The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1881-06-28
AN 0DI0US LAW.

felt IN tnls city DAY before yesterday h"u
even this partial enforcement was met by the
most bitter Of c)mplsinings. When the law
shall be applied literally to all moLes of
work coming vthin its purvlew, then the
people will comm ,nce to feel how alb 'erd it
was In conception, how UBIQUITOUS it Il in OPP
Grafton. The old biua laws of OonnscticuI
which prohibited or fined churchmember
two pounds of tobacco for attendance
on service, man from kissing his wife on
Sunday, wora scarcely inferior 10 kiad to the
ono now on the statute book of Texas. All
manner of Inconvenience, discounts and
suGsrngs will bs put on US by
its full and impartial enforcement, and
no. only without any compromising good
~ result bat, indeed an immediate
evil. The right Of any people to Sunday
rest, or to any other rest not in conflict with
the rights of their neghbors, will of course be
conceded, but the logic which the law maker
and the sustsiner of the present iniquty, viz !:
that the liberty Of rest for each depends
upon law Of rest for all, we are not prepared
tall to concede as a sequiter, as regards any
community that we know of in this country.
When we seek to engrsft religious insttu.
tons and enforce religious observsnces upon
our civil poli!y, We instantly go astrsy. TIE
true test Of the correctness or eypedency of
sprincipls or policy, is to carry it to its ex-
treme length and there ascertain its opera
ton. Thus treated, what would be the effec!
ofthe enactment now under review? Carried
to the exIems TO be consistent, the orgsnist
at tho sanctuary who plays tho instrument
for pay, tho young lady who sings, often in
soma church other than her own, for the
stipulated compensation, etc, might be, and
shout be, consistently, arrested and indicted
for this ottsnse against the penal code.
Assu ming that physician is permitted to
attend sick patient, what OF the case of
the gro n who washes off bis buggy, mends
the harness or currie, the horse? VINO shall
say how sick is the invalid as to necessita' the
expedition obtained by the use of buggy!
Ga Sunday va saw some very sad, practical
illustrations of the hardships of this relic of
sdark aga. A young lady was lying quite
low with faver; ice WAS ordered at once; i.
was not to DO had tor any amount. Two
children wers suffering with hot mslsrial
affections, ice baths were the only thing TO
af'rd rsliaf and yet the legislator. of Texas
had 20 lied the doors Of the ice house against
these babes and opened those of the
grave, by way Of carrying out the
divine lessons about the bread and
the.st ne. and about the OK falling into the
pit Railway trains may take in fare by the
thousands Of dollars, but child mut die, a
sugar mill may rua, herder gather up his
stock against the rain, or farmer call his
employees from church to save his crop from
the storm. but the life of q human being
must flicker on. its existence unless
some person with more sense than senseless
sentimentalism, shall courageously defy the
law OF msn's inhumanity to man, al d take
upon himself to care for suffering fellow
mortal. Oh. consistency, thou art jewel.
Whether is it batter to buy cigar aud
smoke on Sunday, be shaved have your
shoes bl.cked or other such Innocent thing,
than to sit down and grumble and curse
aboutthe depr walton, as human nature as
constituted will do, because of a tyrannica
edici that prohibits these trivialities. For,
laws that thus rua counter to our human
nature, laws that fail to conserve and
adjust themselves to the social status, ar
radically, germinally wrong. They hege,
not only disregard but violation, and there.
tore decentralization. They arc tax I'D m
the conduct that cannot DO collected, a high
tariff on moral behavior that will DO evaded
for as the clouds above us take their form
and coloring from the mountains and plain,
over whi,h they pass, 60 laws must b. fl tee
to the genius and status of tho people fo,
whom they are enacted; and assuredly this
Sunday extreme restriction was never mean,
for and will never at easy upon the genius Of
American liberty, The fences of Christian
ity and The wallis of civilization cannot b,
kept up by ary such appliances. The mer,
fact Of iheir use would seem to be siuuif
cant and implicative of fee
bleness and need of support
These laws that undertake to protect ,ndi
viduals against themselves, are of the mo
illogical and unjust and unavail able ,ha. car
DO enacted. To enac. that man shall oh
serve religious duty Is or the same prnci-
plo as to insist tina. he shall pay strict regard
to the rules Of hygiene that he shall bath,
daily in summer, and never take plunge O,
shower bath 10 winter. This same state Of
things existed recently In New Jersey, tn,
consequence being that the liquor mon re
venged themselves on the prohibitionis,s
who sought to enforce the Sunday law com.
polling tho closing Of saloons on Sunday, by
organizing protective association TO
thoroughly carry out the provisions of tn,
law which provides not only that saloons
but tha. barber shops and newspaper Office
o. vol, shall b. closed on ,ho Sabbath, tha,
horse and ssosm cara shall cease running AND
that restaurants, dining-rooms, etc, shall