Pub Crawlers

Between the dark and the daylight, When the night is beginning to lower, Comes a pause in the day's occupations That is known as the Children's Hour . ..

In Patrick Radigan's Hoboken saloon, the children's hour began at 6 p.m. He shooed the drinkers out and waved the moppets in. They perched on bar stools or sat on, around and sometimes under the tables to watch Radigan's television: Du Mont's Small Fry Club, WATV's Junior Frolics, and such. Creepers and toddlers were allowed to bring mother along. At 7, the barkeep swept out the bairns and let the guzzlers in again.

But it was too much of an innovation for Hoboken. Last week, Erwin B. Hock, New Jersey Beverage Control Commissioner, ruled that Radigan was licensed to run a corner pothouse, not a nursery. State law forbids the presence of minors in a barroom. Furthermore, said Hock piously, "Longfellow would turn over in his grave if he knew."

Across the river in Manhattan, the Salvation Army also pondered the tug of television. Announced the Salvationists: if they could raise the money, a receiver would be installed in the Bowery Red Shield Club by World Series time, "so that men who are determined not to drink will not be lured into temptation and barrooms by television."