Strange, yet Not Strange.
By Editor
On Sunday, the 21st inst., several of the ministers of this city took occasion to berate two members of the city council whom they specially blame for the elimination of the Sunday-closing issue in the coming city election. These ministers have all been zealous and eloquent in their denunciations of the saloon curse; this they have done well and truthfully. But they certainly show bad taste, and give ground for a suspicion of insincerity, when they manifest such a spirit of indignation because the council gave the people a chance to vote against the evil thing every day in the week instead of on Sunday only. It is sad to see such able advocates of temperance appear so anxious to cut off six-sevenths of the force and effect of their telling arguments. But they have in this instance demonstrated what we have all the time charged, that the underlying principle of Sunday closing is not temperance, but enforced Sunday observance. They can not longer deny this charge with even a semblance of consistency. We sincerely hope, however, that they will be convinced by their own good arguments that the saloon is a continuous evil, that it is bad all the time, and that it does not require any more votes to say that it must be totally abolished than to say it must be suspended on Sunday. We hope these able men will turn out, while the opportunity is open, and contend with the saloon nuisance upon broad temperance grounds. Then when they stand upon the rostrum and portray the dire results of saloonism, the people will believe that they mean what they say.