WHERE THEY DRAW THE LINE.
By Editor
THE New York Observer, in commenting on the Personal Liberty League Sunday contest, says that the League "has undoubtedly secured enough representatives of its kind to make it certain that an attempt will be made to have a law enacted in accordance with its wishes, that is, a law opening the saloons, museums, and concert gardens on the Sabbath." Yet the Observer thinks the League will not succeed in getting such a law, because there are so many who, although they have no regard for Sunday as a religious institution, are "quick to come to the defense of the day when its existence is threatened by the rum power." And then it confesses the very thing which we have often pointed out, that is, that it is not the saloon itself, but only the Sunday saloon that is opposed. The Observer says:— "Many have said, in effect, that they will bear anything from the saloon but this, the giving up of the Sabbath [Sunday]. They draw the line at that." Yes, they will bear anything from the saloon but this. They will bear the drunkenness, the murder, the woe, the ruin, the devastation, and the universal devilry generally wrought by the saloon. They will bear it day and night, year in and year out, they will bear it without a murmur or a word of objection or complaint. In the estimation of these people all these evils can be carried on entirely consistently with the principles of civil and moral right. But if the saloon shall attempt to carry on its work on Sunday, then the saloon, which is all right all other days, suddenly becomes a thing laden with iniquity, and totally unworthy of any place in the world—till Sunday is past. With all this the opinion of the Independent also chimes. It says:— "The people of this country want a quiet and orderly Sabbath [Sunday], and in order to have it they must shut up the groggeries." But they don't propose to shut up the groggeries except on Sunday. "They will draw the line at that." But why? Why? Why do they not draw the line at the right point of no saloon at all? Ah! they want the saloon and Sunday too, and it is a very worthy companionship.