Disturb

ance.

Secular

Sunday, engaged in any riot, fighting, or offering to fight horse racing, or dancing, whereby any worshiping assembly or private far ily are disturbed, every person so offending shall on conviction be fined in the sum of not to exceed one hundred dollars, to be recovered before any justice of the peace in the county where such offense is committed, and shall be committed to the jail of said county until the said fine, together with the costs of prosecution, shall be paid.

WEST VIRGINIA.

[West Virginia Code, 1906.]

SECTION 4367. SABBATH-BREAKING. If a person, on a Sabbath day, be found laboring at any trade or calling, or employ his minor chilemployments dren, apprentices, or servants in labor or other business, except in prohibited on Sunday.

Exceptions.

Sabbatarians exempted.

Sunday

contracts valid.

Intoxicants.

household or other work of necessity or charity, he shall be fined not less than five dollars for each offense. And every day any such minor child, or servant, or apprentice is so employed, shall constitute a distinct offense. And any person found hunting, shooting, or carrying firearms on the Sabbath day, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and fined not less than five dollars.

SECTION 4368. No forfeiture shall be incurred under the preceding section for the transportation on Sunday of the mail, or of passengers and their baggage, or for running any railroad train or steamboat on the Sabbath day, or for carrying firearms, or shooting on that day, by any person having the right to do so under the laws of the United States or of this State; and no forfeiture for laboring on the Sabbath day shall be incurred under the said section, by any person who conscientiously believes that the seventh day of the week ought to be observed as a Sabbath, and actually refrains from all secular business and labor on that day, provided he does not compel an apprentice or servant not of his belief to do secular work or business on Sunday, and does not on that day disturb any other person in his observance of the same. And no contract shall be deemed void because it is made on the Sabbath day.'

If he permit any

SECTION 933. SALE OR GIFT ON SUNDAY. . . person to drink to intoxication on any premises under his contrel, or shall sell or give an intoxicating drink to any one on Sunday, .. he shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and fined not less than twenty nor more than one hundred dollars for the first offense; and not less than forty dollars nor more than two hundred dollars for the second

1 This last provision is directly contrary to the usual declarations concerning contracts on Sunday. But why should not men be held as responsible for what they do or pledge to do on Sunday as on any other day? A marriage contract made on Sunday would not be supposed to be invali dated because of the day when made. Why should any other contract made on that day? See pages 412, 413, 565.

.

offense; and may in the discretion of the court, in addition to such fine for the second offense, be confined in jail not more than sixty days. Upon conviction for the second offense the court in which the conviction is had, may revoke the license of such person, and a sale thereafter by him shall be a sale without a license; and no license shall be afterward granted such person.

WISCONSIN.

[Wisconsin Statutes of 1898, Annotated by Sanborn and Berryman.]

SECTION 1564. SALE ON SUNDAY AND ELECTION DAY. If any tavern-keeper or other person shall sell, give away, or barter any intoxicating liquors on the first day of the week, commonly called Sunday, or on the day of the annual town meeting or the biennial fall election, such tavern-keeper or other person so offending shall be punished by a fine of not less than five nor more than twenty-five dollars, or by imprisonment in the county jail not to exceed thirty days, or by both such fine and imprisonment.

SECTION 4276a. PUBLICATION ON SUNDAY; NEED NOT BE ON SAME DAY OF EACH WEEK. Any notice, advertisement, statement, or publication required by law or the order of any court to be printed or published in any newspaper may be printed and published in a newspaper printed on Sunday, and such printing and publication shall be a lawful publication and a full compliance with the order of the court or officer ordering such publication, the same to all intents and purposes as though the same had been printed and published in a newspaper printed on a secular day; and any such notice, advertisement, statement, or publication that may, by law or the order of any court, be required to be published for any given number of weeks, may be published on any day in each week of such term, and if so published as many weeks and as many times in each week as may be required by such law or order, the same shall be as lawful a publication thereof, and as full a compliance with the order of such court or officer, as if the same had been printed and published on the same day of each such week.

SECTION 4278. PROCESS NOT TO BE SERVED SUNDAY. No person shall serve or execute any civil process from midnight preceding to midnight following the first day of the week; and any such service shall be void; and any person serving or executing any such process shall be liable in damages to the party aggrieved in like manner and to the same extent as if he had not had any such process.

