The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1911-11-15
NO txCUSEFORBAO MANNERS N THE THEATER
Just Because You Pay for Your Ticket You Needn't
Think Yourself Privileged to Come in Late
-Murat Theater Too Big.
~ ESTHER GRIFFIN WHITE.

0t 6oS V6U oUIFFIN WIFI e.
And she said
I'VE paid just as much for our seats
as you did for yours"
Then wish you would please take
them"
This is a bit Of repartee heard re-
Gently at the theater.
To be exact at the Gennett where
one Of the best plays seen here this
season was in progress. The act, in
deed was we'll on when a party of
late theater-goers filed in in front OF
man and his wife who rarely go out
to the play and were prepared to en-
Joy themselves in consequence.
The curtain had gone up and the
preliminaries, so necessary to the I'M
derstanding of the subsequent action,
were being begun" when the party
just mentioned came in.
Great banging of seats, much con-
tinuous standing up, tremendous re-
moving Of coats and wraps, putting of
hats under seats, feeling around for
peaus, getting up to hunt for things
that had slipped on the floor, reseat-
tngs and runnings of fingers through
hair, great commenting on extraneous
matters relative to things that had
happened not within the memory of
anybody sitting near, all punctuated
with tee-hee-ings and ha-ha-ings.
Expostulations from the rear, from
which vantage the stage was wholly
obscured, resulted in the exchange of
amenities recorded above.
This Is a form of bad manners that
is prevalent in many American thea
tiers and is practiced by otherwise
we'll bred and we'll intentioned peo-
pie.
There is no reason why theater-go-
ers should not be in their seats at
the rise of the curtain in a town the
size of Richmond, especially at a
quarter after eight. If they are not,
the management of the play house
should not permit them to take their
seats until the beginning of the next
act.
Half of the first acts of recent plays
presented here have been spoiled and
rendered unmeaning to those who
were in their seats before the rise of
the curtain by the inconsiderate ones
who came in late.
The cool insolence of the late-com-
ers who assume that just because they
have paid for their seats, as they sue
cinctly remarked in the case referred
to, they have a right to annoy every
Ill n "
not have exchanged the coin of the
realm for the encouragement of dra-
matte art-and If there are any present
who haven't they will now have the
opportunity of leaving before extreme
JUNCTION is administered-is one of the
curious manifestations Of the contrari-
Nv Of the human animal
But. says somebody or other, if
you're a dead-head-what then? You
havn't any right to complain. You
ought to be grateful for standing room
only.
So far as dead-heads are concerned
oh we'll!
But this is not about dead-heads!
In passing lightly on, it might be
IoIldTk uOWcNcE, IldI IuIS GLASS;
does not, as some mistakenly think,
represent unearned Increment.
Every dead-head, unbelievable as it
may seem, points a business moral,
and, indeed, may adorn his seat behind
q post. Who can tell? He might ev-
en- be an example which many worthy
ushers strive to emulate.
To return to the peculiar manners
and habits Of the frequenters of the
playhouse, the exchanger of repartee
also commented upon the insane and
inexplicable way people have of pre-
pairing for the final leave taking be-
fore the end of the last act appeared
round the corner.
In the above mentioned celebrated
case of-"bought our seats as we'll as
you did"-the party began elaborate
preparations for departure about the
middle of the last act and those in the
immediate environment were again
barred from vision of the doings on
the stage, so that, the lady in ques-
ton said, she was neither in at the
start or the death.