St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1889-06-11
THE CHRISTIAN SABBATH.

morning to see the cable line there.
THE CHRISTIAN SABBATH.
Westminster Church.
The state convention of the friends of
the Christian Sabbath had an opening
session last evening that was small but
lively. The programme was to
be an address of welcome by
Mayor Babb, a response by
Bishop Gilbert, and discussion
of the saloon question by Rev. NJ. F..
Gjertom. Owing, probably. to his base
ball experience in the afternoon. Mayor
Babb was absent. Hon. George A.
was absent also, and the duty of pre-
siding devolved upon Rev. w. K. Mar
shall. Rev. S. M. Campbell made the
address of welcome. and made quite an
eloquent speech in which he said that
when Augustine converted the SaXOns
he didn't convert them clear through,
but left an element of paganism, which
still exists. ''There Isl" he said, "a
sediment of paganism in this city.
True, very polite paganism,
a cultured paganism, but none
the less paganism pure and
Simple. You'll fluid the lower side
of it in the Sunday saloon, the Sunday
theater, the Sunday prize fight. The
upper side you will find in the Sunday
excursion. the Sunday newspaper and
the Sunday drive; but both our pagan,
as pagan as anything you will find
among the HOttentOtS.
ave need the aid of your convention
to help us ChristianiZe this pagan ele-
ment. Let us consult together wisely
and kindly in regard to the question of
a better observance of the Sabbath day"
Bishop NJ. N. Gilbert, of the Epis-
copal church, in response to the address
of welcome, addressed DIR. Campbell as
mayor pro tempore, and said it the
to have given him some counsel in re-
laws.
Il take it," he said, that this con-
vention is called to give backbone TO
those in authority. We don't expect to
do much in definite lines, but we ought
to be able to exhilarate and purify the
atmosphere about US. We come to-day
as the friends of the wOrkingman. This
Lords day comes as the ceaSeleSS friend
of the toiler. 1t lays its hand on the
shoulder of the capitalist, too. saying to
him: You shall give the laborer one
day in the week for rest, re-
pose and wider view of life.'
The bishop related an incident of a
Sabbath day he spent on the Palisades
OF the Hudson, and of his seeing a Sun
day excursion boat going up the river
laden with
WORKINGMEN AND THEIR WIVES.
They looked so happy and gleeful that
the bishop almost repented of his stern
Sabbath principles. But he saw that
excursion boat again at the dock in the
evening. The men were drunk and
some of the women, and then the bishop
knew that Sunday excursions brought
more unrest than rest to the working
man.
Rev. M. F. Gjertson read a paper on
affirmed: eff there is any agency that
makes the Lords day the DEVILS day it
is the Sunday saloon. The Sunday sa-
loon has peculiar temptations for the
workingman. 1t finds him when he
has his Sunday clothes on, when he
feels social, and perhaps he invites in
his friends or they invite him. He
gets gloriously drunk. Monday morn
ing sees him in the municipal court,
where he is fined IS or $40,
and between the drink and the fine
his weeks wages are gone. That
is blind justice surely" Mr.. Gjertson
congratulated the city on the fact that
the present administration had made a
beginning toward shutting up the Sun
day saloon. TWAS elected on that issue
anyhow. he said.
Prof. Satterlee. of prohibition fame,
dropped bomb into the camp by ask
ing, ''Have we anything else but Sun
day saloon? lbelieve that the man who
opens his saloon on Sunday or any other
day to debauch his fellow man will be
damned. don't know where else to
put the men who give him license ex-
cept where he goes. That is a short creed,
distinction between the dry goods man
saloonkeeper. At least, he said, the
lawmakers made a distinction. They
opposed the Sunday saloon, not be-
cause it was kept open on the
Lords day, for they didn't keep
the day themselves. but because it made
government more difficult.
Rev. John B. Donaldson had to agree
with his brother Satterlee on one
point. II don't like" he confessed,
1.-THE protection we give the saloon
keepers in giving them licenses.
l Gdon't see that we have
any more right to do it than the pope
had to encourage the massacre of st.
Bartholomew. "Mr. Donaldson slipped
down off his prohibition pedestal and
pleaded for the closing of the Sunday
saloon, and DR.. Satterlee smiled clear
across his face.
j. Merritt remarked: II spent three
years in San Francisco, and was per-
fectly astounded at the little interest
taken in the Sabbath day there" He
suggested that outside of Christian in
huence the strongest incentive to Sun-
Saturday to Monday pay day. Bishop
Gilbert bore testimony to the same
effect from what had come under his OBJ
servation.
Then a little man who hesitated some
what in his speech got the floor, and
after announcing that he was "a
STRANGER WITHIN THE GATES"
and wonld take advantage of his sin
cog" to make some pointed remarks.
the stranger then adroitly turned
upon Bishop Gilbert and asked what
he was doing up on the palisades
that Sabbath and Mr.. Merritt whether
he was not particeps criminis to the
Sunday excursions he had seen in Cali
fornia. Both gentlemen pleaded guilty,
and the little stranger, after the APP
plause had subsidized, told the brethren
they must be consistent. They must
keep the Sabbath as well as
they would like to see others
keep it. Then he drew picture,
a beautiful tribute, too, of Puritan
New England home, and said that was
what the country wanted to get back to.
The little truthteller was Rev. j. M.
Smith, of Waterville, MINI. The con-
vention will reassemble this morning at
$50 o'clock a. M, when it Is hoped
large attendance will be obtained. The
following programme will be observed: