LED ASTRAY BY THE CINEMA

Evening Star, Issue 15479, 29 April 1914, Page 5

LED ASTRAY BY THE CINEMA

BURGLARY PICTURES IMITATED. Two instances came to light on March 2—one in a Police Court in the South of England, and the other in a Coroner’s Court in the North of England—of the harmful influence which a certain kind of cinema picture is exercising on the impressionable minds of young lads. At the Kingston-on-Thames Police Court, two nine-year-old school boys wore charged with begging. The court missionary (Mr Nathan) said that both boys were “mad on picture palaces,” and offered to mind bicycles in the streets in order to get pennies to go to such places. The lads’ parents had great difficulty in getting them home, because they were “ so insane to go to picture palaces.” Mr Nathan, in giving evidence, said that during the past 12 months 60 parents had gone to him about their boys taking money for the purpose of visiting picture palaces. Burglary pictures, added the court missionary, had a harmful effect on the rising generation. The Bench bound both boys over for six months on condition that they did not visit picture palaces during that period. Evidence relating to the fatal rehearsal of a picture-show incident was given at an inquest on the same day at Durham on Thomas L. Mellor (12), a schoolboy belonging to Darlington. The boy’s body was found on the railway at Durham. It was stated in evidence that when the lad was found he was blindfolded, and that in his pocketbook was discovered this message: “ When found give this and the other things to Mrs Mellor, 16 Priestgate, Darlington.” The hoy’s father said that his son had been attending picture shows, and that he was much impressed with the films. On one occasion he had seen the , representation of a man being knocked down by a train. A verdict of suicide was returned.