The Dallas weekly herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1885, 1874-05-30
from our Special Correspondent
SUNDAYS ABROAD.
PRUSSIA's OESERV
ANCE OF SUNDAY.

An American, stranger to continental
customs, who shonld enter Berlin on
Sunday evening before nine O'Clock,
would certainly imagine that he had
made o mistake in his reckonings.
The railroad traffic is carried on the
same as on week days. there is as
much hustle and noise in depots, as
many hacks and omnibuses in waiting,
commerce seems to be as wide awake
and churches no more awake than Oh
other evenings. 1heaters and opera
houses are opened and well filed, and
not only beer shops, restaurants ana
cigar stores seem to be doing a thirty
lug business, but dry goods establish
meuts, millinery shops, i'll fact, shops
and stores of all descriptions, are brill
liantly lighted, and the attentive dealer
is as alert to drive trade as usual.
have said before nine O'Clock, for after
that hour on any evening of the week
the streets wear deserted look, shops
are closed and but few people are seen
moving about. At $3.50 to 10 theater
and opera are over, and at 10 public
vehicles stop running, double fare IS
charged by hackmen, and the large
general entrances Of houses are locked
up for the night. The general hour for
public worship on Sunday is from 10
A. NJ. to II, and during the hours places
of business are required to be closed.
Before and after that time no restrlc-
tions are laid upon business, and even
during those hours, one who desires TO
make q purchase will usually find that
the door of the desired-to- be-entered
establishment will yield to his touch,
and within the shadowy precints he
NAV find dozen people, like himself,
breaking the Sabbath, and being mCst
cheerfullv assisted by the shopkeeper,
who apparently feels no compructions
of conscience in pocketing the gains
arising from business done during the
only two religious hours of the week.
AS soon as these two hours are past
and people begin to file out of the
churches, the good business man
takes down his shutters at once
and displays his wares in the
most tempting style with an eye to the
custom he may get from homeward
bound church-goers, and the result JUS
titles his expectations. The young lady
starting to church in the morning finds
her gloves out of repair, she stops on
her way and buys new pair; and the
matron returning from church steps
into the grocery to purchase the neces-
sary articles for the Sunday dinner.
No one, unless it be the rich, lays in
stock of provisions, not even from Sat-
urday till Monday, or scarcely from
one meal to The next. Such purchasers
as one egg pound of flour, pound
of pOtatoes or an ounce of butter, are
SO common as TO attract no attention
whatever. This seems to be shiftless,
thriftless way of living, to those who
can go to large cellar well stocked
with not only the necessaries but the
luxuries of life; but here the poor peo-
pie have not money enough together
at one time to lay in large supplies,
and the manner Of living, the style of
dwellings, as well as the fact that stores
are open all days Of the week, and that
markets are held in all parts of the city
all the year round-in the open air.
as well as other days, combine
to make this living from hand to
mouth general, and to great extent
a justifiable custom. You may imagine |
that where forty or more families oc-
cupy one house, five stories high, that |
the basement divided into forty cellars
will not give very large space for the
storing of wood, coal and provisions
for family. And when you take into !