WHAT DOES HE WANT? by Editor

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · May 20, 1889

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 15, No. 19.

WHAT DOES HE WANT?

By Editor

A CORRESPONDENT of the New York Observer, Rev. Carlos Martin, claims that New York is "the most foreign of American cities." He says:—

"According to the statistics of Mayor Hewitt, in his letter to the aldermen on the question of raising the Irish flag over the City Hall, there are nearly a million of our people, out of an estimated population of 1,600,000, who are Irish and German—counting foreign-born parents and their native-born children. Add our large Italian, French, Bohemian, Scandinavian, and such-like colonies, and see how high the figures mount. Read the names on the business signs for another test. You might think yourself in Naples, Stockholm, Paris, Berlin—anywhere else than in America."

But notwithstanding the large foreign element, "in New York," says Mr. Martin, "Sunday revolutionizes the city. One of the most restless and noisy of towns becomes one of the most quiet. The day is (as the statute directs) dies non. It is struck out of the calendar in so far as business is concerned—and pleasure, too, in its more ostentatious and offensive forms. The theaters are closed. The opera is not given. The entire business quarter is locked and barred. Lower Broadway is like a country road."

"The week-day rush and roar is strangely hushed."

And yet the gentleman is not satisfied; he says:

"The outward quietude is something to be thankful for. It supplies a congenial environment for Christian worship and work. Let us preserve what we have, and pray and labor for more."

Just what "more" he wants is not explained. Is it a law compelling everybody to go to church?