Forbidding Sunday Fishing
ONE Mr. Bingham, of Washington County, Maryland, recently introduced a Sunday bill into the Maryland Legislature. It has been reported as follows:— “Some time ago an old fisherman of Washington County was arrested for engaging in his favorite pastime on Sunday. When he was tried, it was found that an old law existed whereby any one who had reached the age of twenty-one years could fish on Sunday to his heart’s content, provided he did not permit his children and servants to engage in the same pursuit. So Mr. Bingham offered a bill containing the following provisions:— ‘No person whatsoever shall work or do any bodily labor on the Lord’s day, commonly called Sunday, or profane the Lord’s day by going fishing, hunting, fowling, or unlawful pastime or recreation, and no man having children21or servants shall command or wittingly suffer any of them to do any manner of work or labor on the Lord’s day (work of necessity and charity always excepted), nor permit any of his children or servants’ to do any of these things. ‘Every person,’ says the bill, ‘found carrying a fishing-rod or gun shall be considered a transgressor.’ A fine of ten dollars is imposed, half to the informer and half to the roads.’”