While the theater generally suffered from a bad reputation among classes of the community that adhered sternly to conventions and propriety, many of the establishments catered to those classes which did not. The gallery of each theater was reserved almost exclusively for prostitutes and negroes, and was known familiarly as “the third tier.” No woman without an escort was allowed in either the orchestra or the balcony seats, and the gallery readily became a place of assignation for the young bloods and their accompanists. Those who frequented the theaters were not usually scrupulous in their efforts to impress their neighbors by their manners, and in her _Domestic Manners of the Americans_ Mrs. Trollope referred to the practice of the men in the balcony, who were in the habit of placing their feet on the brass rail in front of the first row, slouching into their seats, and exposing their hind quarters to the patrons of the orchestra. For some years after the publication of Mrs. Trollope’s book, this practice was greeted with shouts from orchestra audiences of “Trollope! Trollope!” Barnum’s American Museum, on Broadway at Ann Street, was in the heart of the New York of its day. Opposite was the hotel of best repute, the Astor House; four blocks north was the city’s best restaurant, Delmonico’s; between the two was The Park, that is, City Hall Park. St. Paul’s Church was across the street, and Trinity Church was five minutes’ walk from the Museum. The _Tribune_ and _Herald_ offices were near by, and the other newspapers were published in the same district. No Metropolitan Museum of Art offered free exhibitions of pictures, and no American Museum of Natural History educated the public in real natural life; Barnum’s Museum was therefore patronized by those who to-day would patronize the Zoölogical Gardens and the American Museum of Natural History for satisfaction of their generic curiosity, as well as by those who enjoyed freaks. The curiosities in the Museum when Barnum purchased the collection included relics sent in from all over this country by those who found them, and curiosities brought in by sea captains who had made voyages to China, Siam, and other distant places. Among its main attractions under Scudder’s management were the stuffed animals, a live anaconda, a tame alligator, and the gallery of paintings, supposed to be national portraits. III