Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1879-02-28
LETTERS FROM THE PEOPLE
The Sunday Laws.

EDITORS APPEAL-Ihe press is a powerful
lever for good or evil. Your paper, believe
always endeaVors to uphold that which Is
good, and put down the evil. To say that
you sometimes take the wrong course IS only
to say that you are human. and liable to err.
as all men are. Your friends, many of them,
are sorry to see that your influential paper has
taken sides against the order issued by the
Legislative council for the proper observance
of the Sunday laws, so called. Sound public
policy, national and State, all over the Union,
has seemed to require the enactment OF these
laws. Now, so long as they are laws. ouQ ht
not the authorities to enforce them? And
ought not all good citizens to uphold the
hands o. the men IN this, our Taxing. District,
who are striving to compel obedience to law
Once bring into rldicule and contempt, upon
the part of law breakers, the authority Of
your public servants, and there is an end of
all good government. 1t won t do to argue
that cur new rulers are over-zealous about a
very small matter The main thing IS TO
teach, through that powerful engine, the
press, obedience 70 law. Any other course IS
dangerous, you must admit. Besides, you
will hardly deny that in those cities IN oar
nation where Sunday is most scrupuloUsly
observed as day Of rgst, you Will find less
crime, and less cost for criminal prosecutions,
pro rata. SGeers at Puritanism caDEot
weaken the well known fast that In the States
east OF the Hudson, where that 'isIu' is
thought to prevail, are the cleanest cit es and
best regulated communities IN all this land
Let US do nothing to break down, In the very
outset, the efforts Of men who are striving, at
great personal sacrifice, TO advance the pub
lie good.
Oar Hospital PhysleIsa.
EDITORS APPEAL-Dr. a H. Laurence
was yesterday elected TO succeed DR.. Thorn
ton IN the management of the city hl spital,
and his appointment will reflect honor upon
the discrimination of the legislative counsel
and give universal satisfaction. DR.. Tau
renee graduated with the first honors from
the University OF North Carolina, at Chapel
Hal, and subsequently received the degree of
a. M. from the same institution. He grad
uated Id medicine and surgery at the Uni
yerslty OF Pennsylvania, in Philadelphia.
Ills experience IN surgery and the manage
ment Of hospitals in the Confederate army
during the war was very extensive, and pecu-
harry fits him for his present position. He was
surgeon Of the Twenty fourth Texas cavalry,
and afterward of the Seventeenth, Eigh-
teenth. Twenty fourth and Twenty-ilth con-
soDdated, and subsequently became brigade
surgeon of Granberry's Texas brigade of Pat
Cleourne' S Texas division, and for some time
mad charge OF the hospitals Of the engineer de-
partmeGt in and around Petersburg, Virginia.
He is a member of the State medical societies
or both North Carolina and Tennessee. His
yellow fever practice embraces the epidemcs
Of 1873 and 1873, during both of which ne
was IN Memphis. Was in charge of quar-
antlne IN 1873, which position he filed with
distinguished ability until ordered to the city,
where he continued in the employ of the
board OF health and the Howard association
20 devote his energies to the relief of the
and distressed of our city, till
stricken by the pestilence himself His treat
nent OF yellow-fever was attended with
marked success, as numerous patients among
Is can testIty--myself among the number.
W. 5. ANDERSON, Howard Visitor