WHAT EXEMPTION CLAUSES MEAN.
An Italian fruit vender, among eleven others, was recently arrested for Sunday work in the city of Plainfield, New Jersey. In his defense he claimed to be an observer of the seventh day, tho a member of no church. He was convicted and sentenced to a fine of $25. The American Sentinel, faithful to its mission, gives us this further information and just conclusion:— The mayor and city officials seem disposed to recognize the right of the seventh-day observers to transact business on the first day of the week, under certain restrictions. Among the Seventh-day Baptists of the place are several storekeepers, and these have been informed that they may do business on Sunday provided they do so behind closed doors and drawn curtains, so that their places of business will have the appearance of being closed. The Sunday law of the State, like that of most of the States, contains an exemption for observers of the seventh day, provided their Sunday work be done in such a way as not to “disturb” observers of the day. This customary phrase in the Sunday laws about the “disturbance of others” has been one of no definite significance; but now the authorities of the city of Plainfield have given it a definite construction, so that it is now known that doing business on Sunday so as not to “disturb” others, means doing it in such a way that nobody will know that it is being done. This, at least, is what it means in the city of Plainfield, N. J. So extremely sensitive are those who believe in the sacredness of Sunday, that the mere knowledge that other people are conducting themselves in a manner inconsistent with that belief, without observing profound secrecy about it, causes them a “disturbance” which they are not able to bear. While these storekeepers have been ordered thus to conceal the interior of their places of business on Sundays from public view, the saloonists, on the other hand, under the same law, have strict orders to keep their places of business open to inspection from the outside. The former, however, have declined to accede to the order, and continue to do business on Sundays in the usual manner. As yet, they have only been threatened with arrest. It is said that the ostensible purpose of the crusade, at its inception, was the Sunday closing of certain disreputable “cider joints” in the city; and that, under this impression, observers of the seventh day gave the movement their full support. If this be so, they have had an excellent opportunity to learn that no support of a Sunday-closing movement, of whatever kind, can be proper. For while such movements may give their first attention to the closing of saloons, in the logical order of things they soon find victims among those of upright character and the most reputable employment. The saloonist appeals to logic, and logic—as regards Sunday closing—knows no distinction between the business of saloon-keeping and any other. If a place of traffic ought to be closed because it is bad in character, it ought to be closed on all days, and on no one day more than on another. But if the plea is that it ought to be closed because the day is Sunday, then every other place of business ought to be closed likewise. This is logic, and there is no evading its requirements.