EXTRAORDINARY SCENE.

Evening Post, Volume XXII, Issue 137, 10 December 1881, Page 4

EXTRAORDINARY SCENE.

A scene of considerable confusion waa witnessed on 19th October outside the stage door ot Drnry Lano Theatre. The management liad iHFurd an advertisement is the following terms:—"One hundred pretty yonng ladios wanted. One hundred pretty, well-made, and intelligent young ladies, from j 7 to -0, for the forthcoming puntomime at Drnry Lane Theatre. Apply, Btage doer, Drury Lane, on 19th October, at 1 o'clock. Anyone who is not young and not pretty will bo -topped by officials appointed for that purpose/ The wide publicity given to thi3 announcement seems to have been regarded Fomowhat in the light of an invitation to idlers to come down and see this novel exhibition of youth and beauty. Iv fact, oven beforo the time appointed a 1 .rpe crowd assembled under the colonnade and in tha street at the side of tho theatre, and the thoroughfare from Drury Lano to Bow-street and Covent Garden was lihuont completely blcckadeJ. A suspicion seemed pretty generally prevalent at first that tho whole affair was a hoax, and that the advertisement had been the work of some person aciing without authority. It was boon discovered, however, that this was not bo. The stage door was flung wide open, and infiitlo stood tho officials—the judgos of beauty and age — ready for the discharge of their Fomowhat invidious dnlies. Those among the candidates who weru cot to be deterred at.tho laet moment by the thought of the scrutiny to which they would be subjected insido the thca re found that they had to inn the gauntlet outside between dcr se rows of spectators, who dieplayed the deepest ir.tere3t in their personal appei raiice and in their prospects of securing an engagement. Ever and anon the appeaiance of a lady who could not, by the utmost stretch of conrtes-y, be held to comply with the stern requirements of the management was the signal for an outburst of cheers and yells. For the most part, however, tho applicants, who were three or four time 3as many as the required number, wera quiet and respectable-looking young^ women, who were naturally somewhat surprised at the reception accorded to them. Blauy had perforo« to leave In de-s pair of ever reaching tho stago door, while those who did succeed in pushing their way through tho crowd wt ro hustled and jeered at by the roughs, who wero present in conBitlemble numbers. Several policemen wero on tho spot, but wore only partly successful in maintaining order, the scene lasting for upwards of an hour. Finally the candidates, to tho number of about 400, were all admitted indiscriminately, and letained i> sido with closed doors until the excitement had had time to e->b?ide, and only a few stragglers remained in the street.