Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1879-03-01

and body-guard of the Amazons. Gallant
men held the bonnets Of the "CrusadeTs"
while they were bedraggling their pettic0ats
through the swIll and slops Of the fragrant
dozgery. Even the saloon-keepers were be-
guiled out of their livelihood and tearfully
Joined their despoilers The press was over
awed, while scenes were going on that made
the civilized world cape and sneer at a people
vino breed aud maintain armies of bowling
dervishes. But female nerves and human
strength soou broke down under the strain.
The effect was reactonary, for after
these amiable Amazons mad howled them
selves into sickness, intemperance held high
carnival. Whsky-shops multiplied, and the
people seemed anxious to make up the time
they mad lost in drinking while listening to
the prayers OF the psalm singers. ms
sporadic movement was nothing but another
form of religious revival, which, in given
number of DAYS or weeks, exhausts Its nerve
force, and leaves its subjects in their rational
after-moments to debate with their own con-
sciences their actual loss or gain Of true plety.
We have seen youngsters go to camp-meet-
ings, to jeer and have their fun at the excite
the anxious benches by the infection. We
have known one of these seasons Of religious
exaltatlon to burst forth in large boys
school, and to sweep nearly every student
into its current, and a month after that school
was a bedIam beyond the control of proc
tors and tutors The violated laws of all
systems governed by law will avenge
themselves sooner or later. There is
among the whole Enghsh-speak-
ing race a common law of Sabbath-d OBJ
serVance, the preeepts of which the child
may be said TO drink in with its mothers
milk. This law has been the growth of
time. Its capitalization has been as slow but
as sure as the growth and qualification OF
the English constitution, and, under the
liberal Interpretation of nearly all communi-
ties 1t fulfilled every purpose and necessity,
and there was no need for special enact
ments, statutes or ordinances to meet the &C.
cssional deviations, infractions, or violations
of what, after all, was more conventional
than obligatory. In this way, for more than
two centuries in this country, has been fol-
lowed out the simple, quiet, and orderly GUS
toms of our Sunday observance, and no one
ever thought there was any harm in them, or
dreamed of interfering with the rights of his
neighbor, 80 long as the spirit of the institu-
ton was observed. But fanatics believe that
they can make the day more perfect than the
Creator intended, and they would seal the
gates of German gardens, shut in the flowers
and fragrance and shades and verdure from
the multitude; stay the street cars, close the
libraries, arrest the transportation Of the mails,
close the barber-shops to men who have no
time to shave on Saturday, and stop the
merry cry of the news-boy on Sunday. Left
alone to carry out the instincts of their moral
and religious training, the people always
made the Sabbath a sufficiently close and
dull day; but still there was freedom enough
for those who wished wider latitude, and no
man complained, for nothing was done upon
compulsion, or which each did not freely con-
csde, and never thought of opposing. But it is
very different when you change matter of
common consent to one of legal requirement
and penal enforcement. Then it Is that the
great body of the people rise up and protest,
and the law either becomes a dead letter, or
its rigid enforcement renders its repeal GER
tain through its unpopularity. This is the
condition of affairs now in this city. The
people are not Sabbath violators, but they
are free men, and they will not be compelled
to do that which they have always willingly
done through the force of their natural train
ing. So long as these Sunday laws remain
unrepealed they should be obeJed. This is a
government of law, and every citizen should
remember UuaU Hperty VIII wlther IN anarchy
the day that lawlessness is typlfed by an
open violation OF the behests of lawful au-
thOritv