The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1903-09-29
TOO FAR FROM AISLE
Seats in Metropolitan Theater Are
Said to Be Improperly Ar
ranged.
The Manager Is Therefore Charged
With Violating the Building
Ordinance.

On complaint Of G. w. Field, thru his
attorneys Lane & Nantz, complaint was
sworn out yesterday for the arrest Of l.
| N. Scott. manager Of the Metropolitan
! theater, on charge of sviolat ting that Sec
ton Of the building ordinance relating to
places of public amusement which reads:
And no seat In the auditorium shall
have more than six seats intervening be-
tween 1t and the aisles..''
Mr.. Scott's attorney appeared for him
this morning In the municipal court and
entered a plea Of not guilty and the case
was set for Oct. 2 at 9 a. m.
In the remodeling ando rearranglng Of
the Metropolitan theater this summer, 1t
Is claimed that 1O5 seats were added and
that in the placing Of these seats certain
former aisles and passageways were OBJ
liberated, thus giving certain rows access
to only one aisle and IN several instances
more than the number of seats allowed by
the law to a. row. This is supposed to
add to the danger Of a panic in any sud-
den attempt to empty the house. Under
the law, rows with access to two aisles
are allowed only thirteen seats.
Attention Called to Matter.
During the process of remodeling the
seating capacity Building Inspector
aoughton wrote letter to Architect
Carter calling to his attention this ordin-
ance and to the danger Of its violation.
The architect replied that this would be
attended to. u. r.s.s
1t seems that the present plan of seat
ing was made under a special permit in
troduced by Alderman Ryan Of the first
ward at a meeting of the council Aug. IA
and passed by a viva voca vote. The pc
tltion for this permit read:
| The undersigned respectfully asks permission
from your honorable body to place seats in the
metropolitan opera house in accordance with the
petition. The reason why this permission is
asked from your honorable body is because, in
| accordance with the plan, as necessitated by the
consideration Of the building, the seats are not
tho in such manner as to be perfectly safe.
This is vouched for by the building inspector.
Respectfully submitted, =, Es-.s .s5 s'.
" ~ IL. N. Scott Manager.
Il a is Permit Good7
It is understood that under this permit
the building was allowed to be finished,
and it is understood also that the COM
pla1nant's attorneys hold that special
permit allowing an ordinance to be vio-
lated is worth absolutely nothing, and
that at least it does not diminish the ex-
| IRENE danger to the public in case of q
panic resulting from any cause.
| City Clerk Lydiard says that the usual
procedure in filing petitions was not OBJ
served in presenting this one, as he did
not see the paper until just before he was
called upon to read 1t to the council. Fur
thermore the diagram which the petition
recites is attached has. never been filed.
Alderman Ryan had interviewed several
Of the aldermen, 1T is said, before the
council meeting regarding the matter and
the permit was granted without comment.
It is, believed that perhaps the aldermen
were under some Misrepresentation re-
garding the purpose Of the permit, owing
to the clause" in the body of the pc
tition. Thisswas inserted without the
knowledge ofsMr. Houghton. He did not
know his name was used until last Friday,
and he at no time gave approval to the
plan. .at3s- ss=zgeS Is oEE.ta -
| The penalty attached to conviction of
violating the ordinance is a fine of not
less than s25 and not more than 500, or
confinement for not more than 80 days,
or both in the discretion of the court.
l. F. w. Booth, the attorney who APP
peared in court this morning for Mr.
Scott said that when it was discovered
that the seating arrangement Of the the
alter was not in accordance with the ordi-
i nance plan was submitted to the coun-
ell with a petition for special permit,
and that in this way Mr.. Scott supposed
that everything necessary had been done.
He had acted entirely in good faith.