St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1895-07-27
IN THE CHAIN GANG
seventh Day Adventists7 Penalty
~ for Sunday Work,

70 the Editor of the Globe:
o,s scene F1rst-A colony Of Industrious
citlzenS at Graysville, Tenn. members
OF a Christian church, surrounded ht,
ioYed ones for whom they are Wiilins,
70 give even life itself if need be, foi7
loving the usual vocations of life six
Interpretation to the fourth Command
ment, they rest on the seventh dav.
!. me hour of worship finds them at tht.
mousse of God in diligent study of the
vine service. vi
Scene Second-At Dayton, five miles
I from this colony, the grand jury is in
I session, looking for victims under a
common law which says that work on
Sunday and rest on the seventh day or
the week is a nuisance to be punished
py INES and Imprisonment at the dis
Gresslon OF the judge and jury Or in
Default OF payment, go to the chains
gang.
But every day in the week may be
heard the laundering of trains by
the score, and livery stables flourish.
ing on their Sunday work, and the
P P chimneys of the Dayton
hundreds of men work every day the.
year round. But all this the grand
jury needs not. They are deaf to all
this testimony of the Dissertation OF
the morals of the good people of Ten
nessee. But they can easily find in
dictments against a Gcore of Seventh
day Adventists five miles away who
have worked in the quiet of their own
farms and gardens.
Scene Third-The sheriff, armed with
these indictments, enters these Chris
tan homes, dragging these men before
the court, charged with triiiing or
lenses such as saving wood, setting
fence posts, and one man charged VITA
the heinous offense of lifting a wheel
barrow from a wagon over a fence to
the owner.
With all due gravity and solemnity
of court of justice the witnesses are
sworn and testify, and the jury renders
a verdict of guilty" in nine cases,
the man who lifted the wheelbarrow
being one of them. Others were dis
charged for want Of evidence or their
cases put over to the next term of the
court
AS to those found guilty, the judge
would vindicate the majesty of the COM
mon law by Furnishing the cuprits,
although he said that the law was not
made for such men, by imposing
various fines according to the sup
posed gravity of each offense. These
fines were from S. to SIS and costs.
But these men see a principle involved
that Of obedience to the laws of the
state or the laws of God-and they
say: eve ought to obey God rather
than man." and they refuse to pay the
knowledgment of the justice of the
prosecution. And in default of pay
ment they go to jail from sixty to
ninety days. And these men are such
dangerous characters that the judge
told one of them to go home and do
his harvesting first and then return to
the Jail!
Scene Fourth-The county author
tiles are in a, quandary as to what to do
with the prisoners and save an in
crease of the public debt. They decide
to send them to the workhouse. But
they have no such thing in the county;
SO they send them on to the streets to
work in the chain-gang of criminals
of all sorts and colors. They do this
under workhouse mittimus. which
means 'hA cha n-eaug But these men
are rot afraid Of work, inasmuch as
they are lind nstrious citizeTJs'
SO July II, 1895, in this enlightened
age, and in this boosted land of the
free. these men are put to work on the
public streets to work out a fine i'm
posed for conscience sakel Is not this
a travesty upon justice? But in all
this there is one redeeming feature
not in the law or in its execution-but
in, the character of the men. They are
considered as such reliable men and
Of such good characters that they are
not compelled to wear the chains.
A SUBSCRIBER