Magistrate Crane Defends Sunday Sellers
CITY Magistrate Crane, of New York City, recently had occasion to express his sentiments regarding the work of a zealous clergyman whose constant endeavor was to compel people in his neighborhood, by means of the arm of the civil power, to observe Sunday as the Sabbath. A policeman having brought before the magistrate a Jewish peddler accused of Sunday selling, and having stated that the arrest had been made at the instance of a minister who “was continually making complaints” against such individuals, the magistrate said:— Send that minister to me. I want to talk religion to him. Possibly I can tell him a thing or two. These men make a living by selling their wares; some of them have large families to support, and this is the only means they have to keep bread and butter in their mouths. I can not see how any minister could object to an honest man making an honest living. Please, officer, tell that minister I want to talk to him. The prisoner was discharged.