Un-American Sunday Force Laws in the Eastern District
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Un-American Sunday Force Laws in the Eastern District.
We hear that on Sunday the police through the Eastern District of Brooklyn went to many places kept open for the sale of papers, cigars, larger beer, refreshments, &c., and, under instructions, notified the keepers of those places that the laws are against them, and will henceforth be sternly enforced. The same thing was done toward boys selling papers in the streets. It is stated that it is the fixed intention of Superintendent Talmadge to carry out these prohibitive Sunday Laws, and arrest all offenders.
We have several times expressed our opinions about penal laws for compelling religious observances; and we certainly shall not back down, at this time, from any of our former positions. We think, in cities like Brooklyn or New York, comprehending a million of people, of diverse tastes, free, every way of independent and energetic character, the attempt of those few who however sincerely), seek to carry out the Sabbatarian force laws, will only result in bad blood, and be sure in the end to prove a failure.
We warn the different parties, especially the Republican party, that any political cause, or any set of politicians who become identified with these un-American Sunday force laws, will, sure as fate, settle down to be looked upon with odium by the people of Brooklyn, especially those of the Eastern District. If the Republican party want to avoid doing a thing to rankle in the popular mind, and create a lasting prejudice against them in Brooklyn and New York, we repeat it, we warn them against this unpopular and unnecessary Sunday prohibition movement.
The un-American Sunday laws are the more objectionable, because there has nothing occurred to make a need of efforts in that direction. Our Sundays, considering all things, are the smoothest and safest days of the seven. Of a fine day, the spectacle is a curious and exhilirating one. Myriads of well-dressed men, women and children crowd the streets, the ferries, the cars, the sub-urban roads, the larger-beer saloons, the gardens, fields, and under the trees. Go in any direction you see them, foreigners and natives mixing friendly together, nineteen out of every twenty sober and cheerful—perhaps the twentieth one not sober. The wonder is, not about the twentieth one, but about the nineteen others.
We advise the Mayors of our cities and the heads of the Metropolitan Police to let well enough alone. The attempt to abolish, by arrests, fines, penal regulations, &c., the popular and free recreations of the men, women and children of Brooklyn and New York, on Sundays, any more than other days, will never succeed. Americans are not exactly fit subjects for the sumptuary and ecclesiastical statutes of the despots of the middle ages in Europe.