Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-05-01


when the counting was done.
A man connected with the theater happened
to 60 up in the gallery one night. He had OBJ
served that the receipts from this portion of
the house were not so large as they should be.
and investigated. making an actual count of
the people who came in. 1t did not agree with
the number of tickets accounted for later on
by the treasurer. The latter. when called to
book confessed.
Valuable Raisins
MYSELF had the pleasure of catching the
gallery ticket taker in Philadelphia the
alter. Philadelphia was dozen years ago, and
may still be. great gallery town. The gallery
attracted much more refined crowd than was
found in the average theater of other cities.
and thus proved source of good revenue. The
company with which | was travelling had been
drawing packed galleries. it seemed to me: but
the treasurer's nightly reports never showed
that he had sold out that part Of the house. l
decided to investigate.
Going up stairs made friends with the man
at the gallery door He wore heavy ulster: for
it was a cold night and quite draft was blow
ing up the stairs. Now and again he dipped
into side pocket of this ulster. and made up
nv mind although could not see him put any
tickets into this pocket. that this was his little
game So asked him what he had in his pocket
Raisins." said he. putting his hand down
and handing me lot of them Then he went
on taking tickets and putting them into the big
tin box at his feet.
j
pected that was awake to his game and would
not try to repeat his pocket trick. set out to
catch him for what he had already DONE
Got any more of those raisins?" asked.
And. without waiting for his reply. l reached
over. his hands being busy taking tickets, and
showed my hand into his pocket.
AS expected, it came out filled with hard
tickets. He was too astonished to do anything,
and before he recovered was down the stairs
and into the managers office with my evidence.
he oyo110 bot fo1r and he mas yxyhn
sold tickets in the gallery boxoffce. separate
from the main Office. were both discharged.
At their own volition. the theater management
paid our company for full capacity of the gal
lery up to this performance. and after that we
got square count.
Aft Hayman - Detective
THE most amusing case of sharing dishon-
est ticket seller that have ever heard of
is vouched for by Aft Hayman. general mana
ger of Charles Frchman's theatrical interests.
As plain ''Alf he was known as rafting good
advance agent, and later as manager of travel
ing companies.
Some years ago. when one-nght stands were
PLAYED bv practically every company. ALT Hay
man was in town not far from St. Louis. where
the theater was part of a circuit controlled by
manager noted for his stiffness in many ways.
Other companies playing this and other towns
on the circuit had noted a remarkable def
cheney in the gallery and balcony receipts. The
attendance in those parts OF the houses was ap-
parently good: but the tickets when counted
would not seem to account for so MANY people.
1t began to be notorious. and Hayman. among
Others. decided to make special efforts to find
out where the leakage occurred.
A brother manager had told Hayman of his
suspicious about this particular town. i've
noticed when sitting in the boxof6ce." said he.
"a peculiar clicking sound at one side every
now and then I've never been able to locate it
exactly. but / think it has something to do
with the disappearance of tickets. When you're
there you investigate"
When Hayman got to the town he made it a
point to sit in the boxoffice during the evening
sale of seats. Nothing appeared wrong: but
after awhile he too heard this odd sound. 1t
came from the left side of the little office 1t
sounded to him like something dropping. per-
haps through chute and landing in drawer
or box. Suddenly his mind grasped it, and at
the first opportunity he reached over and pulled
out drawer He had solved the mystery! AS
he pulled the drawer out it was half filed with
gallery and balcony tickets. and while he held
It some more came sliding down through a
chute that connected with it.
There was fight when the ticket seller found
that he was discovered. but the travelling man
ager won, and the subsequent investigation.
which disclosed the same system being worked