Jasper County Democrat, Volume 5, Number 31, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 November 1902 — The Paris Critics. [ARTICLE]

The Paris Critics.

An amusing bit of gossip comes from Paris by way of the London Era, which says that the Paris theatrical managers are at daggers drawn with the critics. Last year the managers quit issuing invitations to the latter to the “repetition generale,” or dress rehearsals, and now they have decided to give no free tickets to the press for first performances. The Paris theaters have not been doing well this year, and the bad business is ascribed to the critics, the entrepreneurs threatening to attack the scribes in the law courts. “If a journalist writes down a play,” says one of the Paris managers, “we shall proceed against him in the law courts. If a newspaper were to publish an article stating that X.’s cognac was undrinkable, the journalist who wrote the article and the newspaper in which it appeared would both lie sued for damages. Our case, as we consider it, is precisely similar.”