River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1878-10-10
SUNDAY IN PARIS.


the Anglo saxon.
G. A. Sala in the London Telegraph.
| must hasten, albeit the task is not an
encouraging one, to disabuse the minds of
my countrymen, whose experience of
Paris is only short and superficial, of the
notion that Sabbath observance is, from
an English point of view, increasing in
Paris. because less manual labor is done
il Paris on the Sabbath, and a great many
more shops and warehouses are closed on
Sunday lhan was formally the case. The
phenomena have nothing, save i'll the
rarest and most isolated cases, to do with
any change in the religious sentiments of
the people. | ain given to understand
Protestant missionary work is going on
in sundry districts OF Paris, but the re-
suits of these well meant attempts at
evangelization can only be as drop of
water in the vast ocean of the Partisan
Sunday.
There are plenty ofjeweler's, and linen
drapers', and tailors' shops-shops which
it appears to me are quite needlessly kept
open which do not close their doors on
Sunday here; but on the other hand, es-
pecially in the neighbhorhood or Rue de
la PAX, the Rue Scribe, the Chaussee
d. Antin and the Avenue del Opera, there
are large numbers of commercial estab-
lishments which are as Theoretically sealed
as the the banks and the public offices.
Bnt | should be blockhead were to as,
sum-, and hypocrite were ] to maintain
that an increase in religious fervor as we
understand it is at the bottom Of Il Is
partial abstinence from Sunday labor,
The smaller money changers shops are
all wide open--so are the toy shops and
the confectioners' and pastry cooks, be-
cause foreigners want to change money,
and French people are in the habit OF
buying plavthings and sugar plums for
their children on Sunday; but in the ma
jori'y of instances it is not on that day
that the public require to purchase vel
vets and satins, AubussOn carpets, carved
oak furniture, embossed paper hangIngs,
Madapolam calicoes, or the new "Cestus
Aglaen corsets. For lack of custom, ma
ny of the great magasins shut up, and
those which cantinue open do so moe
from habit than from the expectation OF
selling anything. Do you for one mo-
ment think that the male and female en.-
polyes in these closed establishments utl-
lie their enfranchisement by going to
church or sitting at home and reading
good books or looking grimly at each
other till they begin to yawn and nod, and
and at last fall asleep from sheer ennui2
They will the rather pour on to the boule-
Yards to fill the cabs and the cafes, to
chatter and gesticulate, to eat, drink and
be merry, to dance and drink and go to
the play at night. | was not consulted
when the city was built and the manners
of the people were formed. Whether this
is harmless or DESTROYS, it would be dan
gerous Dramatically to assert. | only de-
scribe that which see; and this is Sun
day in Paris as have seen and known it,
man and boy, any time these forty years,
come the goth day of August next.
| have not the slightest expectation OF
seeing such Sunday prevalent in Lon
don or in any English town. | have not
the slightest wish to see such Sunday
prevailing. Our observance of the Sab
bath may be susceptible Of modification IN
a tolerant and liberal sense; but there are
two good reasons why the Continental
Sunday" as typically presented in Paris,
is thing to be deprecated in England.
In the first place, the decent classes among
us are quiet people, with comfortable
homes from which they rarely stir on the
Sabbath; whereas the Parisians, as race,
have no homes at all that can be called
comfortable, and are an excessively noisy,
restless and inconsequential race, who
can only find happiness out of doors. In
the second and much more Importance
place we drink the very strongest liquors
that can be brewed or distilled; the
classes among us who are not decent are
in the habit of getting mad drunk, and of
fighting, after the manner of wild beasts,
when they have chance; our places of
licensed vitualing are merely places where
the largest number of sots can get tlpsy
in the shortest space of time; and Sun
day in London, with all the public houses,
all the theaters, all the music halls "a. rwo
unrestrictedly open from morning T.
night, would exhibit the most Horrible
saturnalia that eye ever beheld, and that
the ear ever heard, the heart ever sick
ened at. We are so very strong and sal
wart and earnest, and English" in
word, that we need in our diversions q
few salutarv checks and kicking straps
which the feeber and less courageous
people of the Continent do not require.
The better observance of Sunday may not
succeed in London in making the people
more religious, but it keeps them dull
and tolerably we'll behaved, and toler
able good behavior is all that can be ex-
pected in city of 100000 souls This
is about the whole of nv philosophy on
the matter, and have seen a good many
curious Sundays in many curious coun-
tries.