The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1878-10-09
SUNDAY In PARIS.

SUNDAY 'lA1 !! !s' PARIS.
Al Nay or ROCK eatioa ANA 4 ,nuseln emit
why VT II Rrtrer 30 for the French imam
II the AnEID saxon. 88ia
81. a. Sala Ia the London Telegraph. s til
/ 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 dcne
III Paris on the Sabbath, and great many
more shops and warehouses are closed on
Sunday chan was formally the case. The
phenomena have nothing, save III the
rarest and most isolated cases, to do with
any change in the religious sentiments of
the people. | am given to understand
Protestant missionary work is going on
in sundry districts Of Paris, but the re-
suits Of these we'll meant attempts at
evangelization can only be as drop OF
water in the vast ocean OF the Partisan
Sunday. 8 Il
There are plenty Of Jewellers. and linen
diapers, and tailors' shops shops which
1T 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 aud the Avenue del Opera, there
are large numbers of commercial estab-
Gshments which are as Theoretically sealed
as the the banks and the public offices.
But should be blockhead were to as
sumo, and hypocrite were to maintain,
that an increase in religious fervor as we
understand it, is at the bottom cf this
partial abstinence from Sunday labor.
The smaller money changers shops are
all wide open-so are the toy shops and
! the cOnfecrioners' and pastry cooks, be-
cause foreigners want to change money,
and French people arc in the habit of
buying piaythings and sugar plums for
their children on Sunday; but in the ma
joriFy of instances it is not on that day
that the public require to purchase vel
vets ana satins, Aubusson carpets, carved
oak furniture, embossed paper hangings,
Madapolam calicoes, Or the new eCestus
Aglae' corsets. For lack of custom, ma
ny Of the great magasins shut up, and
those which cantinue open do so more
! from habit than from the expectation Of
| selling anything. Do you for one mo-
menr think that the male and female en-
| polyes in these closed establishments uti-
lize 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 ennni2
They will the rather pour on to the boule-
wards 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, I 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
geroas dogmatically to assert. I 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'a Sunday prevalent in Lon
don or in any English town I 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 s,Conrenental
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 omfortabie
homes from which they rarely stir on the
Sabbath; whereas the Parisians, as a race,
have no homes at all that can be called
comfortable, and are aR 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 b1ewed or distilled; the
classes among us who are not decent are
10 the habito of getting mad drunk, aud of
lighting, after the manner of wild beasts,
when they have q chance; our places of
licensed vitualing are merely places where
the largest number of scts can get tlpsg
in the shortest space of time; and Sun
day i'll London, with all the public houses,
all the theaters, all the music halls thrown
unrestrict.dly open from morning till
night, would exhibit the most horrible
saturnalia that eye ever beheld, and that
the car ever heard, the heart ever sick
ened at We are SO very strong and sal
Wart and earnest, and English" in a
word, that we need in our diversions
few salutary checks and kicking straps
which the feebler 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 well behaved, and toler-
able good behavior is all that can be ex-
pect..d in a city of 4, 100000 sauls This
is about the whole of nv philosophy on
the matter, and have seen a good many
curious Sundays in many curious coun-
tries.
A Model Confession.
Il Il. Several years ago, in Western town,