The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-05-23
LETTERS FROM THE PEOPLE.
The Acton Camn Meeting.
Editor q the Indianapolis journal:

To the Editor OF the indianapolis Jeurnal:
have carefully read your editorials in regard
to the Acton camp meeting and think the man
agement should give you vote of thanks and
free ticket for the season for the advertisement
you have given it 1 do not approve your criti-
cisms on the action of the management in refus-
ing to close gates and consent to the stoppage of
trains Sundays, as some of your correspond
ents do. According to my information on the
subject, the large crowds that congregate on
those grounds on Sundays are as orderly and
decorous as such numbers could we'll be, and the
general tendency and influence of those Sunday
gatherings is, relatively, as good and wholesome
as the small Sunday gatherings Of the villages
and country generally.
1 think that man has observed to no purpose
or not observed at all, who does
not know that in tho village and farm
ing districts of our country Sunday
is the great day for the exchange of civilities
and for social intercourse between nelghborS and
friends. 1t is So The village aud country
meeting house is the point of general rendezvous
and from which the people radiate by whole
families to each others homes in making and
paying visits. On such occasions the elderly
people talk over matters in which they have an
interest from the crops to the presidency, and
the young people have sport and make love. By
universal consent and the sanction of our best
village and rural society, Sunday is the great
day for courtship and love-Inaking. In this
Hendricks county and which is no SLOUGH of
county, the many gravel roads are thronged on
every pleasant Sunday, with people who are out
to enjoy themselves The livery stables ia the hf
teen villages of the county are unable to supply
their patrons with rigs Sunday and this, too
in farming community so well to do
that thousands own and drive their own teams
Do not understand me that this Sunday driving
in Hendricks county is by those engaged in
love making alone A very large part of the rigs
family carriages, and filled with families than
which there is no prettier or happier slghtto me,
The church members of the town OF Danvllr
many of whom own teams are our most inveter-
ate Sunday drivers, if taking their families out
in the woods and fields on Sundays should cause
them to be so designated.
Now, what is true of Hendricks county in regard
| to the use made Of Sunday is probably true of
the other farming communities of the State If
such is the case and l think there is no doubt OF
| it, then it follows that the hundreds who attend
the Acton camp meeting on Sundays, be the
purpose only to enjoy themselves by the
ride the cars, seeing the fields
and being in the grove with their friends, are
only conducting themselves as are the million
| of tae State who are not there To stop the
| Sunday trains and close the gates Sundays
would be to cut off and deprive those who go on
| those days of cheap way of reaching grove
on Sunday, most of whom are too poor to go on
any other gay or In any other way. L think, II
any one wants to satisfy himself Of the whole
I someness of Sunday excursion trains let him
get on train with poor, handwriting people,
| who, by hard and close management have con-
trived to leave their garrets and cellars, little
decently fixed, for excursion. Their
talk and EXPLANATIONS of delight on
seeing the fields and woods many of
whom never them more than once or
twice year. will have that effect. Such was the
| effect on the writer who came out to Danville
from indianapolis with an excursion Of colored
people, his purpose being to observe them.
The writer of this is not of those who think
that please God most when make our
selves the most miserable on Sunday. he be-
| ieves that Sunday is for man and not man for
| Sunday, and that there is nothing in reason or
nature that teaches that it would be wrong and
| demoralizing to do things Sunday that
| would be proper other days. He recognizes
the right of community 1.-THE STATED to establish
| regulations TO the days and hours of labor,
| especially between employers and operatives,
that both may be benefited. But beyond that
he thinks the State has no right to go. The
rule of conduct based on the
idea that the right and duty of doing is of SUI
| pernatura origin. His idea is that whatever
reason and experience shows Is harmful to com
munity, is wrong and whatever is beneficial is
| right, and whether things are one or the other
| is to be determined by human reason and expe-
rience. Now l submit to those who are opposed
! to the use of Sunday the means to mental
| and physical enjoyment, in the matter of Sun
| day trains to the Acton camp-meeting the ques
tion Is not their objection thereto based solely
and only on the grounds that such use is forbid
den in a book which they take as the supreme
rule of human conduct If their answer is yes,
| then the position of the Journal that the OBJ
seryance of Sunday should be observed for sani-
tary reasons alone, falls to the ground, if l
derstand the Journal correctly. X. Y.
DANVILLE, May %