FOR some time, the little town of Oregon City has been the center of attraction in the north-western part of the state. The reasons are as follows:
A traveling circus known as the Oklahoma Ranch Wild West Show was billed to show in Oregon City, Sunday, August 3. The ministers of the city raised a severe protest, not against the show as such, but against its performing on Sunday. They secured the aid of the sheriff, who promised to prohibit the performance.
The managers of the show procured counsel, and secured an injunction from the court, restraining the sheriff from interfering with the show. When this became known; the opponents of the circus appealed to the governor. It was represented to him that nobody but saloon bums wanted the show. Acting on this advice, the governor declared martial law, and taking with him some guards from the penitentiary, went to Oregon City to prohibit the show.
Soon after he landed in the town, a council was called of all the parties concerned; and as a result, it was decided to postpone the show till Monday, with the understanding that the governor would attend, and that it should be announced in all the churches Sunday night, and that the pastors would boost for the show. The attorney for the opposition said he would send his family, and persuade the people of the Presbyterian Church to attend.
Now, the query naturally arises, Is a show more immoral on Sunday than on Monday? Why did the ministers oppose the giving of the show on Sunday, and tacitly, at least, commend it on Monday? Can a thing be immoral on Sunday, and a fit place to send a woman and children on Monday? In the very nature of things, such can not be the case. If a show is a fit place for women and children to attend, why should it be closed on Sunday? This is even more strange when the endeavor to close it comes from a source entirely separated from the management of the enterprise.
Have not people a right to go where they please on Sunday just as much as on Monday? It is granted that church is a better place to go than a circus; yet if one chooses to go to a circus, has he not as much right to do so, as another has to go to church? It would seem so. Back of it all is the desire on the part of some to compel others to do a certain way, not from a sense of duty on the part of the compelled, but because of a spirit of intolerance on the part of those in power.
