A PUZZLING QUESTION.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXI, Issue 2522, 8 September 1888, Page 2 (Supplement)

A PUZZLING QUESTION.

Will some kind soul inform us why it is that all the people who go to theatres don't some time, by accident, take it into their heads to go on the same night? Why is it that in the course of a week it often happens that the house is just evenly filled every night? Why is it that the receipts for a whole week do not vary more than ten or twelve, and seldom more than fifty dollars on a night ? In a city like New York or London, a piece often has a run of six months or a year, with full houses all the time, but very few, if any turned away. How is it that audiences of just such a particular size will distribute themselves over such a large period ? What law is it that regulates the attendance at the theatres and makes the audiences almost uniform ?

There can't be an understanding among the people as to who will go and who will not. The size of the audience is in on# sense purely accidental, and the puzzle is how a series of accidents can be of so uniform a character. Why it is that sometime everyone doesn't conclude to go Monday night, or Wednesday night, or some other particular time ? Is there any reason why an accident of that kind should not happen. It must be by some unseen, unknown, mystic influence that theatre-goers of a community apportion themselves to the various nights of the week, so that the attendance shall be about the same each night. But that is an explanation which does not satisfactorily answer the question.