The Eaton Democrat. (Eaton, Ohio) 1875-1903, 1878-06-20
Sunday in Philadelphia and Paris.

IL. W. Forney's Letter to the Philadelphia Press.
There is such difference between a
Sunday at the Philadelphia Exhibition
in 1876 and Sunday at the Paris Exhi-
tion in 1878, that reference to it may
not be out of place. The doors of the
Centennial were closed to the poor pay
ing public, and gratuitously opened to
the rich and favored few; but this pitt
full inconsistency that would have
broken down an ordinary fair was over
looked in the general pride and Joy of
the people over their magnificent cele-
bration. Here the gates are open to all,
and though the English and Americans
do net show their wares, and some of
the other foreign sections are closed, the
French, Italians and Spaniards are in
their glory, the water rushes from be-
low the gallery of the Trocadero into
the basin, and the French bands fill the
air with the music of France. The ad
mission fee is one franc (twenty cents),
which, small as it is, is too much for
many of the working classes, who pour
along the lovely quays of the Seine,
crowd the public gardens or sit under
the luxurious chestnuts that line the
Champs Elysees, where you get COM
Portable chair for sou Zone American
penny. Inside the Exhibition you
have a brilliant human kaleidoscope,
even more original than the equally
varied products of human skill and toll.
Paris is your true cosmos in miniature,
and it needed no extra attraction to call
here the citizens of the world More of
them come, of course; but Paris is
always the magnet of the nations and all
the nations are at home in Paris. Every
language is spoken here, aud as You
wander through the Exhibition you
seem to be in another Babel. Drunken
men are never seen, within or without.
The sober Turk, the silent Chinese, the
courteous Japanese, the stolid English,
the solid German, the blonde Russian,
the active American are at their best,
as if to prove that art, besides refining
the human race, also educates and ele-
vatesit.
There are some curious incidents con-
nected with this Sunday question. In
London the chief agitator for opening
the English gardens, museums, art gal
leries and libraries is the Right Rever-
end Dean Stanley, of Westminster: In
recent.speech he used this character
istic language: The English mode of
observing Sunday was different from the
continental mode, whether Protestant or
Catholic. Theopportunities afforded by
this one free day were originally neg
lected in this country. To vast num-
Der of our working classes in our great
towns Sunday was the only day which
afforded ain opportunity for innocent
and healthy recreations and studies. In
the direct interests of religion and in
the interests of morality, which, after
all, was only religion under another
name, he advocated the enjoyment of
that opportunity. 1t was well said by
Richard Baxter: The devil was great
undoer by overdoing.' In OVERRIDING re-
ligious observances there was great risk
of undoing the vital essential elements
of religion itself" Lord Shaftsbury,
however, and his school are as earnest
for the Goyenanter's severe observance
Of the Sabbath; and there is reaction
ary Catholic member of the French
Chamber of Deputies, Count de Nun,
who is lay preacher, devoted to more
rigorous observance of the Sabbath in
France. His seat is contested and he
will lose it on the ground of corruption
at the elections. Count de Nun is one
of the aristocrats of the Right, and
when he goes forth on his religious err
rand he is dressed in dinner coat and
white cravat-a curious costume in
which to appeal to the people to pay a
more austre attention to the first day of
the week.