Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1882-06-26
AN OPEN LETTER
IN Reply to One ION the Use of Sunday as
a Gala DAY -

CrOSS1nan:
We, the officers and members of the
Sacramento Turn Vereip, desire to viadi
cate ourselves and our countrymen from
the aspersions which you have directed
against US in your open letter ITO those who
% Sunday as gala day." and at the same
time to enter our protest against the positions
you take in that document. Lest, however.
any one should misunderstood our own atti-
tude, we will premise that we fully concede
the right of the church-going element in the
community to pursue its observance of Sup
day without interruption or molestation, and
we admit that the playing of bands by pro-
cessions while passing churches during the
time OF service is not warrantable. IT, how
ever, anything of this kind happened during
the recent Turn Bezirk celebration, it was
the result of mistake, for, in accordance
with our principles, orders had been given
for the band to cease playing whenever a
church was approached, and the only instance
10 which this order was infringed is explain
able by the circumstance that the hour was
so early as to induce the belief that services
had not yet begun. So much by way of pre-
face, since we do not wish our fellow.citizens
to think that we have any disposition to in
wade the rights of others, our object being
solely and simply to stand up for that free.
dom of action and thought which is guaran-
teed to us by the Constitution of the United
States.
In your open letter." gentlemen. you do
not rest content with affirming your right to
be free from interruption in your observance
Of the Sunday. Had you confined yourselves
to that position we should have had no cause
of quarrel with you. But you proceed to
assert that our use of Sunday tends to i'm
morality and disorder and lawlessness,
while you yourselves are exhibited rs the
chief guardians and champions of public NOR.
ais, and as the very pillars of the common
wealth. We are therefore obliged to traverse
your averments, and this we do by denying
emphatically your injurious implications,
and by refusing to accept your representa-
tiens as to the relations you hold to the COM
munity. We say that the Turn Verein is
thoroughly moral and wholesome institution,
aad that its effects are sslutary and beneti-
cent. You have said that during the celebra-
ton the other day much intoxication was OBJ.
served by citizens among young men. To
this we reply that II young men were intoXi-
Gated on the occasion referred to, they were
assuredly not German young men. They were
probably the sons Of church-going parents,
asd for the conduct OF them we cannot be
held responsible, since their moral training"
is and has bean ir your hands.
We know that Companions are odious,"
but since you have introduced them we are in
q measure compelled to employ them also.
We are not afraid to challenge comparison
between the moral lives and conduct of
our members and any equal number of church
members in the community, and We will leave
to you the selection of your own champions.
We think this is both fair and practical,
for of course il our practices are demoralizing
they must have demoralizsd us, and il they
have done SO it must be perfectly easy to de-
monstrate the moral superiority of church
discipline and training. Considering the ar
rogance and sslf-sufficiency of your attitude,
however, We have been much surprised to
find that according to your own admission
ysu have no influence upon your i)cks on
any other day than Sunday. For you say
that our practices draw off many, espe-
cially the young, " from all the Influences cal
culated t. make good and safe citizsns on the
only day of the ,ceek tciea they can be brought
to act on them" Now to us this seems equiva-
lent to confession that your whole system is
a mistake, for we find it impossible to believe
thst any efficient moral training can be
effected by applying it only ons day in seven.
The Turner's act upon totally different prin-
ciples. They hold that all education must be
continuous and persistent. They do not be-
lievs in a religion which is put on and taken
of like garment. They teach their children
every day and all day. They teach them to
be as moral. as pure, as truthful, as honest,
as high. minded, on Monday SIS on Sunday.
They do not teach them to be hypocrites one
day and rosues the other six.
The Turner'S believe in and practice free
dom, both of thought and action. You be.
lieve in depressing free thought. You fear in
quiry. We court it. You think that the
roots of morality lie in asceticism. We
hold that God made man to enjoy sll the
beauties of Nature, all the pleasures of sense
and sentiment, all the delights which He has
interviewer in existence. We are not ire
ligious, bat we are reverent Of realities, and
haters Of all shams. We are the country
men of Luther, whose piercing gaze pene-
trated the core of medieval Catholicism, and
whose uncompro missing enmity to falsehood
and corruption produced the Reformation.
To that great man you yourselves owe the
liberty of conscience you might enjoy. But
while you have departed from the fpirit of
the Reformation, and have become as narrow
and intolerant as the Pspacy itself, we have
been reared to venerate above all things the
liberty of thought and the honesty of inquiry
which Luther stood for, aud so holding and
believing we have, we venture to say, shown
forth in our walk and conduct sobriety,
fidelity, and loyalty to sill good things and
pure doctrines, such as becomes men who I'M
derstsnd their responsibilities, and love their
adopted country, and who are resolved that
their behavior as American citizens shall not
dishonor their Fatherland.
And we need not shrink from asserting
that the German. born citizens of the republic
yield to none in their respect for the laws, in
their observance of all moral precepts in
their commercial integrity !; in their attsn'
ton to parental responsibilities in sll the
relations of life. We pride ourselves
that but very few Germans have re.
cruited the swarming ranks of em-
bezzlers, forgers, thieves, public default
ers, political demagogues, canting hypo-
critics, star route and whisky-ring and Indian
ring robbers, whose ldches have from time to
time filled the columns of the press. 1t is not
not often the children of German parents swell
the army of hoodlums which threatens the
future of this community. The most shame
less practitioners of vice to-day are the re-
suits, gentlemen, of your moral training
they are scathing commentaries upon the
efficiency of that culture of shaIns which you
seem to think the only means Of saving So
ciety from ruin.
Your plant against us however recalls an
incident related in the New Testament. A
certain man named Demetrius, a silver
smith, who made silver shrines of Di-
ana" became alarmed at the subversive
teachings of Paul, and so be called the
members of his craft together, and showed
them that this new preacher was putting
their trade in jeopardy; for said Deme-
trius, mot only is there danger that this
our trade come into disrepute, but also
Diana be made of no account, and that
she should even be deposed from her
whom all Asia and the
world worshippeth." 1t seems to US that
you, like Demetrius, are alarmed lest your
trade "come into disrepute," through the
natural and healthy growth of the pop
ular taste for that liberal and cheerful re-
ligion which we practise and hold to, and
which appeals so much more strongly to
sound minds than does the dark and gloomy
aud fantastic and incomprehensible ar.
though we are inclined to suspect that your
real feeling toward us resembles that
of Giant Pope, in the Pilgrims
Progress" who was heard t. NUT
ter as Christian and his companion
passed, you'll never mend till more of ye
be burned !" we are not afraid that you will
ever have the opportunity to recur to
the elemental tendencies of your cruel
creeds for we believe that while the starry
flag floats over this land the principles of
Freedom and Tolerance will guide and con-
Cr0i Ln6 Q6SblnieS VI al TIE ClbZoub VI tut
republic. Finally, we demand nothing which
we do not concede. We are content to abide
by the apparent and tangible results of our
moral system. And we suggest that before
you again venture an assault such as Your
"open letter embodied, you will do well to
marshal your facts and your reasonings
better. Wishing you more Of that Charity
and love of Truth which are talked of so
much in your sacred books, but apparently
respected SO little in your communications,
we remain. gentlemen, yours for the vindica-
ton of the right. Very respectfully. By
order of rhe Sacramento Turn Verein.
J. J. TRARBAoH, President.
CARL STRoBEL, Secretary.
Sacramento, June %, 1882.
YE HING.-Ye Hing, or Chinese Good day,
will be celebrated by the Chinese of this city
to-day and tomorrow. This is said to be a
sort Of Chinese Masonic anniversary, and is