Recent Experiences in New Orleans
By S. B. Horton
SUNDAY law agitation has found its way to New Orleans, and from now until the meeting of the legislature in May a campaign in behalf of more stringent Sunday enactments will be prosecuted in this city especially. On Sunday, March 4, a mass-meeting of barbers was held in New Orleans in behalf of laying plans for forcing all barber shops to close on Sunday. Some of the barbers desire a day off, but fearing that other shops might secure their trade, they desire a law to force all to close. A Baptist minister was present at this meeting, and made the principal speech. Among other things he said: “I am here to help your cause, as it is a righteous cause. As to Sunday rest, I am an American, and we have an American sabbath. Sunday rest is so ingrained in our American sabbath that for any to oppose its observance is to invite anarchy. Our chief executive, legislators, and other officials lay aside their labors and observe the day. And why not accord this privilege to the barbers? We want to claim our rights in this government. The nation and State have the right to rest, and why should not this right permeate even the barber shops? Shaving on Sunday is not an act of mercy or necessity. On the contrary, it is merciless to demand a shave on Sunday. And when one barber would like to close on Sunday, he sees the possibility of his competitors securing his trade; this is merciless, and so we should have a law to compel all to close to conserve equal rights. There are those who would like to go to the house of God on Sunday, but they can not do this under present conditions. My appeal to you is to contend for your rights on this day. You have the right as an American citizen to do so. I shall help you all I can.” A lawyer, who will probably represent the barbers before the legislature, in his address advised that great care be used in “tinkering” with the present Sunday law. Several barbers spoke. One said that he had not enjoyed a Sunday rest for sixteen years, except when he had the typhoid fever, and that he had not been inside of a church for the three years of his married life. He thought that a law should be passed to help along that line. On the same day the president of the Anti-Saloon League in Louisiana spoke in two of the churches, giving expression to thoughts which are to serve as texts for the pulpits from this time onward. In one of his discourses, he said: “Our heritage is truth; and shall we let the liquor power and the Sunday law-breaker join in an iniquitous force, and opposing with their concentrated might all that stands for good, take the torch of our civilization from us? Shall the blessed sabbath day disappear forever—the day our fathers bled for? Here are some of the truths we may lose. The Lord’s day—go through the city, everywhere the hum of wheels strikes your ear, and the open door of the barroom insults your gaze. . . . The afternoon comes, and the baseball park is crowded; and when evening grows into night, the theaters throw open their doors as a lure, and where is the sabbath? “The saloon must depart from our civilization; it has no part in the scheme. The churches are lined up against it, and either the one or the other must go down. The saloon or the church—which shall it be? for the struggle is to the death, even if the sacred institution of worship must perish before the arch-enemy of God.” These incidents and expressions are indicative of the stirring times which are before us in this section, and we must be aroused, and must rise to the opportunities afforded us in giving this message to the people of our country.