The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1874-07-30
SUNDAY LAWS IN MASSACHU.
SETS.
Some CuriOus Decisions Ancient
and Modern

breach of them, as exhibited in tn
statute book. and the reports of judicia
decisions in some of our States wher
. Puritan polity is petri6ed in legislation
have often afforded material for com
ment, usually sarcastic and al ways anus
ing.
One Sunday morning, during the wa
E of 1912, if we recall the case Alright,
pOst-rider cantered into a New England
village with the news of the militar,
movement of the British upon Washing
ton, and in his haste spurred his horse
across the green of the meeting house
, thereby disturbing the singing of the
seventy second psalm. The deacon;
emerged from thesanctuary and captured
the sacrilegious disturber of the con
gregation; and on Monday morning they
prosecuted him before a magistrate fol
violating the Lords day. The point al
issue was whether the prisoner was trav-
cling ''from necessity" and the highest
tribunal of the commonwealth finally adj
Judged that if he merely rode post-haste
on the public business, without blowing
his horn, the deacons were in the wrong
but if he blew his horn while he was
riding he was disturber of the peace as
well as a miserable sinner.
But not to explore so remotely, there
have, in our own day and generation, in
The same exemplary commonwealth of
| Massachusetts in which the deacons
bounced upon the post-rider, been adju-
dications by the court of last resort which
ara equally droll. In the year of grace
1864 two honest old dodgers were tilling
| an 10
town of Scituate, where seaweed has
from time immemorial been used for ma
nure by the country-folks, James and
Camaliel Sampson were the homely
name of these husbandmen. They were
pious and prudent. In their prudence
they had purchased license, for which
they made an annual payment from the
owner of a beach near Scituate harbor,
distant about four miles from their farm.
In their piety they attended meeting"
three times every Sunday, besides teach
ing in the Sunday school. On Saturday,
November %, 1864, there was a storm
which threw upon the beach a large
quantity Of seaweed. On Sunday even
ing, n )vember 26, James and Camalel,
when they left the Westinghouse, about
$50 o'clock in the evening, perceived
that the tide was coming in, and that
there was fresh breeze blowing in such
direction as on former occasions had
caused seaweed to float away from the
beach when the tide rose, and be wholly
lost After grave consultation upon this
state Of affairs. they procured a pitch-fork,
an Oxcart, an yoke of oxen, and pro-
ceeded Herewith to the beach, where they
arrived at 10 o'clock. There was no
house near, and the highway was at
considerable distance. But even if the
neighborhood had been populous, all the
rest Of the good people OF Scituate, ac
cording to the usage of half a dozen gen
erations, were abed and asleep by half
past 9 Arrived at the shore, James
pitched the seaweed into the cart, and
Canaliel goaded the oxen into drawing
it to the top of the beach, where they
tipped out the load above the possible
reach of the tide, and then they went
home and to bed, and rested from their
labors. But their works followed them.
Early the next morning the town of Scitu-
ate was aplrised of this breach of law
and morals by other less prudent farmers,
whose seaweed had been foated tar
away. A public prosecution was
forth with instituted against James and
Camaliel for violation of the Lords
day, and these two fragrant criminals,
upon proof of the foregoing facts, We're
tried and convicted Like the hasty
post-rider, they were not content with the
decision Of any tribunal short of the f.
nal court of appeal which in the year
of grace 1867 rendered its decision by
the mouth or Il witty judge. who soon af-
terward became Attorney-General Of the
United States, and whose own quick
sense of humor must have occasionally
contrasted the occupations of Sunday
in Washington with those of Sunday in
Scituate. The decision was that ia
king the seaweed was not work of ne
cessity within the meaning of the law"
But the judge added-perhaps as a sug-
gestion to James and Camaliel for future
contingencies: How it would be if
whale happened to be stranded on the
shore we need not determine"
The same court, in the year of grace,
drew fine distinction between the ami
NAL kingdom and the vegetable kingdom
under the Sunday law. Works ''of
charity" as well as ''of necessity are
permissible by the statute. 1t has some
times been attempted to gain the decis-
ion of the six learned judges of last resort
in Massachusetts whether the work of
shaving, executed by barber upon the
Lords day, was indeed charitable when
performed with dull razor. But we be-
lieve that this important question remains
undetermined. $50 save life, or relieve
suffering, and this in the case Of animals
as well as men, has, however been pro-
nounced to be charitable by the same
learned Judge whom we have quoted
above. Yet the grave tribunal of which
he was a member, almost at the same
time solemnly adjudged that hoeing POI
tatoes at s o'clock on Sunday morning,
which would otherwise have wilted and
died in the heat of MONDAY, was neither
necessary or charitable, and by conse-
quence was unlawful, and subjected to
punishment an unlucky shoemaker who
was guilty of the act in the year of grace
1866
The staiute-bOok of the commonwealth
of Massachusetts, Furnishes severely not
| only whoever practices any ''game, sport,
play or public diversions, except a con-
cert of sacred music" upon the evening
Of the Lords day, but also whoever is
present" Willingly unwittingly, at any
such profane exercise; and, not content
with this, it applies the penalties to ''the
evening next preceding the Lords day."
unless the diversion shall have been duly
licensed by the public authorities. 1t
has been suggested that, under these
provisions, any reverend magistrate of
the commonwealth would become a
culprit if a malicious neighbor should
visit him on Saturday evening and sud-
denly dance jig in his parlor, or, un-