Sale of Philharmonic Society of New York Reserved Seats

“Sale of Philharmonic reserved seats seems to have gone off well, but at that nasty little downtown office of Rullman’s, there was a swindle that infuriated me. I have not been so ‘mad’ or ‘riled’ for many a day, & I think my fit of wrath did me good. To prevent the abuse of last year (the sale of seats by the music dealers to their friends in advance of the day on which the sale was advertised to commence), we kept all these establishments ignorant what portion of the house was assigned to them respectively, till 9 this morning, when one of the directors called at each office with a plan of the seats consigned to it for sale. Ureli Corelli Hill called Rullman’s, at 9. Several people were waiting to secure seats, but ‘Mr. Miller,’ who had charge of that department, had not yet arrived. People got tired of waiting, & were told to select their seats, mark them off, & call again & receive their tickets in an hour or two. They did so & went away. Mr. Hill also went away, which was wrong. They came back in an hour or two, but ‘Mr. Miller’ had then [illegible] off all the desirable seats in his section (including those specifically engaged this morning) to people who had ordered them beforehand. I had the satisfaction of giving ‘Mr. Miller’ a piece of my mind. His office shall never sell another Philharmonic ticket while I am president. At the other establishments everything was honestly conducted—so far as I know.”