The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1876-05-28


The general sentiment is that the recent
movement was officiousness rather than
zeal; that our authorities were governed
by desire to create o sensation rather
than to execute the laws. This Sunday
question is coming to us in a two
fold shape-frst, as it applies to the sale
of liquors in New York, and second, as it
applies to the management of the Centen-
NAL Exhibition in Philadelphia. There is
unusual agitation on the subject in both
cities. In Philadelphia we have meetings of
the friends and the enemies of the PROPOSE
ton to open the Centennial grounds on Sum-
day. The most respectable people, those
who are active members of Christian denom-
nations as well as those who look at the
subject from worldly point of view, have
taken sides. We have warm and in some
respects a bitter discussion. The opponents
of the proposition to open the grounds on
Sunday contend that an American exhibit
ton should be American in every way, and
that as it is law in nearly all, if not all, of
our States that the Sabbath shall be day of
rest, it would be violation of the cardinal
American sentiment and the statutes of the
States to throw open the gates of Paramount
Park and set the thousand wheels of
Machinery Hall in motion. They con-
tend that we have no more right to
give the Spaniard and the Frenchman
day in Machinery Hall on Sunday than to
give one of them bull fight and the
other horse race, because there are bull
fights in Seville and races in Paris on Sum
day. They argue that we owe it to our ma
tional self-respect and the religious suscep-
Utilities of our people that we should not
change our laws or customs to crafty the
wishes of few foreigners. They contend
that this question Of the observance Of Sun
day really underlies the whole American
system of morals and education. They in
sist that we should do violence to the tradi-
tons of centuries and the religious scruples
of the large majority of our fellow country
men by doing what they would regard
sacrilege. 1t is feared that Sunday would
become the day of the rowdy, and that the
scandals and the disturbances arising from
the opening of the gates would lead to
breaches of the peace and the distress of the
whole community. The arguments of those
who favor the opening of the Centen-
NAL on Sunday are simple and easily
understood. They point out the fact that
this exhibition Of the industry and genius of
the world, which has been brought together
at q cost of so much money and skill, will
only have o six months life at the best; that
it must be seen within the next six months
or it will never be seen at all that it was
intended not merely as a show but as an
education, showing what has been accom-
plished in our century of national life and
the many centuries of older civilizations
which have gone before us. They argue that
to close it on Sunday is to reduce its life
one-seventh, and that even if we had the
scruples Of our ancestors against doing any
act on Sunday that was not an act of ''ne-
cessity or mercy" we should consider the
Centennial as coming within generous in
depreciation of that provision, especially as
there are tens of thousands of the poorer
classes who must either see it on Sunday or
opening plead in the name of necessity or
mercy" 1t is held by all who take high
ground on the question that the Puritan idea
of Sunday which we inherit, and which has
become part of our life, is as much out of
place as other Puritan enactments in refer
ence to the different creeds and religious
observances.
We recognize the force of the arguments
on both sides of this important and interest
ing question. In the first place, we should
view it ms calamity for any custom or law
to interfere with that respect for the ordi-
nances of the Christian faith which has
always characterized US as Christian, civil
lied people Afterall, this Christian pre-emi-
hence is glory we share in common with oil
nations which recognize the spirit and inAu-
ence of tho teachings of Jesus Christ. As
matter affecting the health and comfort of
the people no one who has any regard for
the teachings OF political and social economy
would care to abolish this seventh day as
day of rest. If any one proposed to destroy
the Sabbath, either as religious or a social
institution, there would be no arguments
needed. On that point cur people arc
decided. But the trouble with tho whole
Sunday question, as indeed, happens with
all questions which have religious side, is
that they ale injured by their friends in the
discussion. II anything could destroy tho
Christian Sabbath" it would be the arguments
of many of those who strive to enforce
Puritan ideas. Nothing would do more to
destroy the force of the arguments in favor
of more liberal observance than tho ground
taken by many speakers and editors in
Philadelphia and elsewhere, by whom tho
Sabbath is denounced as q remnant of
the time of superstition and folly. Some
how there is no topic upon which our people
are as apt to lose their temper MS religious
topic. The true position lies between the
two extremes 1T is q mistake for our rulers
in New York to dig up an old statute and