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STAGE SHOWING BRIDGES.

STORING SCENES IN THE CELLAR.

In the Metropolitan Opera House no use is made of the cellar for raising up the scenes, as they find it more satisfactory to operate the scenes from overhead, and nothing of the London pantomime order is done. The cellar is valuable, however, for storage purposes. Going up several flights of stone stairs, the visitor arrives at the first fly gallery. Here, as in the other parts of the house, every precaution is taken to guard against fire. The floor is of cement resting upon iron girders, and the visitor is at once struck with the solidity of everything. On each side of the fly gallery is a large iron pipe through which passes at frequent intervals a series of belaying-pins to which are secured the ropes. All of the drops and borders, as well as the curtain, are worked from the left fly gallery. In theatrical parlance, a scene which is lowered to the stage is called a “drop,” while the scenes which represent the sky are called “borders.” The drops at the Metropolitan measure forty-five by seventy feet. The painted canvases, whether drops or borders, are secured at the top. The canvas is hemmed so as to permit of a wooden pole, or batten, being thrust through it. This bar is secured by means of clamps to the ropes which are to raise the scenes or drops. At the very top of the building, underneath the roof, is what is called the gridiron. It is an iron framework which supports the pulleys over which the ropes run to raise the drops, borders, and the border lights. Each scene-drop is supported by five ropes, and most of the borders are also supported by five ropes, though three are sometimes used. These ropes are attached at equal intervals along the length of the scene or border.