The fact cannot be too much emphasized that, properly speaking, there
is _no deficit_ at the Metropolitan Opera House. True, the total
expenses of the operatic season of 1886-1887 were about four hundred
and forty-two thousand dollars, and the receipts only two hundred and
thirty-five thousand dollars, thus necessitating an assessment of two
thousand five hundred dollars on each stockholder. But it must be
borne in mind that this assessment simply represents the sum that the
stockholders paid for their boxes. As there were forty-five
subscription nights, and as each box holds six seats, the price of
each was nine dollars, which can hardly be deemed too much for the
best seats in the house, considering that outsiders have to pay ten
dollars for these same seats, or sixty dollars for a box. A large part
of the assessment (about one thousand dollars for each stockholder)
would remain for covering the general expenses of the building
(including the mortgage bonds), even if no opera were given at all;
and surely the box-holders would be foolish if they refused to pay the
extra sum (four dollars and eighty-eight cents for each seat), which
insures them forty-five evenings of social and musical entertainment.
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