The record-union., 1893-05-18
SUNDAY AT THE FAIR.

1t seems to be agreed that the Worlds
Fair shall be opened on Sunday, despite
the Congressional stipulation that it shall
not be. 1t was bad provision that sad
died the stipulation upon the managers
of the fair. Everyone possessed Of par
ticle of worldly wisdom knows that it is
infinitely better for the people, in all
senses, moral and physical, that the fair
should be open on Sunday than that it
should be closed.
The beer garden, liq aor shop and su-
burban resort people and all the side
shows outside of the fair will growl and
protest, of course, for it will send the
people to rational entertainment and
away from these other resorts to open
it is an excellent reason for doing as is
promised will be done, when these classes
turn out as Sunday advocates.
There are tens of thousands of people
in and about Chicago to whom Sunday is
indeed a day of rest, because they can
then change from the toll routine Of the
On no other day can they make this
break in their lives without taking coin
from their pockets and paying for the
rest; they must work six days in the
week; how better can they rest upon the
seventh than by visiting such a refining,
educating, elevating exhibition as the
fair presumably is?
There is nothing in the proposed open
ing that will prevent those who desire
from attending places of worship, since
by the closing of the gates there is no
coercion exercised to compel any one to
attend church. If churchmen for one
moment imagine that the opening or the
closing of the fair on Sunday involves
any religious question, they are mis-
taken and led astray by their prejudices.
The church ought to stand upon the
foundations of truth only; if upon such
basis it cannot draw the people to its
services, the closing of the fair will not
prevail upon them to come and hear the
truth.
Abstractly there is nothing in viewing
the works at the exposition on Sunday
that is immoral; in the concrete there is
nothing in the visitation that is wicked.
But there is gross immortality and cor
ruption in the thousands of catch penny
dives, side shows, low resorts, dance
halls and drinking places, all of which
are wide open on Sunday, and the pro-
prietors of which wish the fair closed on
that day.
1t cannot, therefore, be pleaded that on
the ground of immortality it is wrong TO
view the displays at the fair on one day
and not on another. The basis of opposi-
tion to opening must therefore be solely
religious-that is, the respect that it is
claimed is due to Sunday in Christian
nation But this is not Christian nation in
the sense that it recognizes any particular
creed; 1t is Christian nation in that by
the convention of all its years 1t recog-
nizes the first day of the week as non
judicial, out of respect to a great body of
the people, and a custom that has grown
into our system. But that galleries of
art. parks, botanical gardens. and such
exhibitions as that at Chicago should be
closed to the people in respect to that
convention does not follow.
The one really defensible ground for
closing that is strong. is that the employees
at the fair are entitled to one day in seven
for rest and recreation. But singularly
enough this has not been advanced by
the Sunday-closing advocates with any