The sun., 1919-08-12
PRIEST And CASHIER
STAGE MOVIE STUNT
Thrilling Arrest Scene Filmed,
With Kid Passing Nickel
at Box Office.
WAS FOR GUM, SAYS SHE
Sold Ticket to a Minor, Retorts
Father DiamOnd-Court
Scene To-day.

tractive cashier in the glass box outside
the Chatham Theatre merely handing
the small boy a nickel and telling him
TO 20 buy her some gum in the drug
store when Father Patrick ]. Diamond
of the Church of the TRANSPORTATION In
Mott street cast his eye on her, at .
p. NJ. yesterday-or was she selling the
small boy a ticket to see the movie
show inside7
Father Diamond, who spends his life
trying to furnish innocent amusement
for the children of this cosmopoli-
tan neighborhood in the basement
of the big rambling church of which
he is the assistant rector, and In hight
ing to enforce the law against the ad-
mittance Of minors under 16 to moving
picture shows unaccompanied by guard
ians, has no faith at all in the gum
story, which cropped up after he had
arrested Mrs. NJ. Gallo. the cashier, and
hailed her of, in spite of her sobs and
cries, to the Elizabeth street police sta
tion, where she might have passed the
night had not the proprietor OF the
Chatham, locally known as Dan, but who
confessed under pressure to the further
name of Kutinsky, chased breathlessly
after her to the station and bailed her
out.
1t was an exciting afternoon even for
that feverish neighborhood. Chatham
Square, and the procession Of jews
negi oes, Italians, Armenians, Rouma-
mans, Syrians, Irish and pig tailed
Chinese youngsters which accompanied
Father Diamond and the cashier to the
station was as lively a little affair as
was ever got up on short notice.
Priest Banned Posters.
The moving picture people around this
swarming melting pot know Father Dia-
mond; we'll do they know him. He 1t
was who, two weeks ago. ordered the
proprietor of the Rome Theatre. 223
Park Row, to tear down what the priest
describes as disgusting white slave post
ers on the front of the building, illus
trating the films that were being shown
inside" And when the man refused
Father Diamond gave him an object les
son in tearing down posters, calling the
police from the Oak street station and
getting every objectionable picture re-
moved. For six months Father Diamond
has been waging the war against what
he considers the most shameful influence
on the minds of the young. Yesterday
weary with patrolling the fronts of the
theatres, he asked at Police Headquar-
ters for three policewomen to assist him.
Father Diamond Is a member OF the
Police Reserves himself, but he keeps
his shield hidden under his robe except
on occasions like yesterday when he had
to arrest the cashier, and he has never
created anything like the furor created
by those three women of Rodman Wan
amaker's efficient band in their spick
and span uniforms. Crowds gathered to
watch them as the priest told them
off to guard the various movie places
with which the locality is thickly dotted.
six months ago." he told the police
women. the movie nlen openly sold
tickets to little children right from the
box office in front. Then l got Ave of
them arrested and taken before the
Commissioner of Licenses, and they gave
their solemn promise to admit no more
minors under sixteen unless accom-
panied by their guardians. That prom
ise has not been kept. but now the
movie men are more wary. They watch
until a crowd of children with pennies
has collected in front of the theatre and
then send a scout to spy the lay of the
land.
Movie Men More Wary.
''If he sees me he takes stick and
drives the children away, but II he
thinks the coast is clear he takes the
young ones inside the lobby and sells
them tickets there, Many times I'm
after chasing children into the lobby.
knowing they had money in their little
hands, but these people are so quick
that before I get inside the whole trans
action is finished"
Yesterday. seeing the priest and three
policewomen on the watch. the movie
people were wary, and 1t wasn't till
late in the afternoon that Father Dia-
mond, spying from around the corner, saw
a pair of twin lads not more than ten
years of age approach the Chathams
cashier and money pass between them.
Son Harry Kutinsky, who occupied the
glass box office after the tumult and
the shouting had died away around the
corner in the wake of Father Diamond
and the cashier, treated the affair with
Indifference
Son Harry viewed with a CLASSY eye
the stalwart, form and merry Irish face
OF Father Diamond, who volunteered to
escort THE SUN woman to the scene OF
the fray. just few steps from the dingy
little parlor Of the rectory where he was
enjoying a brief rest after the arrest.
Father Diamond shook his head at the
melodramatic love posters which plas-
tered the front of the little theatre.
silly stun for Children.
"Sllly stuff for little children" he said.
'But I'm not saying so much about the
quality of the pictures-it's the theatres
themselves that are no places for little
children alone. They go in and sit In
the dark there, with maybe a strange
man on one side of them and a woman
on the other, and they hear the CON-
ments these grown people make on the
films, and many times those comments
are no fit things for children to hear.
Much that is bad can go on in these
places, and children should not enter
them unaccompanied. But there are
many ways of evading the law. Chill
dren are sometimes taken In by mer
they never saw before, just some one
who CHANGED to be standing near The
other day I stopped a negro, black as a
stovepipe, who was taking in two little
white girls that had come along with
their niclIels In their little hands Chill
dren of all nationalities come-yesterday
j chased away two little Chinese girls
not more than years old. Sundays the
sidewalks in front of these theatres are
30 crowded with children you can hardly
pass.
But I'm after keeping up the fight, ,
ended Father Diamond ''The law 1,
plain as day, no minors to be admitted
nnaccompanied by their guardians, ant
what one man can do to enforce thil
law l. am here to do. Why, these bat
theatres are so infiaming the minds O,
The children that they have no taste fol
Innocent amusements"
The latest Chatham Square drama will
be presented as a one-reel thriller at tn,
FRANKLIN Street Court this morning, wheT