The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1919-11-28
SABBATH SOLEMN DAY
Temporal Affairs for Puritans Ended
at Sundown Saturday.

at Sun0oWn S&tuEQdy.
Christian Science Monitor.
The observance of the Sabbath be-
gan with the Puritans on Saturday
night. At the going down Of the sun
on Saturday, all temporal affairs were
suspended.
On Saturday afternoon an uncen11
mon hustle is apparent. The great
class of procrastinators are hurrying
to and fro to complete the tagging
business of the week. The good
mothers, like Burns matron, are ply
ing their needles, making "auld claes
look amaist as weel's the new"
while the domestics, or help are
welding, with might and main, their
brooms and mops, to make all tidy for
the Sabbath.
AS the day declines, the hum OF
labor dies away, and, after the sun is
set, perfect stiffness reigns in every
well ordered household, and not a
football is heard in the village street.
1t can not be denied that even the
most scriptural missing the excite
ment of their ordinary occupations,
anticipate their usual bedtime.
The Sabbath is as. peaceful as the
first hallowed day. Not a human
sound is heard without the dwellings,
and, for the lowing. of herds, the
growing of cocks, and gossipping OF
the birds, animal life would seem to
be extinct, till, at the bidding of the
church going bell, the old and young
issue from their habilations, and, with
solemn demeanor, bend their measur-
ed steps to the meeting house; the
families of the minister, the squire,
the doctor, the merchant, the modest
gentry of the neighborhood, and the
mechanic and the laborer, all arrayed
in their best, all meeting on even
ground, and all with that conscious
nes1 of independence and equality
which breaks down the pride of the
rich, and rescues the poor from SER
Witty and discomfort. If morning
salutation is reciprocated, it is in a
suppressed voice, and if purchance,
nature in some reckless urchin, bursts
forth in laughter, "My dear, you for
get it's Sunday" is the ever ready
reproof. Though every face wears a
solemn aspect, yet we once chanced
to see even a deacon's muscles relax
at the wit of neighbor, and heard
him allege, in half deprecating, half
laughing voice, "The squire is so
drolt that body must laugh, though
it be the Sabbath day."
The farmers ample wagon, and the
little one-horse vehicle, bring in all
who reside at an inconvient distance
that is to say, in our riding COM
munity, half mile from the church.
It is pleasing sight, to those who
love to note the}happy peculiaritles OF
their own land, to see the farmers
daughters, blooming, intelligent, we'll
bred, pouring out of these homely
coaches. with their nice white gowns,
prunella shoes, Leghorn hats, fans
and parasols, and the spruce young
men, with their plated ruffles, blue
coats, ard yellow buttons. If there
is al outlaw from the society-a
luckless wight whose vagrant taste
has never been subdued-he may be
seen stealing along the margin of
some little brook, far away from the
conderoning observation and trouble
some adnonitions of his fellows.
Toward the close of the day Cor,
to borrow a phrase descriptive OF his
feeling who first used it,, "when the
Sabbath begins to abate," the chill
dren cluster about the windows. Their
ewes wander from their catechism to
the western sky, and though it seems
to them that the sun would never dis
appear, his broad disk does slowly
sink behind the mountains, and While
his last ray still fingers on the east
ern SUBMITS, merry voices break
forth, and the ground resounds with
bounding footsteps. The village belle
arrays herself for twilight walk;
the boys gather on the green, the lads
and girls throng to the singing
shool; and all enter upon the
oleasures Of the evening with as keen
q relish as If the day had been a pre-