Democratic Sentinel, Volume 11, Number 27, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 August 1887 — THE THEATERS OF LONDON. [ARTICLE]

THE THEATERS OF LONDON.

An Enormous —TTie Lord Cham- 1 lierlitin's AuliKiratic lowers. There are thirty-six theat rs in London. Tin;, represent an investment in land of over They employ at least 10,00 ) persona—actors, stage hands, and people i i front of tlie house. These are in d reet and con- j t.nnal service. The seating capacity is 1 75,000. lire average attendance is j 51,000. Tho average :..(lm -s on is Is 11 -<l, or 3!i cents. Ihea v- i ago return, I theu, .s a o.'.t Tins .is for ; every P rionuar.c >. an 1 including matinees, .'dost of the cli .iters give j matii ees—some of them- two, and even tinee, a week. The Lord Chamberlain’s j'luy-re der revises plays, exercises an automate authority over theaters. bullyrags luanug rs, and is decent * or not as the spirit moves him. Let i me «iv lie is usually decent. His name I is Mr. L* got, an ex-barrister. He has an oili- e d wn near Mt. James’ Palace, liis duties are to li 0..50 plays, and when h : has said a n'.a- cannot be put on, that ant the it; there is no ap’ eal. Salmi Morse appeal' d from one court to another in New York, but had he applied to tho Lord Chamberlain and received an adverse answer that would have ended the matter then and there, and he word 1 have saved Considerable money. Not that the Lord Chamberlain ever meddle with plays; he is too important an o hem d for that, and the. supervision of this branch of his duties is perfunctory , quite. He has charge of public build mgs and palaces; has an office at West nuns ter, and is a veryhigh and nii'litv man all round; but the play-reader is a retiri g little chap, with a literary turn of mind and a stern sense of duty. WheaetT a play is to be produced it is sent to him with a fee of one guinea for each net. He immediately sends a receipt lor the guineas, and that is the last 3-011 hear of them. Within a week you get notice whether you can play the piece or not, or if anything has got to be expurgated. It is not necessary for Iran to indicate why he will not allow any 1 day or part of it; lie only says yes or no, and there an end. A short time ago a Canadian L end of mine sent n a melodrama, in seven , acts, to put before a London manager. ] The manager jumped at it and made j preparat on for its r rod re tion, saying “Oh, the license is nil right;he won’r. - terfere.” But e did. The play w ; sent around to hum as so >n a; the parts were copied, and w.th them the necessary seven guineas. In a 'few days notice was sent to the manager that the piece could not be played. We went to see him, and asked to make alterations. He said that he didn’t mind telling us that the Irish scene was the objectionable feature, and if we had a mind to cut that out and change the time of a cion, so that it would not deal with the Government of to-day, he woul 1 permit its production. Now the play’ had only one Irish scene, and it dealt with a peaceful village where there was a comparative prosperity, but out of which there subsequently’ came the thread of a plot. In London the troubles of the hero led to an appeal being made to the Home Secretary 7, who, by the way, is not represented, only referred to, and then not by name, and kis refusal to interfere calls forth an effort to escape, and naturally enough leads to Ills being called “a hard-he rted man.” Beyond this there is no reference to him, but that was the ground upon which the time of the action must be shifted. “Can I put it into the period of the Beaconslieid Government?” said the manager. “That I can’t say until I have seen what you make it there’” “Can’t I take it to a time when tlie Home Secretary was an unpopular man ?” “I can’t tell you. This you can do, however. You can take it out of the reign of Queen Victoria.” . “But, bless you, that would spoil the play altogether. It of a necessitydeals with the present.” Well, the play was not produced, and won’t be.— New York World.