Democratic Sentinel, Volume 13, Number 3, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 February 1889 — THU THEATERS OF LONDON. [ARTICLE]

THU THEATERS OF LONDON.

Aj> Enormous Business—The Lord Chamberlain's Autocratic Powers. There are thirty-air theaters in London. They represent an investment In land of over $200,000,000. They employ at least iO,OOO persons — actors, stage hands, and people in front of the house. These are in direct and contin aal service. The seating capacity is 75,000. The average attendance is 51,000. The average admission is Is ll4d, or 38 cents. The average return, then, is about £4,000. This is for ?very performance, and including .adnees. Most of the theaters give matinees —socie of them two, and even three, a week. The Jjord Cnamberlain’s play-reader revises plays, exercises an autocrat ! c authority over theaters, bullyrags managers, and is decent or not as the spirit moves him. Let me say he is usually decent. His name is Mr. P>got, an ex-bm rister. He has an office down near bt. James’ Palace. His duties are to 11 ease plays, and when he has said a phi cannot lie put on, that settl s it, t 1 re is no appeal. Salmi iv orse appeal* d from one court to another in New ork, but had he applied to the Lord Chamberlain and received an adverse answer that would have ended the matt " then there, a d he would have saved considerable i oney. Not that the Lord Chamberlam ever meddle wit i pla s; he is too important an o eei d for that, and the supervision of this branch of his duties jr perfunctory, quite. He lias charge o public buildings uml palaces; has an office at Westminster, and is a vef/ high and might'- man all round; but ti e play-reader is a retiri g little chap, with a literary turn of mind and a stern seime of duty. Whenever a play is to be produced it : i so.: to mm w.tli a fee of one gu’nea 'm- one' ct. He immediately se n 1.. .‘or tho guineas, and that l 4 the * ; u -ai < f them. Within awc vou ; o whether you can pi t. ,li ■•o -not, or if a-! y thing has got i. be expurga> tJ. It i m. *iy f-j'r rims to iudicat wit • i: will not allow au * lay or part o it; he only snv'j yes’ ( no, and tie re an end. A abort time ago a Canadian friend of jriue sent in n Melodrama. in seven a/ fs, to put before a Condon manager. manag r ju< iped at it and madj •reparation for its -<rod ’ction, saying*. -'.Jh, the license is all right; lie won’t interfere.” but he did. The play waa sent around to him as soon ais the parts were copied, and with 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 tniud telling us tliat the Irish scene was the objectionable feature, and if we had a mind to cut that- out ans change the timo of action, so that it would not deal with the Government of to-day, lie w O4lll 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 subseJuently came the thread of a plot. Iu iondon the troubles of the hero led to su appeal bemg made to the Home Secretary, who, by the way, is not represented, only referred to, and then not by name, and his refusal to interfere calls fovth an effort to escape, and naturally enough leads to liis being called “a hard-hearted 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 inro the period of ttie Beaconsiield 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 the Home Secretary was an unpopular man ?” “I can’t toll 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 necessity deals with the present.” Well, the play was not produced, and won’t be. —New York World.