Administering the Maryland Blue-Laws

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Oct 10, 1912

Administering the Maryland Blue-Laws

DESPITE protests of railroad officials that the work was absolutely necessary to prevent serious accidents, Sheriff C. L. Howard, of Montgomery County, yesterday arrested two section gangs repairing the Baltimore and Ohio tracks at Cloppers and Halpine for violation of the blue-laws.

The heavy rains of the last week, according to railroad officials, have caused the tracks to widen and the ties to loosen, endangering trains on that division. Owing to the particularly heavy traffic over the division on Sundays, it was declared that the work was absolutely necessary to avoid serious accidents.

The two gangs, aggregating twenty-one men in all, and working under the direction of foremen, were employed in adjusting new ties and repairing the rails.

Against their protest that the work was necessary, it is charged, the county officer took them into custody on a charge of violating the ancient blue-laws, handed down in Montgomery County from the days of the Puritans.

Notice of the arrests was wired to Baltimore, and Albert Bouic, of counsel for the railroad, hastened to Rockville, where the men were detained, obtaining their freedom on condition they appear for hearing Wednesday at 9:30 A. M.

Officials of the railroad were indignant last night at the action of the Montgomery County authorities. They declared that the work was essential to the safety of the travelers over that division, owing to the recent washouts and wet weather. It is practically assured that a final test of the out-of-date blue-laws will be made in the Maryland courts.— The Washington Herald, Sept. 30, 1912.