Untitled article

Pacific Press Publishing Company · New York · March 8, 1894

TOPEKA, Kansas, is moving in the matter of Sunday closing. The Ways and Means Committee met recently, says the Topeka Capital, to discuss the Sunday closing ordinance. A delegation from the Ministerial Union, consisting of Revs. Alderson, Dill, and Owens, was present to discuss the matter with the members of the committee.

“The points of discussion took a very wide course, which involved Sunday labor in nearly all its phases. This dealt with the butcher, milkman, Sunday paper question, and even the street railway company, and ran so far into the ridiculous that the ministers were compelled to draw the line and confine the discussion to a representative case, that of the butcher.

“The ordinance relating to Sunday closing states that it shall be unlawful to expose to sale fermented liquors, any goods, wares or merchandise excepting drugs, provisions and articles of immediate necessity on Sunday. It was over the expression ‘immediate necessity’ that the widest opinion existed among the committeemen. Messrs. Holman and Fulton thought it unnecessary to get meat on Sunday, as it could easily be kept if bought on Saturday. Colonel Burgess thought it no worse to buy meat on Sunday than to have his wife wring a chicken’s neck and clean it before going to church, while General Bradford thought the butcher shop ought to be kept open for several hours, but not later than 9 o’clock. The latter opinion met with favor and it was finally left to Mr. Bradford to draw up an amendment to ordinance 68, which should specify that butcher shops be kept open for three hours, until 9 o’clock on Sundays, and also naming a $5 minimum fine, which is not contained in the present ordinance.”