SECTION 4279. NOR ON SATURDAY, WHEN. Whenever an execution or other final process shall be issued against the property of any person who habitually observes the seventh day of the week, instead of the first, as a day of rest, the officer to whom such process shall be directed shall not levy upon or sell any property of any such person on

Approved June 5, 1909.

Acts prohibited on Sunday.

Barbering prohibited.

Exemption

for observers of another day.

the seventh day of the week; Provided, that said person shall deliver to such officer an affidavit in writing, setting forth the fact that he habitually keeps and observes the seventh day of the week instead of the first, as a day of rest, any time before such levy or at least two days before such sale, as the case may be; and such sale may, at the time appointed therefor, be adjourned to any day within the life of the execution, or such execution may be renewed as in other cases. SECTION 4595. VIOLATION OF SUNDAY. Any person who shall keep open his shop, warehouse, or workhouse, or shall do any manner of labor, business, or work, except only works of necessity and charity. or be present at any dancing or public diversion, show, or entertainment, or take part in any sport, game, or play on the first day of the week, shall be punished by fine not exceeding ten dollars; and such day shall be understood to include the time between the midnight preceding and the midnight following the said day, and no civil process shall be served or executed on said day. Provided, however, that keeping open a barber shop on Sunday for the purpose of cutting hair and shaving beards shall not be deemed a work of necessity or charity. SECTION 4596. OBSERVERS OF OTHER DAYS. Any person who conscientiously believes that the seventh, or any other, day of the week ought to be observed as the Sabbath, and who actually refrains from secular business and labor on that day, may perform secular labor and business on the first day of the week,' unless he shall willfully disturb thereby some other person or some religious assembly on said day.

Definition.

Liquor selling on Sunday.

WYOMING.

[Revised Statutes of Wyoming, 1899.]

SECTION 2391. Holidays falling on Sunday, the Monday following shall be a legal holiday, within the meaning of this article.

SECTION 2392. Sundays shall not be considered as business days within the meaning of this chapter, but no negotiable instrument shall be rendered invalid by reason of being dated on Sunday.

SECTION 2642. SUNDAY DEFINED. For the purposes of this chapter the first day of the week, commonly called Sunday, shall begin with midnight Saturday and terminate the following midnight.

SECTION 2643. SALOONS SHALL BE CLOSED ON SUNDAY AND ELECTION DAY. Every person or persons, company or corporation, having license to sell liquors under the laws of Wyoming, who shall keep

་་

1 What God's law commands men to do and gives them a perfect right to do (labor on the first day of the week), this law grants as a concession or special permission. It says they may perform secular labor, as though they would have no right to do so if the state did not give them permission. As to willfully disturbing others, no one has a right to do that on any day. That is wrong on any day, and needs no Sunday law to punish it.

open, or suffer his or their agent or employee to keep open, his or their place of business, or who shall sell, give away, or dispose of or permit another to sell, give away, or dispose of, on his or their premises, any spirituous, malt, vinous, or fermented liquors, or any mixtures of any such liquors, on the first day of the week, commonly called Sunday, or upon any day upon which any general or special election is being held, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction, shall be fined in any sum not less than twenty-five dollars or more than one hundred dollars, or imprisoned in the county jail not to exceed three months.

SECTION 2644. BUSINESS PLACES SHALL BE Closed ON SUNDAY EXCEPTIONS. It shall be unlawful for any person or persons, company or corporation, to keep open any barber shop, store, shop, or other place of business for the transaction of business therein, upon the first day of the week, commonly called Sunday; Provided, this section shall not apply to newspaper printing-offices, railroads, telegraph companies, hotels, restaurants, drug stores, livery stables, news depots, farmers, cattlemen and ranchmen, mechanics, furnaces or smelters, glass works, electric light plants, and gas works, the venders of ice, milk, fresh meat, and bread, except as to the sale of liquors and cigars. Any person, company, or corporation who shall violate the provisions of this section, shall, on conviction thereof, be fined in a sum of money not less than twenty-five dolars [dollars], nor more than one hundred dollars, for each offense.

1 Here is a sample of what is found, to a greater or less extent, in nearly all Sunday laws. At first all labor, business, and trade is prohibited; and then follows a list of exceptions, twenty, thirty, or more in number, as here, practically nullifying the law, giving those engaged in this trade and that trade, this business and that business, this occupation and that occupation, permission to continue their regular lines of work on Sunday. This, however, is only in harmony with the example set in the first notable Sunday law known to history, that of Constantine, in A. D. 321. This law commanded the judges, city people, and all tradesmen to rest on the venerable

Places of business to

be closed
on Sunday.

