The daily telegram. [volume] (Clarksburg, W. Va.) 1901-1926, 1914-06-03

moral duty, or feeling Of kindness
and humanity, and is intended wholly
for the purpose of the relief or com
tort OF another, land not for ones
own benefit or pleasure Dyce v.
Lyn &C. r. Co. Mass 19 Am. Rep.
43l
The business of church and relig-
ious societies is universally held to
be work OF charity. as is also the
work OF charitable and benevolent
societies
Just what is work OF necessity"
within the meaning of the statute Is
matter about which courts differ to
a great extent II is generally held
that the word necessity" should be
construed literally and not too liter
ally.
The word necessity" as used in
the statute means more than physical
necessity. it is not an absolute, IN
ayoidable physical necessity that Is
meant, but, rather a moral and eco
nomic necessity. Generally speaking
1T must be an unforeseen necessity, or
II unforeseen, such as could not rea-
sonaoly have been provided against
by exercising reasonable diligence.
The courts are virtually unanimous
in holding that keeping hotel. eat
ing house, boarding house. restaurants,
hospitals, burying the dead, furnishing
drugs TO the sick, furnishing heat,
light and water TO consumers, keep
ing up the fires in blast furnaces, are
works Of necessity within the meaning
OF the statute 1t has also been held
that furnishing fresh milk to con-
sumers on Sunday is necessity for
the reason that the milk could not be
produced fresh prior to that day. 1t
has also been held almost universally
that labor performed to save property
from destruction or actual danger
from fire or food, and to avoid ire
parable injury, no matter whether it
be upon the farm or in the city, is a
work of necessity.
The supreme court OF appeals of
this state has held in the case of State
VS.. McBee, 30 w. Va, 257 that "all
work under the statute is supposed to
stand still on Sunday, or on the Sab
bath day, and 1t is only in case OF
actual loss or injury by reason of such
delays that 1t becomes necessity"
While all the courts appear to be
unanimous in holding that under GER
tain circumstances the merchant or
shop keeper may open his store and
sell goods to one who, as matter of
necessity, can not do without them,
but the courts are virtually unanimous
in holding that no man can open his
store or shop and sell his wares to
every person who may desire to make
purchases, regardless as to whether
the purchases are absolutely necessary
to the purchaser, or regardless as to
whether the purchaser could have
secured the same articles on prev
ious day.
The mere fact that merchant or
shop keeper feels, in his own mind,
that his wares are convenient and de-
sirable to the public on Sunday. is no
reason why he should be permitted
to keep open while his competitors
selling the same, or a part of the
same wares are compelled to close.
To insist upon such an arrangement
would be to create an odious and in
tolerable monopoly in favor Of the law
breaker which should condemn the in
depreciation of the law which leads
to it.
1t may be urged by some that habit
may create necessity. In the case of
the State VS.. Muller, Qnd.) 40 Am.
Rep, PAS in which the court overruled
a former decision which upheld the
sale of cigar as necessity, held:
1T is hardly probable that the law
makers contemplated that the craving
OF a morbid and unnatural appetite
should be deemed to create such an
lmperious necessity for appeasement
as that the general requirements for
Sunday observance should yield to ii.
While the supplying of the ordinary
necessities of life, like food and cloth
ing, by purchase and sale out of thu
stores, should be forbidden. If it can
be said by the court that a cigar is
necessary to the smoker, It is no less
certainly known that drink is in
the same sense, needful to the drink
err"
The present Law forbids the sale q,
intoXicants on Sunday, and he wbo
would use them must therefore antici-
pate the necessity and supply for SIM
day wants. The same rule with sligh,
inconvenience could be followed by
I the smoker.
This Illustration can be correctly an
piled to most all instances where !,
merchant or shop keeper tries to Jus
tify himself in keeping his place omen
on Sunday to supply the cravings of
habit and that which is desirable bnt
not necessary within the meaning of
the statute and thus reap a handsome
I financial reward by following his
usual trade or calling on the Sabbath
day -
Sunday baseball has frequently been
held to be a business and not work
of necessity or charity when PLAYED
by professional players belonging 10
league Of baseball clubs. and when
admission is charged for the admit
ance to the game. The playing of a
game of baseball is not per so, a VIC
lation OF the statute, but, in my opin-
ion, it may become so by accompany
ing circumstances. 1t becomes a vio-
lation of the law when accompanied
by the assembling of a large crowd
with loud noise which disturbs the
repose and religious liberty OF the
community, and may be punished as a
nuisance
4 Whenever game OF baseball Je