The Waterbury Democrat., 1933-04-22
-In- .NezC York
Rx PAUL HARRIkON

n
 New Y0rk.-On the avenues,
 Easter day were top-hats and fox
 furs, Malacca sticks and orchids.
 Down at No. 6-7 Dover street,
 just off the Bowery, 500 people sat
 on wooden benches. No top-hats
 here. A few crutches, but no pol
 ished sticks. A few velvet-collared overcoats, but they were old coats, held by safety pins. .. Tom Noonan, the Bishop of China town" raised lanky arms. You are welcome" he said, "to the Cathedral of the Underworld" Until 39 years ago, this was a Chinese theater. Since then it has been the meeting house of the Rescue Society. Tn the basement used to be an opium den, and five tunnels. now boarded up, led to the headquarters of the tongs. Hundreds of human derelicts are fed and sheltered in that basement
 to-day.
 Odd Congregation
 On this Easter day there was a strangely assorted congregation in the dingy, old "cathedral," an l irreeularly shaped, yellow painted room with gospel admonitions on it's walls. Mixed with the down. and -outers were white-collar wis., itors from uptown and out-of- town, all come to study the phe- nomenon, Tom Noonan. Some of them knew that Tom, now SO, was a predatory gangster in his teens. But they also knew that the Bishop of Chinatown" now has the support of humani- tarians of all creeds. Possibly they were aware that Noonan is not an ordained minister. Certain ly they were aware that he dis penses a brand of Christianity
 that last year fed and clothed and
 helped to shelter more than 100,- 900 needy.
 Cosmopolitan Choir
 Behind Tom Noonan on the stage they saw jazz orchestra, n volunteer choir, @ portly negress, a Japanese, Jew, three cornet players, and a combination song
 leader and stooge named Howard
 Wade Kimsey.
 They looked at the "Bishop" himself. An angular, awkward
 man with cold blue eyes( one of them glass) and large red ears. A spiritual Bowery magician who knows how to produce jobs and clothing, artificial limbs, wheel chairs, sewing machines, crutches,
 burial plots for pauper dead--al-
 most anything.
 The Service Opens
 The Easter services started with hymns and announcements Noon-
 an declared the missions gratitude
 for the free services of an exter-
 minating company. The visiting
 dance orchestra played. The
 Bishop" ad-libbed a few jokes.
 The negress turned out to be Goldye Mae Steiner, student of
 Hebrew and the only colored wo-
 man cantor in America. She sang
 the great Jewish lament, then sat
 down and joined lustily in "On-
 ward Christian Soldiers"
 The Japanese was introduced
 as George Hirose, baritone. He
 sang two Methodist hymns. How
 ard Kimsey did a sleight-of-hand trick with a pink Easter egg, ex- tracing dollar bill therefrom to | start the collection. It came back
 accompanied by handful of small change. Then Tom Noonan pre-
 sented Dr Mordecai Foltes, of the American Hebrew congress, and a great name in world Jewry. Dr Fo1tes talked heatedly about Nazi | prosecutions of his people. When he had finished, the Bish- op of Chinatown spoke defiantIy:
 Some people will be shocked to hear that @ Jew has taken part in Christian services on the holiest | day of Christendom. My answer
 is that I could think of no better
 way to express the kind of Chris
 tianity that's dished up here-tol-
 erance, forgiveness, love and | peace-on-earth. We'll close with
 hymn 69. And get in there, dog
 gone 1t. and sing!"