, 1874-09-27
TUT NATToNAT Sunday LEAGUE.

Tue English bclieve1a in rational rccrea11on
upon tho first day Of the week have organized
National Sunday Leagues Its headquarters are
in London, but it has strong stan OF honorary
acepta scattored through the provinces It has
tl,ree main obiecta- The first is to secure the
opening OF nbrarios museums, and art-galerles
On Sunday. The second is to run cheap Bun
day excursions during the summer. The third
is to provide sSundny evenings for the people"
as its prospectus phrases it, during the winter.
Although NO: identical with the London Sunday
Lecture Society, it co-operates heartily with 1t.
In the report submitted to the August meeting
Of the members, the Council OF the Lea cue
says:
The effects OF what we have done havs extended far
and wide. Only this week Chicago paper llHE
TRDUxz] has reached us with lengthy report OF
q series Of - Sunday afternoons for the people !"
there, instituted they say, upon programme o'
the Same character N the "6und4y evenings IN
London. We arc happy to say that their success en-
cour1ges thcu2 to greater thinga next season+
Tho League publishes Bi1teen-pagcd monthly
paper, the Free Sunday Adrocate, from which
We get record OF good progress. The effort
to secure tho opening Of museums, ETC.. upon
Sunday has not yet had very great public re-
suit, although the constant preaching OF the
folly OF closing tho institutions provided TOR
public education on the ono d.y OF public
leisure has doubtless done much to change tho
views OF well-meaning men who shut all doors
On Sunday except those Of the saloon and the
hot thu Hrrtfrr-
mon should use their leisure hours in
getting drunk. Since the League began its
work, the Birmingham Free Library and Art
Gallery and the Manchester Aquarium have
worked as veil in both places as it has, on
smaller scale. ia Chicago. The Sunday excur-
tionB have been great success- The best one
Of tho se.son WAS to stratford-on-Avon. On the
last Sunday in July, about 700 Londoners went
to Stratfo1d aud back for los. apiece. 4 special
train carried them. The party. on arriving, ris-
tied the birthplace OF Shakespeare, the church
in Which he il buried, aud all the objects in the
town connected with his great name,-au, that
is, except tho I" Now Place." admission TO which
Was refused by the owner. After dinner, Mr.
F. !. Furnivall, the celebrated shakspearean
scholar, delivered an address On Shakspearo's
life and writings to the excursiouists and q
number OF tho towns-people. visit to
Anue Hathaway's cottage closed tho day.
Tho most perfect order prevailed. The
interest excited hns caused the 1orma-
ton OF Sunday Shakespeare Society. which
will study the works Of the great poet on
tho Sunday evenings Of the coming win
ter Imagine 4 coterie Of American artisans
studying Shakespeare! The League has just
won great victory over its opponent, the Lords
Day Observance Society, By defeating the latter's
attempt to have the running of Sunday excur-
alon trains prohibited. 1t is noteworthy TINT
this controversy, like all others in which the
League has been concerned, was carried on By it
with dignity aud decorum. 1t does not seek to
carry it's points by sneering at what other people
hold sacred. It is not in the LANDS Of infidels,
but Of men who believe that educating the poo
pie by pictures, aud books, and sightseeing, aud
lectures, inasmuch as it is virtue from Monday
morning to midnight Of Saturday. does not be-
come . sin one minute thereafter.