Philadelphia Sunday Ice Prosecutions Overturned
RECENTLY an attempt was made in Philadelphia to enforce the Sunday observance law of 1794, and a number of ice dealers were prosecuted for delivering ice on Sunday. For a number of weeks the crusade was continued, much to the discomfort, and even suffering, of the poor, and the indignation of a large majority of the people. A recent court decision has now caused the collapse of the crusade, according to the statements of a New England paper which says:— The Philadelphia Sabbath Association has attempted to prohibit the sale of ice on Sunday under the ancient law of 1794. The magistrate before whom the action was brought fined a dealer for such sale. The dealer appealed. Now Judge Audenried, on appeal, reverses the decision in an opinion holding that ice is one of the necessities of life, not a luxury, as it was one hundred and ten years ago. A luxury, once indulged in, said this judge, becomes a necessity; and the argument adduced that the delivery of ice on Sunday can not be a necessary work, because if every family were to have refrigerators they could lay in sufficient ice on Saturday to last over Sunday, falls before the fact that not every family does have facilities for keeping ice. The actual conditions are what rule. “To insist on that argument,” says Judge Audenried, “would be on a par with requiring the shutting off on Sunday of the water-supply, on the ground that everybody might keep in his house a tank large enough to hold all the water required for household use over Sunday.” This is sound enough; and the prosecution simply illustrates the bigotry of the ultra-Sabbatarians. Speaking of necessities, it is proper to observe that the enjoyment of natural, God-given rights, among which is the right to labor for the support of one’s self and family, is as much a necessity as anything can be, and on Sunday no less than on other days of the week.