Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-03-05

one than the other Sunday papers print q
great deal of religious matter that tends to
make men better and that reaches far more
people than do the sermons of any minister.
A Sunday newspaper for many is the step
ping-stone to the church. It leads men to
think, and 1t is only the intelligent that 60
70 church Anything that educates aids the
spread of religion, and no one can deny that
the Sunday newspaper, with its host of the
best writers and the best literature of the
day, is educating. = &r5
sThe Puritan Sabbath is thing of the
past We have reached the time when
there is q better conception of what was in
tended in the day Of rest. L believe that
men should 60 to church because tn e human
voice is far more convincing than anything
that can be read. But if people don't want
to 60 to church, they have right to stay at
home, and If thee want to- read paper,
they have right to do so.
The newspaper is one of the productions
Of advanced civilization. The Sunday pa
per is educating in its tone, and II 1t is to be
suppressed, we had better write out q con-
fession that civilization isn't satisfactory,
and that we will 60 back and try barbarism
again. I am surprised at the movements of
the Law and Order Society; but there is sat
isfaction in knowing that efforts to stop the
Sunday newspaper will be fruitless"
The Absurdity of the Crusade.
Rev. Father Sheedy thought it was ab-
surdity to attempt to stop the Sunday news
paper He viewed as q necessity that law
of q century ago wonld not even embarrass.
I'VE were getting along very we'll in the
observance of Sunday until the Law and
Order Society stepped in with its fanatical
notions" he said. 'In Pittsburg it is .
dor ,f rae{ hat ha Sunday
newspaper is taken away the people
will rebel and the danger will
then be that we will be given the Contin-
entail Sunday with open saloons and utter
disrespect of the day. am not in favor OF
either the Continental Sunday or the Puri-
tanical Sabbath. The reading of . Sunday
newspaper can be no harm to any man, and
to vast majority it is certainly benefit.
''The Sunday newspapers of to-day are
magazines at one-fifth the cost. They con-
tain articles of a high literary value
that would not otherwise be read
by the rank and file OF the people. They
lead people to think, and that is the secret
of education. 1t is absurd to make Sunday
solitary confinement. Sunday is not a day
on which man must keep his mind tied
down to the single thought of religion. 1t
should be a day of rest, and in what better
way can the laboring man rest than by read
ing paper? -.
sSome ministers claim that Sunday
newspapers keep people away from church.
The remedy is clear. Let them make their
sermons as interesting as the paper. In
fact think there is great deal more re-
Ggion in the Sunday papers than in the
discourses of a great many preachers. There
is plenty of time to read paper before and
after church services, and to do so is better
than to loaf or spend the day in idle con-
versation.
No Necessity for Noise.
81 have only one fault to find with the
sale of Sunday newspapers and that is that
the newsboys make too much noise on the
streets That is not the real issue, how
ever, and could no doubt be remedied if
brought before the police depart
ment 1t is a surprise to me that there are
men so utterly devoid of everything human
as to attempt to force the people of this
State to surrender their Sunday paper SIM
to read them. I read the Sunday
papers myself, and I don't think
I was ever harmed by it. I
see Sunday papers delivered in the morn
ing to good church members in Protestant
and 1 presume they are
read. 1 don't believe in accepting the
Judgment of half-dozen against the
millions when human rights are involved.
The day of Puritanism is past, and I don't
think the country retrogsded in accepting
more liberal ideas with regard to Sunday.
The Law and Order Society should not for
get that the general community will not
accept their religious guidance from the
organization that calls itself Law and
Order Society"
Rev. George W. Clinton, pastor of the A.
M. E. Zion Church, on Arthur street, and
one of the most popular divines of that de-
said yesterday: 'T have not
vet read Judge Porter's decision carefully,
but have one very decided opinion on the
subject. That is that there are many other
things in this city against which the efforts
OF the Law and Order Society and other
reformers could be much more profitably
than the Sunday newspapers. I
have not much inside knowledge on the
subject, but do know that practically all of
the work upon the Sunday morning journal is
done on Saturday. The papers are distrib-
uted before daylight, and bother nobody
who does not want them"
Only One Objection to Enter.
ST do not read the Sunday papers myself"
said Rev. S. w. McCorkle, s'but can see
no particular harm in them. have but |
one objection, and I cannot even prove that |
I do have it. I am led to think sometimes |
that the Sunday paper has q tendency to
keep man away from church, but other |
than that 1 can see no harm in it.
although do not take Sunday DIS |
PATCH, 1 often see one on Monday in my |
travels about the city. When do, I always |
look it over. and have never found any |
Objectionable matter in it. In fact, think |
It is q very attractive and instructive pub |
lication, and if man reads 1t so as not to |
interfere with his religious duties, cannot |
see how it can be harmful
81 think we are past the day when the |
Blue Laws will longer do service. 1t is |
like the Westminster Confession of Faith. |
There is doctrine laid down in it which is |
several centuries old, and, to my mind, not |
applicable to the present age.
Not in Accord With Modern Ideas.
s'The Blue Laws were made 100 years ago |
md it stands to reason that people living at |
that time were not gifted with the power to |
ook a century ahead in the matter
IF government The idea of abolish
large as Pittsburg is absurd. 1 cannot see
now it can be done. They are too much of |
necessity. If the street cars were to stop
it is safe TO say the attendance at /
,hurch would be greatly diminished I
Know it would be in my congregation, and
t would be more noticeable in.the Pittsburg
.hurches =
Rev. C. V. Wilson, of the Emory NJ E.
Church, of the East End, said: believe
n good Sunday law, but am not an ex-
remist, and think it bad policy to turn the
crews down too tightly. Law won't make
men be moral. If we had q law to compel
men to attend church on Sunday would
lot he in favar of enforcinr 1t hacausa II L