
Back of these few rows of stalls
comes the pit, usually long benches
without any division. This costs a.
half-crown, 60 cents. The dress cir
Gle, analogous to our balcony, has
stall seats at ten and six, with the
rear ones slightly cheaper. The bal
cony is above that, with seats at 5
shillings while the gallery. still
higher, costs 2 shillings. These seats
are simply tiers without backs and so
narrow that there is no place for the
sitter's feet save on the seat below.
The pit and the gallery are the
places usually filled with women.
Neither OF these have any reserved
seats, and it is this which leads to the
formation of the queue Of pittites, as
they are known. In America we have
occasionally, when famous cast Is
announced, or when the season tickets
of the opera are on sale, long line
of people, who wait for hours; but in
London every day in the year before
the doors of theaters, music halls, Or
concert halls queue stands In lines
of two abreast, often a block long,
from to T. and on matinee days
from IL to o'clock.
Nine-tenths of these weary walters
are women, well-dressed, refined
women, for 1t Is at the high-c1ass
west end theaters that this practice
fiourishes In its extreme. Nearly
every one has a newspaper or book
which she reads, holding an umbrella
II 1t is raining. These lines before
the theater doors, Of course, are a
or Ira ftpr af
order as the despised sandwich man.
After entering the theater there Isl
usually wait OF an hour and half
to two hours while the management
hang out huge signs-"Pit Full" Gal.
lery Full''--iD the hope that it may
lead to stalls Full" House Full' in
regular progression.
The practice Of hiring messenger
boys to hold place until the doors
opened, grew to such proportions and
was SO palpable cruelty that public
protests have been made against theI
practice.
Once inside the London theatersl
the hat question is burning issue.
The management usually makes an
appeal for the removal of headgear
AT matinee every woman wears her
hat, and almost without exception pos
lively refuses to remove 1t, even whenl
requested, while at night no ladyl
would think of wearing hat to the
theater at all--but fashion rules. not
consideration. AT few theaters the
management will make feeble at.
tempt to aid an objector to hat, bat
IL is the exception.
During one OF the performances On
the Greek tragedy of Electra at the
Court theater, where the audience was
supposed to be most cultivated and
enlightened, the play was stopped by
a hat contest. A woman In the stalls
had on huge dropping affair OF the
ST. Joshua Reynolds period. 1t was
as large as a good-sized parasol, and
effectively cut off the view of a mum.
Der OF persons in the rear. A brave
woman Immediately behind, who had
no possible chance of seeing the stage,
asked politely to have the hat re-
moved. "No---I shall not" was the
reply. Then a clergyman went down,
and begged the man accompanying the
woman TO use his authority to have
the hat removed. mo, shall not, -