The weekly tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1891-1894, 1893-05-12
SUNDAY AT TuE FAIR.

For several months the worlds fair
grounds have not only boon open to
visitors on Sundays, but some twenty
thousand men have been at work there
on Sundays, as on all other days; striving
with superhuman energy to complete
the buildings in time for the opening.
Dispatches from Chicago go to show
that the common sense of the American
people will carry the day, and that there
will probably be no change in tho pre-
cedent set for the last few months, the
gates remaining open on Sundays as on
other days.
Perhaps the most striking plea for
Sunday opening Of the fair is brought
out by an article from the pen Of cx-
Senator John j. Ingalls, which has just
appeared in tho New York World. The
editorial Of that paper on tho article is
the plea referred to, and Is as follows:
The fair is to be magnificent, enlight-
ening, uplifting. What lies without the
1dlCb 10 81 NltlouE. 81 'lllb dllIlilss 81
bad and so seductively corrupting that
even in its description Mr.. Ingalls, is
forced to put smoked glasses upon his
rhetoric and to resort to Cuphemiems in
every line.
Just outside the grounds men and
women of every nation have arranged to
exhibit all forms of vice known to their
several countries, disguised beneath "A
,l,tt,,,. ,.t -, u,l,.l, I,,,- ,,.r, tI,,
it hides. In the city Mr.. ingalls, finds
matters worse still-so bad, indeed, that
he dis overs fit analogics only in the
Moulin Rouge Of Paris and the loath-
some resorts Of Cleveland street in Lon.
don.
The lures are set especially for rural
and provincial fool, and other unwary
ones, and in order that vice may have
full opportunity to work its owl will the
exposition grounds, with their cnlight-
cniEg, refining and educating influences,
are to be closed every Sunday. while the
gorgeous temples Of vice, dcbauchcry
and crime are to be kept wide open.
Thus far the grounds have been open
on Sunday because the blight Of con-
grcssional hypocrisy could not fall upon
the fair before tho date of its formal
opening. The cato receipts have
amounted to 52jO,OOO, the greater part Of
which came from tho m%ultitudc5 of sun
day visitors. After May ! all these
multitudcs and the thousands that will
presently be added to the throng will
and the gates closed on Sunday and
must turn for entertainment to the gor-
geously decorated and ingcniously at
t~ractiyc bells Of the Plaisance ana the
tom.
1hcrc WAS never d worse thing done
for morality by any Legislative act than
was done by congress when it ordered
the closing OF the fair on Sunday. Had
its purpose becn to render tho great
gathering fruitful Of vicious teaching,
efficient in the corruption of innocence,
and richly profitable to crime, it could
not have proceeded to it's aim by a more
direct road than that of Sunday closing.
Undoubtedly the back of the Sunday
closing fanatics has been broken, and it
was probably a special dis%pensation Of
Providence on behalf of the fair that
Col. Elliott +. Shepard was removed
from earth, as he was tho ring-leadcr of
the Sunday-closing cranks.
Sunday opening adds onc-seventh to
the duration of the fair. and seven times
the benefits to the American people
which could be expected by Sunday
closing even by the most ~sanguine ia
matte.