The Missouri Sunday Law.
By Thomas Hoover
The following law passed at the regular session of the twenty-ninth General Assembly of Missouri, which convened at the city of Jefferson, Wednesday, January 3, 1877, I copy out of the law-book verbatim:— “Crimes and Punishments: Violation of the Sabbath.”
“An act to amend section 32 of article 8 of chapter 42 of Wagner’s Missouri statutes, the same being section 32 of chapter 206 of the general statutes of 1865. “Section 1. Laboring or hunting on Sunday; how punished. “Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Missouri, as follows:— “Section 1. That section 32 of article 8 of chapter 42 of Wagner’s Missouri statutes, the same being section 32 of chapter 206 of the general statutes of 1865, be amended so as to read as follows: Section 32. Every person who shall either labor himself, or compel or permit his apprentice, or servant, or any person under his charge or control, to labor or perform any work, other than the household offices of daily necessity, or other works of necessity or charity, or who shall be guilty of hunting game or shooting, on the first day of the week, commonly called Sunday, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and fined not exceeding fifty dollars. “Approved March 16, 1877.” These facts have just come to my notice. I think this amendment grew mostly out of the non-observance of Sunday by Sunday-keepers, not the agitation of the Sabbath question. Thomas Hoover.