The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1885-04-04
Gov. ROBBIE and Good Friday.

By postponing for fortnight the hanging of the
italian murderers, Gov. Robe acknowledges the
gross afront he put Rpon great body Of his consti
tuents. He may plead ignorance of the significance
of Good Friday; but the plea itself is an insult.
Argus.
Here is very thin attempt to make
little political CAPT al, disguised under the
cloak of religion, by paper which almost
weekly allows correspondent to occupy a
column In sneering at all religions, especially
the Catholic religion, and making sport of
things held sacred by ''great part of Christ
endom." Here is a specimen of the matter
served up by our devout contemporary in re-
gard to period which we believe is held sa-
cred throughout great part of Christen-
dom:''
This is . Lentkeeping town and we are now mp
to our ears in the usual observancss. Were to
speak against Lent-keeping many of your readers
would cry "Step my paperl' and I shall not SO
speak But this is tho way Lent affects me, name
ly: What with fasting and other religious duties
the servants are about worthless all through the
Lsnten days, and We poor devils have to suffer the
consequence. At the close of the seasen they all
gorge themselves and get sick, SO they are really
1nfaithful and worthless for about two months;
and it is because they 10 that many housekeep-
srs fatty refuse to hire Irish servants. How about
the ladies? AS they fast and attend to religious d
ties, and deny themselves their accustomed COM
forts and pleasures, they also grow cross and peev
ish, and fretful, and altogether unpleasant to get
along in the house with. The woman who is very
strict in Lenten observances is also very trouble
some in boarding house, very. commend this to
all sof4h aN +1n1io
practical matter well worth looking into. Is that
good thing. my friends, which makes servants un-
faithful and which axes the ladies' of the house as
cross and ugly as old Satan?
4 paper which publishes this kind of mat
ter one week and few weeks later processes
to be shocked because the governor
did not On his own motion change the
day fixed for an execution by q judge of the
Supreme court, whose duty it was under the
statute of the State to fix day, is too clear
ly guilty of hypocrisy to make it of any use
for it TO plead that 1t is criticising the gov
ernor from religious motives.
The statute regarding executions reads as
follows:
Scot. 2. When any person is convicted of a
crime punishable with death and sentenced there,
for, the time for the execution of such sentence
shall be fixed by the court, which time shall be not
less than twelve months or more than fifteen
months from the day on which such sentence is
passed, and the convict shall, at the same time be
sentenced to confinement in the state prison unit
such punishment is inflicted.
SECT. 8. The governor snail seasonably Issue his
warrant under the great seal of the State directed
to the sheriff Of the county wherein the state prison
is situated or one of his deputies commanding him
to carry such sentence into execution at the time
axed by the court, uness the governor, with advice
of council shal pardon or reprieVe the convict.
commute his sentence.
The court fixed the day of execution some
months ago, and the time was Immediately
made public. The fact that 1t was Good Fri
day seems wholly to have escaped the notice
OF our devout contemporary as well as OF Its
constituents. Not one word of protest was
ever made, publicly or privately, against the
hanging of Santore and Capone on Good Fri
day until about week before the day of ex-
ecution. The Argus found plenty Of room fol
sneers at Lent, but it never occupied any OF
It's space with informing people that the re.
ligious sense of great part of Christendem
was about to be shocked by an execution on
Good Friday. The first ntimation that Gov.
Robe ever received that any portion of the
religious community was affronted came
from an italian residing at Rockland about a
week before the day set for execu.
ton. Subsequently came protests from the
Catholic and Episcopal bishops. The
fact that an execution had been ap.
pointed for Good Friday had been staring
everybody in Maine in the face for months
the law was clear that the Governor mus
issue his warrant for the execution on the