The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-09-09

(Op question has been for a long time a delicate and most vexatious one V, h all shows, theatrical as well as circtis. While the theatrical managers fill the newspaper with their just com paints on this head, their grievance Is but drop to the bucketful compared with that Of the circus man.
 In the managers office tickets are re- garded just the same as the cash they represent; as stock in trade the same as a merchant regards his goods on the shelves. They are so accounted for in the ticket wagons and in the hands of agents on the road Nobody connected with the show has a right 10 give away his employers money without the latter s express consent though the discretion of exchange necessarily must be placed in q good many hands, and this discretion sometimes Is much abused
 This peculiar idea of the commercial worthlessness (to the showman) of circus tickets pervades all classes, from the top down to the yardman of a country railway station. And I must admit that showmen themselves by their lavish dis tribution of free tickets everywhere and on slight occasion, have created and fos- tered their pernicious idea.
 Many times tickets are given to avoid or prevent vexatious or annoying trou- bes. The daily record of tickets issued for one thing or another sometimes is staggering The railroad contractor, who goes out ahead of everybody else, has all the railway officials and employees to satisfy from president down 10 station agent The general contracting agen- who follows must make himself solid with bill posters, liverymen, and prac- tically everybody with whom he deals
 Bill posters formerly demanded 200 tickets in one town 100 in another, fifty in another, and so on, at their own sweet will; now the Bill Posters association has decreed that the number of circus tickets shall be regulated by the population of the place where the show exhibits. As all work done for the circus is always paid at the highest labor rates for such work, this additional compensation is pure graft.
 Then the treasurer of the show gives NAAAo@
 to such patrolmen as may be assigned to the circus, and it sometimes seems as if the entire force were on the circus grounds. There are aldermen, court house politicians members of the fire depart ment, etc., who must be tipped more or less literally. In addition there are the friends of the managers, of the agents, and in fact, everybody who knows or thinks he knows anybody connected with the show, which in his opinion entities him to a free admission.
 Probably Albany. N. Y., is the worst city in the country when 1t comes to complimentary tickets. On one occasion we had out in that city of graft HOO free tickets, and showed there but one day. If there had been opposition the free list would have run up to POO. Every offl- cial in Albany from governor to hostler in an engine house, considers himself entitled to free admission to a circus.
 For every Autograph hung in shop window one to three tickets must be given up, and likewise for the board or banner or any other privilege obtained. This makes every car manager distributor of free tickets, and sometimes this agent grievously Is beset by grafters.
 I have known the yardmen at a railway station to demand tickets for themselves and families, and this being refused, 10 fill the oil boxes with sand so that for days afterward the car ran with hot boxes. I have known engineers Of switch engines, after a like refusal, to monkey with the car by attaching 1t to the en- zine and using 1t as buffer in making up trains. preventing the agent from doing his work properly.
 Car inspectors almost must be fixed otherwise they may order the car to the shop flor repairs and entail loss of several days in the cars schedule. This has been done.
 Hotel clerks are most persistent de- manders for free tickets, on the ground that they can influence guests to attend the show. This custom has been created by the theatrical agents. who distribute their favors also to head walters chambermaids, and other people who serve them personally, but who have not the slightest claim on the courtesy of the show. It IS encouraged by the local man. ager, who Is too blind to see that the same liberality on the part of his rivals leaves all on the same footing, so far as the hotel clerks supposed influence is concerned.
 Hotel clerks in New York do not hesi- tate to write for free tickets, basng their claim on the simple fact that they are hotel clerks. Bellboys will use a sheet of their hotel paper in making the same demand, and some agents honor these singular requests.
 While 1t has become modified in recent years, the custom of free tickets is eX- travagant among many agents. The the atrical press agent sometimes gives out as many free admissions to perform ance as are issued in the same town by a circus. It Is called papering the house, and is to secure an audience. This is something the circus agent never does.
 This theatrical custom of tipping with free tickets has become so securely fixed that certain railway and hotel officials regard 1t as sort of a perquisite to which they have right It is a com mon thing for the man in uniform to pre- sent himself at the office of the adver- Using car manager and demand tickets for himself and family. Even conductors are not ashamed to do it on the ground that their train hauls the circus car. .
 Freight conductors. engineers. firemen. brakemen, hang around everywhere, anx- f.,tr