St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1891-08-02
A SUNDAY IN FUTURE.

ninety-four, and Thomas Cochran, mayor.
1t is a July morning, half-past six of the
clock, and already as hot as blazes. All night
long | have lain on top of the bed clothes,
careless of rheumatic vapors and Indifferent
to the attentions of several muscular mos
quitoes. And nowL. Hiram Dootinkle, jour
nalist by profession, do feel too enervated to
make move and would give the profits of my
erratic genius for one whole year for a
shady. grassy slope beside some cool stream.
But for this one day in the week the mayor
and the city council have assumed the care
of my soul as well as the direction of my
body. During the past TWO years divers mu-
nicipal law have been enacted for the OBJ
servance OF the Sabbath, and have been act
lively enforced by several energetic dronies
and pious lawyers. And l notice, Dot with
out good and sufficient cause. that profit for
the congregations of the one ana the fees OF
the other have notably swelled.
Our municipal theocracy is a wonderful
and a complex machine, a fact which i'm
presses itself upon me as l lie on my bed and
ponder that i'll fifteen minutes the morning
tocsin will be rung on the city hall chimes,
when it will behoove every good and law
abiding citizen to get up, perform his ablu-
tons and partake of a cold breakfast. 1t is
provided by law, with penalties annexed,
that there shall be no manner of labor Or OF
diversion on the Sabbath, and under the
former all manner OF public or domestic
service is prohibited.
Being a bachelor living in rooms, and be-
ing denied a restaurant or hired help, | en-
deavor to satiate my hunger with a little
milk, bread aud corned beef. The milk bought
the night before is a trife turned and the
bread is stale, but l share a few mouthfuls
with the cat and then sally forth. To ae-
cOmmodate the piety of the municipal law
all the Protestant churches hold early morn
ing services at s $40. AT 10 o'clock there is an
intermission for half an hour. after which the
service goes on again until Il 80, when OPP
portunity is offered for another crust
and more corned beef. But on this particu-
lar morning, i'll defiance of public sentiment
and of the law and order league, | take q
stroll. Along Summit avenue and down Selby
avenue to Fourth street and then down Sib-
ley street to the depot is my route. No a
street car is running, nor have they run on
seventh days for these eighteen months past.
But Oh either side of Seventh street are long
lines of pedestrians, mostly dressed in black.
and with a solemnity of .visage quite lugu
brious. These are working people, employees
from the offices. stores and workshops.
Nearly all look weary and wan. Necessity
compels them to work from ten to twelve
hours a day for six days in the week, and the
law prohibits any diversion of pleasurable
relaxation on the seventh. 1t is not possib lie
for them to leave the city, for no trains run,
either INTO or from the city from Saturday
midnight until Sunday midnight. No public
conveyances can be had for hire, and the
whistle Of tho cfaor1hNa- - 80 hood
While in the upper part of the city l saw
several carriages driven past carrying their
occupants to church. but the prohibition law
does not apply to private vehicles. If a per
son owns a rig he is at liberty to have it out
and to order his hired man to drive him, the
law not regarding this any transgression of
the fourth commandment. The members of
the council, by the way. as we'll as the mem
bers of the enforcement league, have their
own carriages.
No pictures are allowed to be exposed to
the public gaze on the Sabbath, but must
either be Withdrawn or covered with canvas.
Passing down Fourth street some theatrical
posters attracted my attention, but in every
case the lower limbs had been covered with
mating. Standing before one of these
was an individual with a SLOUGH hat and an
ill-ftting cutaway coat. both the worse for
wear. while his beard came down to his sec
ond vest button. He was evidently a stranger
and a farmer, and 1 drew near him for COM
pany's sake.
"Wall, b. gosh, he exclaimed by way of
greeting, 'be those the petteeeoats them wO-
men wear?"
Explained to lin that they were clothed
that way in compliance with an express Or
dinance of the city.
This be a strange place, anywa he went
on to declare 1T beats Itaskey all holler,
though they be talking of passing locusts'
eggs for pennies up thar"
As we talked discovered that my friend
was an Alliance man, but that he had no
use for a city where an unsophisticated
farmer couldn't get whisky ON Sunday. The
prohibition movement here has been almost
as marked as the Sabbath observance. 1t
was also a foster child of the law and order
league and the aforesaid lawyers were in
genious in methods for transferring the flow
of shekels from the saloon keepers Golfers
to their own. The revenue derived from tn
liquor licenses went to advance the cause of
reform. 1t was not healthy for a saloon to
sell liquor on Sunday, so that a number have
had to close. But a new and all amusing
COA1pAICdIlOH LIE dIlScu. AS lOuR us lue Gil
forcement league had plenty to do the law
yers interested were eontented. Now that
there is no necessity for enforcement
measures, these lawyers, like so many
Othellos, find their occupation gone, and
are, it is reported, devising measures for
knocking the law and order league and its
patent municipal reform government into
the scuppers. 1t is a consoling reflection that
the time may soon come when the Sunday
morning tocsin will not ring, when corned
beef will not of necessity be a bachelor jour
nalist's Sunday diet, and when the poor will
no longer be compelled to walk while the
rich roll by in carriages.
My friend, the Itasca farmer, helped ne in
my reflections, but collapsed when he saw an
announcement on the bulletin board of a
morning paper that the said paper was being
sold as an attachment to a family bible.
The afternoon has dragged on, and 1 again
reach my house and stretch myself on the
bed, once more in defiance of public senti-
ment, and yearn for the time when bigotry
will give way to a broader spirit and Chris
tianity will have a due regard for the neces-
sites of the poor as we'll as for the vagaries
of the rich.
NJ mn -