The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-07-09
Amusements and MT. Leishman

To the Editor of The Age Herald: In your issue of July the 5th MT. Leishman enters the arena as cham pion of Sunday amusements in Bir- | mingham. I thank the gentleman for his kind reference to myself but re- gret that he champions the wrong side are only two aspects to this question. The first is the views of religious bodies the second the matter of pub lie morality"
 l am sure my former article fully stated in unanswerable testimony the views of religious bodies" And these religious bodies know the fourth com r7andment was given by Jehovah--not l hy the Greeks, wise as they were. for these words, Remember the Sabba tn cay to keep it holy" were written :, 1000 years before Socrates was born"
 They were not given by the Romans,
 masters of Jurisprudence" for they were written 750 years before Rome was founded.
 Now, as to the matter of public | morality: During the session of the l American Congress In 1888 Con the 12;li day of May and the sth of July), tie 
 with business on Sunday morning by
 tLe steady and firm resistance of q large number Of member who refused tc recognize the propriety of proceed ing with their ordinary business on 1 that day" Daniel Webster asked a man whom he defended, charged with the awful crime of murder, what could induce him to stain his hands with inc l blood of a fellow being Turning. his l blood shot eyes full upon me. he re- l plied in voice of despair MT. Web 1 stcr, in my youth I spent the holy Sab 1 hath in evil amusements instead of frequenting the house of prayer and 1 praise.'"
 | A distinguished American attorney
 MT Boutell, has said: At the present l time 1t Is felt that legislation should ! aim not so much to regulate private | conduct, as to preserve public order" | Does Mir. Leishman want a continental Sabbath? Let him look at what that did for France some years since. when she abolished the Sabbath by law ard l her citizens were murdered in Paris until her streets ran red with the blood 1 Of her bravest and best beloved. pr. Robert Collyer an Unitarian minister. once wrote: "I remember when in Paris, | in 1865, counting 40 different kinds of working men busy at their tasks as l walked on Sunday morning from my l hotel to a church not far away. I won
 dered wheSe that would end. and saw I the end In 1S71., in the fires that hae l been kindled by the Commune" Colo rel Forney, writing to his paper in Philadelphia from Paris, describing va I rous kinds of dissipation there on tine l Sabbath said: This is Paris on Sun ;, day. When that day of rest Is dishon-
 cred in America as 1t Is here, freedom will have gone from us forever And I I)r Joseph Cook, one of America s J greatest lecturers. said: Give to Amer l ica from sea to sea the Parisian Sun
 day and in 200 years all our greatest
 cities will be under the heels of the
 feather heads, the roughs, the snea ks
 ard the money gripes" Another great
 r,an has said: "When the Sabbath is
 made not day of prayer, but of play. l it soon becomes, to the poor, day of 1 toil'-When the holy day becomes q i holiday. it ceases even to be a rest day Taking religion out of 1t takes out
 rest
 A superintendent of a Pennsylvania
 railroad says: Even iron machinery , does better work and lasts longer wher l 1t has periodic rests" Birmingham is l a better and safer city for young men 1 than New Orleans. Americans must 1 never forget that the foundation of l greatness Is obedience to law. The na- tions which have clamored for and ob- 1 tained a continental Sabbath are now drenched with blood. Is it for violation of the holy Sabbath? I am not the judge But let every man who reads l this turn to Isaiah 5sth chapter 18th l and 14th verses. After a member of
 a certain bartenders' union had signed
 petition for one day of rest in seven,