THE SMOKER IS LORD OF SUNDAY.
The following paragraph, which we clip from the Independent, contains the astounding news that the Supreme Court of the State of Indiana has prostituted Sunday to the tobacco traffic, honoring the claims of the smoker above those of the so-called sacred day. This must be a humiliating spectacle to those who believe Sunday to be a divine institution. Verily, great is the god of tobacco. How next will the people debauch themselves to do him honor? We are a little curious to know what the Indiana court will do with the Independent’s query concerning “the necessities of rum-drinkers and beer-guzzlers.” The law of Indiana, like that of many of the States, forbids the pursuit of the usual employments of men on the Christian Sabbath, excepting from the prohibition works of necessity and mercy. The question recently came before the Supreme Court of that State whether the selling of cigars on the Sabbath is included in the prohibition or the exception. The court decided that, since smoking is a necessity to those who have acquired the habit, cigars may be sold on Sunday, under the general principle that “whatever is necessary and proper to do on Sunday, to supply this constant daily need, is a work of necessity within the fair meaning of the statute.” Hence, cigar-stores may be open on this day, and cigar-selling is lawful. The necessities of the cigar-smokers make it lawful. What, then, about the necessities of rum-drinkers and beer-guzzlers? Is not rum or beer quite as much a necessity to them as cigars are to the smokers? Is not the habit, which is assumed as the legal foundation of the necessity, quite as strong and imperative in the case of liquor drinking as it is in that of tobacco smoking? We question whether the Supreme Court of Indiana would carry out its own principle; and if it would not, then, by its own showing, there is some fault in the principle. The fault consists in taking a mere habit as the standard of what is to be deemed a “necessity” in the legal sense.