Year: 1876

DR. Holland makes the following
suggestions in an article on Public
Halls, f." in SCRIBNER for March:


In view of the fact that certain
percentage of the great number of
public halls that have been built
have imperfect acoustic qualities.
and the further fact that hew halls
are being put up i'll various parts of
the country every year, it would seem
desirable that some one who has had n
good deal of experience with halls
should tell what he has learned about
them. The writer of this has probably
spoken in five hundred different au-
dience-rOOms, and he has never spoken
in one that had an echo, or was diff
cult TO speak in, which Was amphi-
theatrical in form, or semicirCular i'm
finish. The hard halls, the echoiug
balls, the halls with bad places" in
them, are always rectangular, so far
us he has observed. \ rectangular
hall may be absolutely perfect, as the
old Corinthian Hall in Rochester is
remembered 10 have been; tut there
seems to be a law of proportion rclut-
lug To rectangular halls which Is not
understood 10y builders. There may
lie bad halls with the se1i.circular
finish opposite to the stage or rOstrum,
but we have nCVC! seen one.


\ great many bluuderS are made in
lighting halls. ESuecally is this case
when the stage of the theater is made
10 serve as the rOstrum OF the lecturer
No audience can sit comfortably and
look at Il light. Yet lecturers face
should always be well lighted, and no
lecturer can bear fOot.Ights blazing
between him and his audience. A
light on his stand Is in his way, auu
in the way of the audience The light
In- should always be from above and
from the side. a central chandelier
above, and Just in front of the stage,
aHd IA bracket of IightS ut either Wing.
wiit Iigh: 4 !, CturUr'S face sufficiently.
and II he reads, his manuscript. \ hood
ed light. exactly in front of his manu-
script, not more than five inches high
which neither he nor ms audience can
see, viii do good service when other
favorable conditions and provisions
are wanting. The more diilused Iighi
there Is in Il hall the better. The angel
Gabriel could not speak effectively
where he could neither see his audience
nor he distinctly seen Ivy il. Light
seems to be the medium of comnuni-
cation of magnetism and sympathy
between the entertainer and the en-
tertained. Too much vacant space
should never he behind speaker. \
maG is often heard very easily III front
or the curtain, who finds it difficult to
fill the hall when the curtain is up and
the stage open fifteen or twenty feet
behind him,


There were formerly halls which
had the rOstrum between the two
doors Of entrance. This mistake, for
various reasons, is sometimes made at
this day but it is a fatal one. No
man should enter hall in the faces of
an audience, especially in a place where
PRESERVED seats" are sold for of all
tn unmitigated nuisances in society,
he Is the worst who fauries that he
buys, with reserved seat, the right
to enter and disturb an audience al
any time in the evening, All noise at,
or near. the door Of entrance should
be a. far as possible from the SPEAKER,
the singer, and the actor. And a. we
have introduced the matter of reserved
seats, we may as well 20 farther and
say that no reserved seat should ever
be sold that carries any right beyond
the minute when performance is an
n >unced to begin The difficulties of
hearing in hall grow more out Of the
disturbances made by late cOmers than
from acoustic defects in the halls OF
audience.