The Bossier banner., 1894-08-09
NUMBER "a.


or bundles, to get to the rail trains
or gardens. 1t seemed as if all the We
hicles in Paris, of whatever sort, had
turned out for the holiday. The
Champs Elysees" one great mob of
pleasure-seeking people. Balloons fly
ing. Parrots chattering. Foot balls
rolling. Peddlers hawking their knick-
knacks through the streets Punch
and Judy shows in score of places,
each one with shouting audience.
Hand organs, cymbals, and every
kind of racket musical and unmusical.
When the evening came down,
all the theaters were in full blaze
of music, and full blaze of light.
The wine stores and saloons were
thronged with an unusual number of
customers. At even-tide l stood and
watched for the excursionists coming
home, tagged out men, women and
children, a gulf stream of fatigue, ir-
ritation and wretchedness, for should
think it would take three or four days
to get over that miserable way of Sun
daying. 1t seemed more like an Amer
lean Fourth of July than Christian
Sabbath.
CNow, in contrast, present one of the
Sabbaths is one of our best American
cities. Holy silence coming down with
the day dawn. Business men more de-
liberately looking into the faces of
their children, and talking to them
about their present and future welfare.
Men sit longer at the table in the
morning, because the stores are not to
be opened and the mechanical tools are
not to be taken up. A hymn is
sung. There are congratulations
and good cheer all through the
house. The street silent until ten
o'clock, when there is regular order
ly tramp churchward. Houses of God,
vocal with thanksgiving for me rcies re-
ceived, with prayers for comfort, with
charities for the poor. Rest for the
body. Rest for the soul. The nerves
quieted, the temples cooled, the mind
cleared, the soul strengthened, and our
entire population turned out on Mon
day morning ten years younger, better
prepared for the duties of this life, bet
ter prepared for the life that is to come.
Still further: protest against the
invasion of the Lords day, because it
wrongs vast multitude of employees
of their rest. The play actors and
actresses can have their rest between
their engagements; but how about the
scene shifters, the ballot-dancers, the
call-boys, the innumerable attendants
and upernumeraries of the American
theater? Where is their Sunday to
come from? They are paid small
salaries at the best. Alas for
them! They appear ON the stage
in tinsel and tassel with halberds,
or in gauze whirling in toe tor
lures, and they might be mistaken, for
fairies or queens; but after twelve
o'clock at night you may see them
trudging through the streets in faded
dresses, shivering and tired, bundle
under their arms, seeking their homes
in the garrets and cellars of the city.
Now, you propose to take from thou
sands of these employees throughout
this country, not only all opportunity
of moral culture, but all opportunity of
physical rest. For Heavens sake, let
the crushing Juggernaut stop at least
one day in seven.
am opposed to the invasion of the
Sa bbath, because it is war on our
political institutions. When the Sab
bath goes down, the republic goes
down. Men who are not willing to
obey Gods law in regard to Sabbath
observance are not fit to govern them
selves Sabbath breaking means dis
! soluteness and dissoluteness is incom-
patible with self-government. They
wanted a republican France. After
awhile they got republic;but one day
| Napoleon ILL.,, with his cavalry, rode
| through the streets, and down went the
republic under the Gathering hoofs.
| They have a republic there again; but
| France never will have a permanent
republic until she quits her royster-
| ing Sabbaths and devotes one day in
every week TO the recognition of God
and sacred institutions. Abolish the
Sabbath, and you abolish your religious
privileges. Let the bad work go on,
and you have 1.-The commune, and you
have ''the revolution" and you have
the sun of national prosperity going
down in darkness and blood. From
that reign of terror may the God OF
peace deliver us.
Bring your voices, your pens, your
printing presses, and your pulpit's into
the Lords artillery corps of the defenss
of our holy day. To-day, in your fami-
lies and in our Sabbath-schools re-
cite: Remember the Sabbath day
to keep it holy" Decree before
high Heaven that this war on your
religious rights and the cradles of your
children shall bring ignominious de-
feat to the enemies of God and the
public veal For those who die in the
constant battling for the right we
shall chisel the epitaph: '.These are
they who came out of great tribula-
ton, and had their robes washed and
made white in the blood of the Lamb. "
tut for that one who shall prove in his
Iuoral crisis recreant to God and the
church there shall be no honora-
BILE epitaph He shall not he worthy
even of burial in all thi, free land;
but the appropriate intcrtnent for
such an one would be to carry out
his remains and drop them into the sea,