Sunday Newspapers and Domestic Labor
The Omaha Daily Bee of March 17 contains an article by Mrs. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, on Sunday newspapers and amusements, the closing paragraphs of which are exceedingly pointed, as will be seen from the following reprint of them:— “I cannot see that setting type in order to provide some intellectual pabulum for a community is more of a desecration of the Sabbath than setting tables and cooking food for the family. To be consistent, those who insist on Sunday being a day of rest, should make it a season of fasting and self-denial for themselves, and of freedom for their wives and servants from all manual labor. The dinner should be cooked on Saturday and served cold on Sunday with primitive simplicity. But the clergy as a class (to say nothing of most of the sons of Adam), are proverbial for their love of good eating, hence we hear very little from the pulpit as to the sin of good dinners on the ‘Lord’s day.’” “According to what system of morals is it more sinful for Patrick to set type and read his paper, than for Bridget to cook a turkey and plum pudding and read nothing on Sunday?”