The Washington times., 1895-05-20
GUARDING THE SABBATH
Pleas for Its Observance from
PuIpits and Mass-meeting.
PETITION TO THE PRESIDENT
DR. Thompson Wants Ellis Island
Employees Given Day of Rest-Dr.
Luccock Against the Sunday News
paper-Congressma Baker Insists
the Seventh Day Comforts Poor.

the Seventh Day Comforts Poor.
The necessity for more general observance
OF the Sabbath as a da of rest, and fputting
a check upon the tendency to desecrate
the Lords day, was argued from several
city pulpits yesterday, and formed the theme
of discussion at an afternoon mass meeting
held under the sauspices OF the Women's
Christian Temperance Union at the First
Congregational Church, on the corner OF
Tenth and streets northwest.
Mrs. NJ. E. Griffith, president of the union,
presided at the mass meeting, and there were
present as speakers, Rev. DR.. Luccock, pas
tor of the Metropolitan Presb yterian Church,
DR. Cantor, pastor of the Mt Vernon Place
NJ. E. Church; DR.. Edward Thomson, of Co
lumbus, o.; general manager of the Sunda v
League of America; and Mrs. NJ. E. Cat
lin, superintendent of the department of
Sunday observance of the w. C. T. u
The principal address was made by DR..
Thomson, who is in the city to present TO
President Cleveland and Secretary Car
Isle petition for the Sunday closing of
Ellis Island, at the port of New York.
EMPLOYEES GET NO HOLIDAYS.
He explained that at this island the
immigrants are landed from the European
steamships and that there are 379 employees
there who get no holidays and no Sabbath
rest. One man, he declared, had served
on the island for twenty-five years, has
been permitted to have Sunday dinner
with his family but twice.
He argued that there is no necessity
from any standpoint for requiring the
place to be open on Sunday; that record
kept of arrivals shows six Sabbaths when
none came: nineteen Sabbaths when there
were less than 400, and upon twenty-three
Sabbaths W ithin the year an average
of but 1914 people was landed.
The petition is signed by the missionaries
ofthe New York Bible Society, the American
Tract Society and ofthe Society of the Lady
of the Rosary, a Catholic organization;
also by the Harbor missionaries ofthe Luth-
eran and other denominations, and by every
Government employee.
The petition was SPONTANEOUSLY indorsed by
the meeting.
DR.. Luccock gave thre ereasonS why he did
not want Sunday newspaper in his house,
and why it should not be published. First,
it secularizes the Lords day, making it
the same as other days; second, it oppresses
the workingmen, and third, it interferes
with the spiritual exercises necessary to
Christian discipline.
THE PRESS is HELPFUL.
The speaker said he rejoiced in the help
fulDess of the press, and by no means desired
to be understood as antagonizing it, but
he thought the Sunday paper degrades the
Sabbath to level with other days, deprives
the laborer of the privileges of church wor-
ship, and brings politics, gossip, business,
the worst of light reading, into the quiet of
the Sabbath. The worst tofthecunentliter-
ature is inflicted through the Sunday issue.
If Christian merchants would not advertise
in the Sunday papers, he suggested they
would have TO be discontinued.
Mrs Catlins remarks Were brief, merely
outlining the general su bject. In her
capacity as superin tendent OF the de-
partment she not long ago addressed
letter to the Dist rict Commissioners,
calling attention to the large number of
men employed on Sunday III the construC
ton of the new railway systems, and it
is understood the communication was re-
ferred to the Attorney for the District
for information as to the law bearing
upon the subject.
Dr. Thomson preached last evening at
the Mount Vernon NJ E. Church, at the
corner of Ninth and K streets northwest,
upon the same topic discussed i'll the after
noon.
COMFORT FOR THE POOR
Hon. Henry NJ. Baker. Member of Con-
gress from the Concord district, New
Hampshire, addressed a large congrega-
tion at All Souls Church last evening on
the ''Origin of the Observance of the
Sabbath"
Mr. Baker made a historical review Of
the commands and customs relating to
Sabbath observance, and then continued,
saying that the sentiment regarding the
observance of the Sabbath changed with the
times There is no doubt that the same
excitement aud opposition which was
created fifty years ago when it was pro-
posed to carry the mail on Sunday would
arise again dOubly intensified, no doubt,
if any attempt were made to discontinue
carrying them.
The Sabbath in all times has been recog-
nized as day Of rest, and to the poor
especially it is protection as well as a
comfort and convenience. In all large
cities there are numbers of young men and
women who do not attend divine service,
while they all profess some religious belief
1t is this class WHO n a great measure ma ke
up the attendance at the Sunday outing
places.
COMMISSIONERS APPEALED TO.
An extensive alliance Of the young men
of Washington has been in process of or
ganization for some time, and as quietly
as effectively The movers u this organ
ization are the young men of the Epis
copal Church, notably the brotherhood of
st. Andrew, and of st. Andrew and st.
Philip. The powerful aud numerous Y.
M. c. A. are also in the movement.
Their object is to have positive laws
enacted on the subject of strict observance
Of the Sabbath. Quite recently a COM
mittee was appointed to communicate
with the District Commissioners, aud they
addressed to that body letter in which
they recited the particulars in which the
laws were defective and asked for the
remedy.
NO LAW TO CHECK 1T.
Selling of merchandise on Sunday and
giving public entertainments of a social
nature, such as a sacred concert, at which
secular music was sung, were specif-
ically called to the attention of the Com
A reply from the Commissioners has
been received, in which the committee
was informed that these things were not
illegal and that in the sense that there
was no law prohibiting them