Show i BROADWAY AND MAIN STREET How Church Chimes RangI Rang I For the Benefit of Brooklyn By BILLY ROSE This week Id I'd like to spin a little story story story-a a very very little story Its It's of no great importance and I wont won't get mad if the editor decides decides to file it in the wastebasket and in its place print some big story about Marshal Tito or Rita Hayworth's baby To begin with this story concerns itself a church and a n lot of bright people will tell you ou a church is no longer of ot any importance in this tube test-tube and burner Bunsen-burner age To make matters worse the church is in Brooklyn and well and well I guess youve you've heard plenty of jokes about how unImportant unimportant unimportant un un- important Brooklyn is One day last summer while drivIng driving ing mg past a church on St. St Felix street in I heard a set of chimes that did nice things to my I ears They were S r-S I I unusually goo good goodS d S chimes and figS figured figured fig fig- S to have cost costa v a lot of money r il tUr i Naturally I wont wondered won won- I t i dered how they happened hap f to be in the i belfry of a modest church in a modest S. S neighborhood Billy Rose W Ii hats hat's a t s the church with the chimes I asked a newsstand proprietor Hanson Place Central Church Methodist be he said Its Have they had those chimes long No said the I 1 think they put them In about a year 0 ago go The next day I did some telephoning telephoning tele tele- phoning and I liked what I found out S S S WHEN WUEN REV John Emerson Zei- Zei ter pastor of the church heard about a new type of ot electrically controlled controlled controlled con con- trolled chimes called bells he told his congregation about them and said it would be a nice thing for the neighborhood if people going going going go go- ing to work in the morning and coming home at night could hear those beautiful chimes He told his flock lock the bells cost a lot of money and suggested they contribute a little something from rom time to time Maybe Mabe in a year or so so the church could afford the bells Next day a member of ot his parish phoned Ive been discussing the bells with my business partner said the parishioner and wed we'd each like to donate a third of ot the cost But theres there's a hitch What is it asked the Rever Rever- end Well my partner it is s Jewish said the businessman and u we were wondering if i ithaI that thaI would make mako any allY difference Reverend said ha he didn't think it would make any diff difference differ diller- er- er ence at al all We think continued the businessman businessman busi busi- that it would be a good idea to find a Catholic to put up the other third After all all people of all faiths are going to enjoy these bells S S S NEXT DAY a Catholic in the neighborhood offered to put up the remaining third and the bells were ordered At the dedication dedication dedication dedica dedica- tion ceremony a couple of ot months later a plaque was put up on the wall of ot this Methodist church and inscribed on it were the names of the Catholic the Protestant and the Jew And that's all there is to this story this story this very very little story Do I think this one set of ot electrical electrical- ly-controlled ly bells is going to eliminate eliminate nate religious bigotry in Brooklyn Of Ot course not Do I think the people in Flatbush who hear the chimes are going to be kinder and more tolerant Again of ot course not Why then theIl am I 1 writing this piece JV Well ell I 1 guess its it's because Im I'm foot fool enough to think that thaI even evet on one drop of 0 clean water falling on 01 a dusty street is s im ins- Who Vho knows It II may clean clea up an inch of 0 ground and give somebody else an idea One of ot these days days and and I dont don't expect to be around to see it it-a it a lot lotof lotof of ot drops of ot clean water may fall falland falland falland and a lot of ot dust may be washed away |