Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1879-04-02

The people of Rochester, New York, have
been seized with sporadic effort to enforce
the Sunday laws. They propose to operate
not under the ordinances of the City, but un-
der the following provision of the State law:
There shall be no shooting hunting, fishing
sporting playing, horse racing, gaming, treQueuttng
OF uppllnghouseS. or any uDla@fu exercises or pas
times on the first day of the called unday; nor
shall any person travel on that DAY unless in cases
OF charity or necessity or in going to returning
from some cbu en- or place of worship within tthe
distances OF twenty miles or in going for medical aid
or for medicines, and return ng, 10 visiting. the
sick and returning, or in going Oy express Ier OF
some public officer, or IN removing his fa nily or
household furniture %nen such removal Wa COM
mehced on some other day; nor shall tneJ e be any
seIylle laboring or workng on that Gay. excepting
WORKS OF necessity and charity unless dor by some
person who uniformly keeps the last dsy OF The
week, called Saturday, as holy time, nd does not
labor or work that day, and whose thor shall not
disturb other persons in their observa nca OF the first
Gay o. tne week as nSy time Eyers person being of
OF this act shall forfeit one dollar or each ofenSe
The Rochester Union and, Advertiser. in
commenting on the effort to secure a rigid
enforcement of the above quoted law, says:
"We are informed t.nat the shining lights
marked first for e.rrest are the editors and
printers of the daily morning paper, the
Democrat, who Invariably ply their vocation
on Sunday night; the editors, printers and
vendors of tho Sunday morning papers:
who drive carriages to convey good christians
to church, and employees of the New York
Central and street railroads, and profane
travellers upon those lines. The Onion and
General Grant have several times remarked
that the true way to secure the amendment
or repeal of an obnoxious law Is to rigidly
enforce it. The public servants whose duty
Is to rlgidly enforce laws of sumptuary
character are vested with no power of dis
elimination. 1t is not for them to say that
this law designed to prevent o man from OBJ
tanning and drinking stimulating beverage
on Sunday shall be enforced, and that that
law designed to prevent man from editing
or printing newspaper, or from driving a
team Of horses, or from operating a railroad,
on Sunday, shall aot be enforced; and If all
are alike impartially and unsparingly en-
forced, what awabiding and law-enforcing
cltiaen can say nayP" 1t will be seen that
the law of New York prohibits any ''servile
laborlng or working on the first day of the
week. Will any body pretend that this law
can be enforced? Can a ny vigilance pre-
hibit ''servile iaboring or work
ing ON this day. The same spirit
which inspired the Memphis Sunday laws,
If carried out to their Legitimate conclusions,
would prevent '.he issue of Sunday papers, as
1t requires the same labor to publish them OF
Sunday morhing that 1t does during the
week. The, truth is, these rigid Sunday laws
can never be enforced. We close up the
olgar-st Ands, and yet the holy air of Sunday
morni Ag Is tainted with the clatter and
clan gor of the printing-press, the hideous
cry. of the sacrilegious newsb9y. We close up
me barber-shops, but as you go to church on
Sunday morning, or while engaged in wor-
ship, your ears are almost deafened bV the
nideous sounds of screaming steamboats, or
scores of locomotives, as they arrive or depart
from our city, dragging to the marts of COM
merce burdens of freight. Is this the work Of
necessity or charity, or observing the Sabbath
day? The law sends to the penitenhary the
beggar who steals shirt to hide nakedness
or a loaf Of bread to satisfy the cravings of
hungry NAV, but the rogue who steals his
thousands escapes punishment. The Sunday
laws punish the poor barber and the retailer
of cigars, but it never tackles big hotels, the
printing press, locomotives and steamboats,,
which are as busy on Sunday as other days.