Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III. BEFORE THE REVOLUTION. The first regulation regarding carriages carrying people to and from the theatre was introduced during the season of 1768, according to the following notice which appeared in the 1768 papers of that date: "To prevent accidents by carriages meeting it is requested that those coming to the theatre house may enter John street from Broadway, and returning drive from thence down John street into Nassau street or forwards to that known as Cart and Horse street, as may be most convenient." The run of the American company at the John Street Theatre, which covered a period of eleven months, was not a prosperous one. The cost of the theatre in the face of serious public opposition evidently proved too much for the management, and at the close of the season Mr. Douglass found himself without funds. Never was opposition to the drama in New York so bitter as in the spring of '68 and as far as possible the playhouse was boycotted. Theatregoing was not only an offense in the eyes of those who opposed the drama, but was punished as such, and all debtors who were known to have attended the play were made to suffer. The year of 1773 marked the close of the John Street Theatre before the Revolution. On the 24th day of March, 1774, the Continental Congress passed a resolution recommend- 1774 ing the suspension of all public places of amusement. This also closed the history of the American theatre prior to the Revolution. Thomas Wignell, who afterward became an important figure on the American stage, arrived in New York the day before this resolution was passed, and was sitting in a barber's chair when he heard the announcement. This incident is said to have been the last in connection with the American stage before the war. During the winter of 1776,...