the ordinary tariff. If, however, we turn to the reduced tariff at the Odéon, we shall find it lower than that at the Trente ans, orchestra seats costing only Fr. 2.50, the second and third rows of the balcony Fr. 2.00, the gallery and the remaining seats from Fr. 1.50 down to fifty centimes.
According to the diagram of the Théâtre Trianon, there are about 350 seats at Fr. 3.00, 180 at Fr. 2.50, 190 at Fr. 2.00, and 100 at Fr. 1.00. Altogether about 530 seats averaging over Fr. 2.00 each, and 100 averaging less. I do not think these very popular prices. And think of the difference in the seats! This inequality invariably arouses ill-feeling in an audience of workingmen, for they demand that all seats be equally good.
And to this tariff we must add from ten to twenty-five centimes per person for check-room fees, which might well amount to more than a franc for a family of three. There is also the ouvreuse—the woman-usher—who must needs extract her small profit. If all this is popular, I am indeed delighted, for it proves that the people are well-off.
But, as a matter of fact, the audience at the Théâtre Trianon was not composed of the people, but of the Bourgeoisie, whose fashionable clothes might well arouse envy in the breasts of an Odéon audience. It may be urged, however, that it is hard to distinguish a Parisian workingman from a bourgeois simply by his clothes. That may be true, but I can scarcely believe that any workingman would, after his day's labor, put on a frock coat and silk
