election by the remaining
members of the board. This board met and organized April 5, 1893. There
have been but two changes in its personnel, aside from the changes in
the office of mayor, Mr. Lyman being succeeded by his son, Mr. Frank
Lyman, and President Seelye by President Burton.

'It will be observed that the institution is kept out of politics by
placing the control of it in what is virtually a close corporation,
and yet through the mayor the citizens are directly represented in the
management.

'Other conditions provide that if in any year there shall be an excess
of receipts over disbursements such excess shall be paid into the city
treasury of Northampton, with the annual account. If in any year the
disbursements shall exceed the receipts, the treasurer of the city of
Northampton shall appropriate and pay to said board or committee or to
the person who shall be acting as treasurer for it such sum as may be
needed to balance the accounts for such year.

'When the gift was made there was much discussion among the citizens as
to the advisability of accepting it as well as to the propriety of the
city's ownership of a theater. This latter doubt was set at rest when
people realized that the city had already a hall for kindred purposes in
the city hall. As to the first question, it soon came to be recognized
that such a theater could not but be of advantage to the city, though
many felt it would involve too heavy a drain on the city's financial
resources, a fear which has never yet been realized. Discussion was
again started when a bill was before the state legislature, providing
for the incorporation of the trustees, but the necessity for such a step
was so evident that opposition died away. For many years the academy has
been taken as a matter of course and ranks as an important and desirable
municipal institution. No one now ever thinks of the objections formerly
urged against it.

'Financially, the academy has about held its own. Practically, it
has done much better, for the City Council has insisted that all
licenses--fees for shows, amounting on the average to some $400 per
annum--be paid directly into the city treasury. Still the academy is not
run as a money-making institution, for the trustees strive to provide a
liberal variety of entertainment and to have everything the best of its
kind. Occasionally they have brought to town some high-class attraction
that was not likely even to pay expenses--a vent