Conklin’s Sabbath-Breaking Prosecution
A MAN named Conklin, whose arrest in Forsyth County, Ga., on a charge of Sabbath breaking, was noted recently in Freethought, has just been tried, found guilty, and fined $25 and costs, which amount in all to $46.80. Conklin’s offense was cutting wood on Sunday to cook a meal of victuals with. It was shown at this trial that all the people of that section are accustomed to work up their wood as they use it, on Sunday or any other day, but Conklin is a Seventh-day Adventist. He observes Saturday religiously, and the neighbors thought that he was trying to displace the Sabbath of their forefathers, and therefore informed upon him and had him arrested. Conklin is described as a good and industrious citizen, who pays his honest debts and is respected by all as a man. It seems that works of necessity are allowable on Sunday in Georgia; that Conklin performed no other work than such as was admitted by all to be necessary, but the State’s attorneys took a purely religious view of the matter, and prosecuted him, not so much for his offense against the State as for being a Seventh-day Adventist.—Freethought.