The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1893-05-17
Should the City Teach Others Sunday
Observance?
Two VIEWS OF TIE QUESTION.
The Advent Of the Bioomer Costume
Astronomical Features Hit
observation-disclosures Season.

of the good people of Boston nave pro-
tested against the opening the gates of the
Worlds Fair on the first day of the week.
This protest may or may not seem strange
to you as you regard the modern Athens.
II you have read of it's Sunday concerts
and benefits, it's Sunday excursions and
parades, you may be surprised, while on
the other hand IL You have learned to re-
gard the city as an old Puritan landmark
you will say it is just what / should ex-
pect. II, again, you judge Boston by an
actual residence within her borders you
will be likely to take such action for
granted and pay no more attention to 1t.
Judge the town by its Sunday appearance
and you would agree that IL should vote
rs a unit for Sunday closing of the fair in
Chicago or anywhere else, for a more
solemn place cannot be found within the "A
states of this Union than is the city of
Boston on the Sabbath. The stranger on
his first visit hero would be pardoned IL he
supposed the town and its people went to
sleep on Saturday night and did not awake
till Monday morning.
x
Yet that isn't the fact. neither Is IL true
tAAstb III hiN W ~ ooEti viz Va NhO
Lords day, that our good people would APP
ply to the great exposition, Is in force here.
Boston's streets are practically free Of pc
d~estrians and her stores are generally
closed but choice brings about the first
and q regard for or fear Of the law the Sec
ond. The people are not asleep nor are a
majority Of them at church. Boston Is
quiet and still because 1t Is deserted by
about everybody, man or woman, who can
get out Of 1t. They haven't any Column
bian exposition to visit but they have
dozens of other places and there they may
be found.
The wealthy and well-to-do get put of
town In the summer early Saturday after
noon, and those with less means crowd the
early cars and boats Sunday morning.
People want TO breathe, and this city is
blessed with many breathing places. For
rs cents q man can enjoy a good ride,
breathe the salt air, fresh from oceans
breast, watch the pillows as they chase
each other along the surface Of the water
and break upon the beach, and the ordi-
nary man invests his quarter that way.
II IL be wicked and sinful, then, indeed,
is the Hub q wicked city, and poorly fitted
to preach to others the lessons Of a strict
ounde ooservance.
Stop every boat, train and car that goes
from Boston to the diff erent summer resorts
close up private and public stables, fence
up our commons and parks and compel
people to remain in the city over Sunday
and Boston's streets would be lively and
we'll filled, but that her citizens would be
benefited I dare not assert. Boston peo-
pie are not built that way and Chicago ap-
pears to have the same failing.
But Puritanical Boston Is looking heaven
ward with horror over another thing-the
advent of the advance guard Of the wear
ers of the bloomer costume. They arrived
last week and today there are about o
dozen advanced thinkers of the female sex
openly wearing pants in and about
modern Athens. They are creating the
biggest sort of a sensation. Among the
most prominent disciples Of the divided
skirt is Mrs. b. o. Flower, the wife of the
talented editor of the Arena Magazine.
Mrs. Flower has been ''out'' some six days
and says she likes the novelty. Another
is Miss Laura Lee, an artist of repute.
Both have been shopping In their Syrian
trousers" as they call them, and last
Saturday Mrs. Flower caused a perfect
blockade in q Washington street millinery
store where she had gone to look at some
feminine head gear. Both claim they have
not been put TO n more annoyance ON
the street than to be stared at
II you are q student Of the heavens and
interested in the telescope you should take
sufficient time upon our next visit to this
city to jump over to Cambridge and in
spect the two hugh telescope instruments
now in process of construction by Alvan
Clark a. Sons. Here in the most everyday
appearing workshop are constructed the
greatest and most powerful lenses of the
world. Just now the enormous 40-inch
lenses for the Kenwood observatory Of the
University OF Chicago are receiving atten-
ton. These great glasses are four inches
greater in diameter than the lenses in the
telescope Of the Lick observatory. They
appear to the glance about the size Of an
ordinary tea table or a wagon wheel. As
you look at them and listen to the descrip-
ton of the days and weeks Of labor re-
quired to get them into the perfect shape
and form required, if you are poetical, you
may dream Of the new worlds they may
discover.
But the other instrument Is OF equal or
greater importance from a scientific stand
point. 1t is the Bruce Photographic tele-
scope being made for the astronomical oh.
servatory Of Harvard college in South
America. 1t will have an objective of
about "A inches aperture with a focal
length of II feet. Its frame weighs nearly
i've tons and when the instrument is in
position in Arequipa it is expected TO pho
tograph stars never yet seen. AS the one
how in use there which has secured such
great results has an aperture of only eight
inches the expectations do not seem un-
ressanable. The thing that is troubling
wise heads is just how this great machine
can be got six miles inland TO the hill
where ii Is To stand.
Have you watched the dispatch with
which the Legislature is turning off the
public business just nowi III you have and
have also marked the contrast between the
work accomplished the present week ana
that lone in the same length Of time three
months ago, l hope you will not be uakihd
enough, il you live i'm Massachusetts,, TO
AJAX YOUR representative what makes the