KANSAS CITY SUNDAY-CLOSING ORDER.
By W. E. Cornell
ATTENTION was called some time since to the effort of the Retail Grocers' Association of Kansas City, Missouri, to make operative what has for years been a dead letter, the Sunday-closing ordinance of the city, and, as a result of their months of continued effort in this direction, Sunday, the 1st inst., the proprietors of groceries as well as the butchers of the city observed "the sabbath." A week or so since the association held a meeting, at which, by invitation, a large number of butchers were present, and they were asked to join the Sunday-closing crusade. After hearing the pros and cons, the butchers took a vote on the question, and there were 72 to 2 in favor of sustaining the grocers. There are about 350 retail grocers and not far from 100 meat markets in the city, and these, with scarcely an exception, all closed their doors according to agreement. It is said that there is no zeal like religious zeal, and in the matter of Sunday closing it is manifested in its usual manner. Fearing that some might be disposed to not regard the Sunday-closing order, four of the Grocers' Association were sworn in as deputy constables, and spent the entire day going from place to place seeking those who were violators of the law; and, in addition to this, the clerks of the various stores were also requested to inform on their employers if there was any disposition to disregard the law. The prosecuting attorney has assured the association that the law is on their side, and says that he will prosecute all violators of it. Thus all over the land, and in fact from all parts of the world, come reports of this insatiable desire of a certain class to secure compulsory observance of Sunday, and he must be blind indeed who cannot see in it the germ of all that made the Inquisition of the Dark Ages.