St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1893-03-13
IN RE SUNDAY CLOSING
The General Petition to Have
the Mayor Close UP the
Saloons /"
Discussed in an Interesting
Sermon Yesterday by
Rev. Vail.
The Method Deprecated by the,
Preacher as Being CO. .
ercive. v
He Thinks Both SalooniSt and
Executive Interested in
Good Order.

A petition, which has for its purpose
the closing of saloons on Sunday and
the checking of the sale of liquor to
minors on all days, has been widely
circulated and signed, said Rev. w. s.
! Vail yesterday morning. The demand
is made in temperate, reasonable and
appropriate words, and its Importance
would seem sufficient to render special
| pressure unnecessary, for it appears to
be sustained by all advantages. Still,
| it is not likely that this prayer will be
granted.
The hesitancy on the part of the eX-
ecutive to puzzle TO most of us because
we feel that the chief reason mentioned
is hardly to be seriously thought of at
all. The suggestion made that sixty
policemen were not able to cope with
three hundred saloonkeepers carries
with it logical implication. That phrase
''ulable to cope with" has in it sug--
gestion of fight, and the cOntending
parties on one side being the guardians
of the city, the logical Inference is that
the fight is with those who disturbed
what our guardians are asked to de-
fend-iI other words that the saloon
keepers would be reSisterS and breakers
of the law. TO put 1t in plain terms,
have we licensed 800 men TO do business
in this city who have no respect for
law that is reasonable and fair, and are
they so markedly antagonistic to the
enforcement of such law that we shall
be obliged to plant gatling gun ut the
front and back door III order to get
obedience?
What DO we Find!
An excursion into the city shows us
what?-shOWS us that we are stand
ing before serious difficulty. What is
the difficulty 1t is the unreasonable
ness of expecting limited or even
large police force to carry out what is
to you the ideal of good government.
The chief officers of city are as often
disappointed, chagrned, defeated and
diSgusted as are the citizens. If this is
true, what is the cause behind it? The
cause lies in different place from where
most OF us believe, for most of us are too
ready to criticiSe these men who often
do the best they can. Failure is not al
together in the intentions OF the officer.
The average policeman, in my opinion,
is not truthfulIY portrayed by the stage
picture. He can run if occasion Ie-
quires, and does it sometimes. He sell
dom arrests the victim, while the Grim
inal rusheS down some back alley cry
ing AHA. aha!" He will do many
things for the accommodation OF any
one who asks his assistance, and makes
a reasonably good record for himself i'll
the world.
But the average policeman in many
cases is iii his place what many of US
are i'll other places, the man possessed
by and under the influence of half
formed ideas. In music the reason why
there Is such disparity of opinion is
found in the same TACT. And as many
of us are more new, many OF us have a
true, intense and profound appreciation
of a certain kind OF very rudimentary
music. And our enjoyment OF 1t is so
intense that we cannot appreciate
another mans sentiment when he calls
our taste bad, and smiles at our musical
criticism. Still the other man is
most likely i'll the right. And it is prob
able that we are in the rudimentary
stage of advancement. And 1T is just
so i'll regard to the men WHO are set TO
guard the peace. They are men who
believe in certain things as bad, and so
they watch for thieves, for brawlers. for
noisy people, while hundred things
you would consider wrOng-things that
would shock you and turn you away
with diSguSt-are passed by these men
because they do not appear out of the
way. Their code of morals is not your
code. They are not at all sensitive to
things that would make you
Feel a Sense of Disgust.
They come into constant connection
with the low and the miserable, and the
fineneSs of moral discrimination is con-
stantly and gradually worn away. Here
is one of the difficulties of the situation.
The man who reads dime novel for a.
steady diet and revels in the lurid
scenes that redden its pages is apt 10
he critical if you suggest Emerson or
Browning. SO the man who looks at
this matter from lower plane
canpOt understand and feels an
your worthy chief could be every
where at once, if your executive could
be i'll all places, if you could handle this
matter, no doubt the result would be
different; as it is, with the wages paid,
with existing conditions, with condi-
tons as they will be iE time to come,
we will find many difficulties in the
way on account of this condition of
half-deVelOpmcnt of which L have
spoken. For we must remember that
the half-development makes us serious,
intense, ana gives us a certain strength
by our consciousness OF being sincere.
And is it necessary for ME to declare
that we should emphasize the danger of
these small inletS? A little bolt broke.
The train was OH the side OF a mount
ain 1000 feet above the canyons bed.
A crash, smoke of dust, SmOthered
cry, few flying SplInters, fire kindled
by the craSh-a hundred lives Snutfed
out as you might snuff a candle. A
little poisonous germ floats over the rail
of a great steamer while her bells are
responding to the touch of her pilot
and she is preparIngro drop down the.
stream aud take her way out to sea.
That germ attacked strong men.9I
They sickened and died. The shotted
hammock rested moment i'll the
shrouds, then swished along the slide
and was lost in the blue of the waters.
But the germ multiplied itself and
stayed on board. Guaranteed at New
York, it chung To the doctors clothes,
and started on Its ravageS and ScUurged
the land. Yet, after all, it was very
small. Are we by carelessness allowing /
moral poison to creep into our cities?
Are we so cOntented with the half-view 4
of things, and SO attached to the theory /
! that many tnlngS TlIe WIFI POISONOUS
| seeds "do not amount to anything"
that we are blind TO the coming results?
| l leave you to answer.
And, keeping this fact of relations in
mind, cannot avoid the feeling that
| this problem takes another, turn that
| complexities it to degree. By some
unknown law, city governments are apt
! to feel that churches are their enemies.
! They look upon the churchman as the
last TO give them justice, while on GU,
part we share the feeling when we
| think of them. Consequently, we seek
to coerce them in Il certain way. And
! out of all this rises a tendency t0dis-
It's
- HeWY LORILLARD's.