The Portland daily press., 1886-05-29
SUNDAY OBSERVANCE.
The Conference Between the APoth-
ecarIes and ministers.

x,..4,.,,o,, oftarnoon large number Of the
orothooor;es NJ the city met Rev. Messrs
Hallock and Daniels, representing 'ne nm,
isterial Association, at the common Nouu0i.
chamber and for a couple oil hours discusseu
the question of the closing Oh the apotnecaiy
stores during the whole OF par.
of the Sabbath. Among those preSen'
were Messrs. James b. Totten, A.
q Schlotterbeck. Edward Mason, A. D
Kinds. ii. p. S. Goold, T. j. Stevens, q. NJ
Young. A. w. Smith, E. d. Wharf, repre-
senting George C. Frye, and u +. Lucy
representing c. Way q Co. -.
Mr.. Halloek called the meeting 10 oruel
and stated its object. He recommended 'iia'
the gentlemen present organize, and Dr' -
B. Totten was elected chairman, Win
Mr.. A. S. Kinds secretary. Dr. Iotten
spoke of the nature Of the WORK Oh
the apothecaries and said that thelr
stores were kept open fifteen and SIX
teen hours day, every day in the week, to
accommodate an increasing demanu on tno
part of the public. He referred TO the neeu VI
rest by both proprietors and CLERKS anu ca
pressed sympathy with any movement iooA-
ing to the attainment of this object.
Rev. Mr.. Hallock said that the ministers
desired to cooperate with the apothecaries
in the work and it was right that those pres
ent should know what had been done. Inc
paper which had been carried to every
apothecary in town and in which the sign
ers agreed to close their stores on sundays
with the exception of certain hours nameo'
has been signed by nineteen out OF twenty
nine retail druggists of the city. Three OF
the remaining ten assured the committee Oh
their sympathy with efforts looking 10
stricter observance of Sunday, three OF four
others made their action conditional upon
that of prominent stores, and only one OF
two refused point blank to close their stores
during a part of Sunday. The committee OF
the Ministerial Association had seen Drs.
Weeks. Gerrish, Dana and Meserye, VINO
thought the closing of the stores IeasiDie'
DR.. Dana thought there should be some
place or places where in an emergency
prescription clerk could be called during
Sunday.
Rev. Mr.. Daniels corroborated Mr.. Hal
locks statement.
Mr.. A. G. Schlotterbeck, being called upon
said that he had no doubt nearly all the
apothecaries would agree to any plan which
resulted from united action. Personally, he
felt some reluctance at the idea of closing, as
his store had not been closed night or day
for ten years, but if the others united in a
plan he should doubtless join them.
DR.. Mason didn't think it necessary to
keep drug store open one hour on Sunday,
Mr. A. S. Kinds said that he could sympa-
thize with the remarks of DR.. Totten in re-
gard to the labor required of apothecaries.
He realized the loss of Sunday trade, but
believed that a great part of it would be
made up by increased sales Saturday. He
saw no reason why druggist should not be
called out of church to fill a prescription
during Sunday as well as the physician to
attend the needs of his patients. Mr.. Kinds
said it was no harder to go to his store Sun
day and compound prescription than it
was to wait there eight hours to do the same
work.
Messrs. Wharf, Young and Smith
said that their stores would be closed with
the others.
The chairman called attention to the fact
that the meeting was called to agree upon
some practical plan. He favored keeping
open until church time in the morning and
three hours in the afternoon.
Mr. Schlotterbeck thought that tlrnr-rTere--
but two things to be done-to close all day
or keep open all day. He regarded keeping
open certain hours in the day as an arbitrary
way of telling people when they need their
medicine, and said that if a store was kept
open three hours, the sale of fancy goods
would not be stopped.
Mr. Hallocl referred to the sale of cigars,
soda water and fancy goods as what the min
listers viewed with alarm Dr. Totten said
that closing the drug stores would drive the
trade in cigars to the hotels, instead Of stop
ping it, Mr. Hallock said that this was the
view of all the druggists.
On motion of Mr.. Stevens, Messrs. Frye.
Sehlotterbeck, Kinds, E. L. Foss and Hol-
land were appointed committee to confer
with the Ministerial Association and devise
some plan acceptable to the apotheearies.
Mr.. Goold acquiesed in Mr.. Schlotterbeck's
remarks and was ready to act with the other
apothecaries.
Mr.. Hallock called attention to the fact
that three of the gentlemen had not signed
the paper circulated by the ministers, COM Z
mittee.
Mr.. Deehan and others said that the gentle
men were representative apothecaries and
likely to represent the opinion of all, but on
motion of Mr.. Smith, the vote appointing
the committee was reconsidered, and Messrs.
Frye, Schlotterbeck and Way were named as
delegates to do this work. The meeting
+ban adjourned