Year: 1874

Law I'm Velvet and Law I'm Fustian.


The law is master Of us all, and there
can be no freedom in a society which does
not recognize this as fundamental principle.
There has been Q great deal OF discussion
over the statute OF 1860 forbidding any public
entertainments on Sunday evening This
statute is comprehensive, preventing any
kind Of -"interlude, tragedy,
comedy, opera, farce, negro minstrelsy, negro
or other dancing q penalty of five
hundred dollars fine and forfeiture Of license
AS to the wisdom of such an act much has
been said The argument that what is proper
on Monday cannot be improper on Sunday
is hard to answer. The "Shaughraun' and
Grip Van Winkle' are better moral lessons
than many of our orthodox sermons, and
there is piety enough in 'Lohengrin' to
found a new religion. 1t is hard to see the
harm in 'Hamlet," even on Sunday. Our
most decorous American cities-say Boston
and Philadelphia, which may be classed among
the eminently proper, and are certainly more
straitlaced than cosmopolitan New York
are no better than Paris and Madrid. In
Paris we may see an opera on Sunday even
ing, and in Madrid the whole population focks
from Sunday afternoon vespars to witness q
brutal bull fight This is one Of the ques-
tons that must largely be decided by usage.
There are many customs proper in Europe
that would not be allowable in New York.
Some of the most pious people in the world
in Bavaria and Spain-celebrate their Lenten
fast by Passion plays in which actors per-
form the whole Passion of Christ from the
entrance into Jerusalem to the resurrection.
This is pious Office, springing from con-
trite and humble heart. But Passion play
in New York would shock the conscience of
the community.


For the men who stumbled up the cold and
frozen Plymouth Rock on that memorable
December day have ineffaceably stamped
their rigid ideas upon this Yankee nation.
The Puritan spirit reigns. 1t is hard to es-
cape from it. We have it in our laws. In
any contest between it and what might be
called the spirit of cosmopolitan progress the
former will win. We have not educated our
selves up, or it may be down, to an apprecia-
ton Of French Sunday. They have done so
in New Orleans but that is because New Or
leans is rooted in French soil The law makes
it impossible in the North, and this law is, as
we have said master of us all. For some
time there has been tendency to make this
law obsolete Ingenious managers have, step
by step, invaded it. We have had sacred
concerts and operas-the sacred concert
generally beginning with q strain or
two from Handels anthem, as a compli-
ment to the day, and running quickly into
pastoral ballads and opera boufe Nothing
could be less harmful in itself, but it is the
opening door, and if unchecked in few years
we shall have, as in New Orleans, double
performances on Sunday and ''extra attrac-
TONS" This is what the statute Of 1860 was
intended to prevent Against Sunday amuse-
ments every religious element, with stray and
Church, which permits the Sunday bull fight
in Spain and the Sunday opera in France, as
q concession to the sentiment Of those coun-
tries, arrays itself against the Sunday opera in
New York as concession to the sentiment of
this country So, in the contest which has
arisen not only religious public opinion, but
the exact letter Of the law. is on the side of
those who oppose Sunday amusements.


The severe operation of this sta tute may be
hardship, and, no doubt, is. But we have
no concern with that. The law is the law.
We cannot have one law for velvet and an
other for fustian, although in the administra-
ton Of recent justice this has been too often
the case. The powerful gambler, with his
gilded halls, is unmolested because perhaps
his voice is dominant in some political con-
venton. The police close their eyes to his
splendid defiance Of law. But the poor devil
Of keno player is summarily hauled up to
answer for his misdemea nors 1t is now as
in Shakespeare time plate sin with gold and
the lance of justice will have only puny in
fuence upon it. There can be no tampering
with statutes The law of 1860 must be en-
forced If it is bad law the people will find
it out in the only proper way, by feeling its
harsh consequences. As President Grant said,
claws are to govern all alike--those opposed
to as well as those in favor OF them. know
no method to secure the repeal of bad or OBJ
noxious laws SO effective as their stringent
execution. -


Chrfstfnn Dutv from the Pulpfts.