Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1881-12-28
The Museum and the Sabbath.

A stranger had joined me in my walk
| and we were now leaving the Obelisk, | to
go into the Metropolitan Museum of Art
and he
"Shall we go in2" l asked.
al believe not" he replied "when / 90
there, l want to give half day to it, and
that cannot unless come on Sunday then
it is not OPEN"
"Aud trust il never will be-
This sudden difference of opinion was an
excitement; and instead of going in, as |
purposed, | walked on with him to get
hold Of the true reason why a plain, sensi-
BILE, everyday sort of man, should want
the museum to be place of resort on Sun
day.
He went on as we continued our stroll {:
"Do you ever think of the many hard
worked people who would never see a mu-
scum unless they can go on Sunday ?"
"Why not, pray tell me-"
"Because they work they six days in the
week, and cannot afford to give half day
TO Sightseeing"
care you in that fix ?" I asked laugh
ingly.
"Nearly so /; | am so closely confined, that
If take day out it is dead loss; and
cannot afford it,
"But these people, l said, d" are all able to
spend half day and half dollar to go to
the circus. | never heard that Mr.. Barnum
was petitioned by eight thousand New
Workers TO open his circus on Sunday, be.
cause people could not spare time to go on a
week day. If the president is to ride through
the street, hundred thousand hard-working
people stand hours on the pavement to see
him. So they do when a regiment of SOL
diers or any procession marches down
Broadway. do not suppose there is an in
telligent and industrious person in this coun-
try who has six days work to do in week,
who is unable to afford half day, frequently,
for his amusement or instruction. He takes
it If he wants it, And if he has desire TO
go to an art gallery, he is already SO elevated
above many of the people that he feels he
can afford the time to go and to take his
family. See these people now in the Park.
1t is only four O'Clock, and they have been
away from work and home probably all the
afternoon. Why don't they go to the Mu-
scum 1t is open now, and free four days
every week And hundreds of thousands of
the very class you speak of 60, and are well
paid for going. The others might go if
they had mind to. The pretence that
working people cannot get into Museum
of Art, if it is shut up on Sunday, is one of
the great shams of the day. Our people do
not require the laws of God and man to be
set aside, that they may get a chance to
study art"
1.-THE laws of God and man p
"Cortainlyi tha Sabbath was given for
man, because it is good for him. And that
he may have the good of it, the laws of
every state in the Union protect him in its
enjoyment. To open the museum on Sun
day would require the labor of all the Off
GERS and an extra corps of guards, attend
ants, and keepers, qualified to fill the posi-
tions; or you must compel the present corps
to work seven days in week, denying them
the Sabbath which is secured by law to the
president and the governor, and every office
holder"
:" never thought of that before. A door.
keeper has as good right to Sunday as the
governor"
"Indeed he has yet this is the lowest
view we can take of the subject. Man is
more than aphysical and intellectual being |;
he needs rest for the body and the mind,
and therefore the Sabbath is great insti-
tuition for him. He is also moral being.
He has relations to the infinite and eternal
He ought to live for something higher and
better than the life that now is. Art alone
never made man better. But the Sabbath
ought to be used to bring ourselves into
closer relations with God"
"Yes, yes but thousands will not go to
church, and it is better for them to go to a
gallery of art than drinking saloon"
"You are right; but do you believe that
one man who goes to grog-shop on Sunday,
or beer garden, would go to an Art Mu-
scum if it were open 7"
"No, do not they are not the sort of
people that would like to see works of art"
"There is vast deal of nonsense talked
about museums drawing people away from
worse places people go where they like.
And the frequenters of drinking-saloons
wish to 60 neither to church nor to see COL
lections of art. And you will bear in mind
that if our respectable citizens, who have
the control of the Museum, disregard the
law and public sentiment by opening their
halls on Sunday, it will not be long before
every door now closed by law or custom will
be open, and the Sabbath in New York will
be like that of Paris or Vienna
"Well, sir, l did not bargain for this talk.
have got something to think about, and
will certainly go to the Museum before next
Sunday. in Observer.