The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1895-02-19
SALVATION BY ACT OF LEGIS-
LATURE.

The people of this State have once
voted upon Sunday law, and emphatic
ally showed it under. Repeatedly the
question has been before the people in
volving enforced observance of the first
day of the week, and as often as it has
come up the people have put it down
with an unmistakable mo"
This is tolerant Government. Were
it not it could not exist month. Here
now is bill introduced by Mr.. Hatfield,
by request, that proposes that we shall
keep Sunday holy whether we would or
not. If we are Jews. or Seventh Day
Adventists, or Seventh Day Baptists, we
may keep Saturday, but except in such
cases we must not go into the fields with
picnic party of our family or friends; we
shall not Ego a-hunting''; we must not do
any work that we could have done the day
before, except it is the work of necessity
or mercy; we shall not be shaved by the
barber, or have our boots polished by
another, attend any entertainment nor
buy cigar, and SO on, on the first day of
the week.
This wonderful bill Furnishes all hands,
the seller not alone, but also the buyer; it
makes one an outlaw if he shoots off a
tirearm on Sunday, though there may be
thug or burglar at the right end of it;
Salvation Army people are not to praise
God with drum and trumpet on the high
way on Sunday under the threat of this
wonderful bill; newspapers must not be
sold on Sunday except they are sold by
Seventh Day Adventists or by Jews, who
are given a monopoly of the business on
the first day of the week; nor shall there
be sale Of fruit or food on that day, nor
shall fruit be transported on that day;
and similarly the trains of railroad COM
panies shall not be operated on Sundays;
even our respected friends the preachers
shall not ride 10 church on street cars on
Sunday; the family horse shall not be
hitched up to carry Darby and Joan TO
prayer-meeting, nor shall conveyances
be run to camp-meeungs on Sunday, for
that is work and involves manual labor.
The preachers shall not unburden them
selves on Sunday, neither, for that is
labor for which they draw salaries. Ho-
tells must pull down the blinds and put
up the shutters on Sunday, and the way
iarer must beg or starVe, since the con-
duct of a hotel or restaurant is conduct of
business, though there is an effort to ex-
cept works Of necessity" But restau-
rant is not a work of necessity by any
means, nor is hotel conduct, because the
customers of these may lay in a supply
OF food the day before, and as for lodg-
ings, the ledger can go to them without
the hotel being run as on week days
Druggists are permitted to fill prescrip-
tions, but perhaps it would be better for
mankind if they were not so privileged.
But clearly doctors shall not visit sick
patients on Sunday, except where there
is absolute necessity.
If the bill passes and is approved it will
be here as in Georgia, where they sent a
poor devil to Jug for six months for
cutting wood for his stove on Sunday
morning to prevent his family suffering
from cold; or, as it is in Tennessee. where
good men and true languish in prison be-
cause they spaded about the daisies in
their own gardens on Sunday morning,
and where one worthy citizen, devout and
respected, was sent up for driving tc
church.
One of the lovely features of this broad
tolerant and wise measure that is to be-
come law, if certain people have their
way, is found in the section providing
that prosecutions for violations of the
law may be Shy indictment by Grand
Jury or by policeman" The ordinary
police officer we respect as the represent.
alive authority, but when it comes to Civ.
ing him power TO indict US when, as i!
our custom, we come to train up the vine.
and pluck the roses on sunny Sunday
morning, we protest, for that will be rub
bling it in just a little too hard. True, w,
can escape all danger of police indictmen
by joining the Seventh Day Adventists
Or by taking a bath with the Seventh Day