Nullifying

day of the sun; but it permitted those dwelling in the country freely exceptions. and with full liberty to "attend to the culture of their fields."

752.

See page

Unlike the divine Sabbath law, which simply sets forth the great principle of six days devoted to our own work and the seventh to God; and the divine Word, which seeks to promote true Sabbath keeping by laying down broad principles rather than by entering into minute details, the makers of Sunday laws go into all sorts of details; assume to become conscience for other men; and not to say just who may and who may not work on Sunday; what lines of business may and what lines may not be conducted on that day; and what kinds of goods may be sold and what kinds may not be sold on the first day of the week. Instead of appealing to the divine law, to men's own conscientious convictions, and to the blessings resulting from true Sabbath-keeping, which, in the very nature of the case, must be voluntary, the authors of these laws appeal to human law; set up one man's conscience as a standard for the conduct of other men; and institute a forced Sabbath rest, which, to the obsequious and indifferent, means enforced idleness; and to those whose conscientious convictions differ with the standard thus set up, persecution. They intrude into the domains of conscience, and the inevitable results are religious legislation and persecuting proceedings.

A false standard

set up.

VIEWS OF PRESIDENT TAFT'S PASTOR.

Rev. U. G. B. Pierce, President Taft's Washington pastor, spoke wisely when he said:

"I shall refuse to take up an attack on people who entertain on Sunday, because I believe the matter rests entirely with them, and no one should interfere. It is a question for a man's conscience to decide, and not for any other man to decide for him." Washington Post," March 6, 1911.

THE CANADIAN LORD'S DAY ACT.

The Canadian Lord's Day Act, which went into effect March 1, 1907. and which some of its friends, in spite of its name and general character, declare only a civil law, contains no less than thirty exceptions. Speaking in defense of this law, Rev. J. J. Roy, of Winnipeg, revealed its true character and object. He said:

"It is incumbent upon the state so to legislate in a general way, and in a special way, and restrict individual liberty of action on Sunday that undermines the Christian religion and the religious observance of the Sabbath." "Should Parliament Prescribe Your Religion?" page 6.

According to this, the personal liberty of the individual is to be sacrificed one day of the seven in order that through a statutory law the Christ an religion may be fostered, and the religious observance of Sunday promoted. And still such laws are not religious, and do not interfere with individual liberty!

THE PLAIN LESSON OF HISTORY.

A Roman Catholic contributor to the "Catholic Standard and Times," of October 30, 1908, signing himself Ardee, makes the following earnest protest against the enslavement of conscience under religious laws:

"A persecuting policy is an anachronism. There must be an end of it. Humanity cries out against it; patriotism denounces it as antinational; it is an evil that tells against the interests of all classes. If history is of any value, the plain lessons it teaches must be taken to heart, and one of the most imperative of them is the folly of attempting coercion in the domain of spiritual life. Any Englishman who cares for the reputation of his country must look with pain and horror upon the blood-stained pages of her annals disclosing fearful religious strife in which citizen acted toward citizen as a sort of human wolf. And what is true of England may be said of all Europe. The internecine warfare on the score of religion is an awful blot on men's Christianity - not indeed on Christianity itself, but on their modes of interpreting it."

In a speech delivered in London June 3, 1876, Hon. Joseph Chamberlain said:

"Persecution is not inherent in religion. when it becomes connected with the State."

It is only imported into it "A Present Danger," page 8.

CHARACTER OF SUNDAY LEGISLATION.

The persistence with which Congress has been besieged, even from an early date, for Sunday legislation, may be gathered from the fact that the petitions sent to Congress which called forth Col. Richard M. Johnson's first famous Sunday Mail Report, that of 1829, came from no less than twenty States, besides the District of Columbia, and from four hundred twenty different cities, towns, and localities throughout the country, and aggregated 467 in number. As in the fourth and fifth centuries Sunday laws were secured from the Roman emperors through the influence of the church bishops, so these petitions were sent out for signature, in the month of December, 1828, by "a most respectable committee, composed of gentlemen of different religious denominations." "Memorials Presented to Congress During the Last Session," Boston, May, 1829, page 4. Their source indicated their character, and that of the legislation sought by them. Sunday laws are, always have been, and always will be religious.