BIGOTED SABBATARIANISM IN MARYLAND.
MARYLAND was the first European colony on the American continent to proclaim religious toleration, but it seems that the Maryland of to-day has still something to learn in regard to the free exercise of religious belief. Recently twenty-two men and nine women were arrested in Baltimore for violating the Sabbath. They were working in a tailoring establishment where they could not be seen from the street and were in nowise disturbing any one. The proprietors of the place informed the police judge that they and their employees were Jews and were taught by their religion that it was sinful to work on Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath. As they could not afford to remain idle two days in the week, they rested and attended to their religious devotions on Saturday, but worked on Sunday. However, they shut themselves in and took every precaution not to offend the sensibilities of their Christian neighbors. Nevertheless they were fined $5.00 each and warned that the laws of Maryland forbade working on Sunday and that a second infraction of them would be more severely punished. The same day these people were arrested many thousands of people in Baltimore attended a baseball game. The players were hired for the occasion and were working for gain just as much as were those poor Jewish tailors. Newspapers were printed and sold on the streets on the same Sunday. The street-cars ran, and men worked in the hotels and around the railroad yards. Surely their offense—if any were committed—was as great as that of the little band of Hebrews quietly sewing in the upper story of a building. The latter were observing the spirit of the law forbidding Sabbath desecration, and no one can say their example was harmful to the community in any way. They abstained from labor and worshiped God on the day appointed by their religion, and should not have been molested. The law which requires them to outwardly conform to the teachings of another faith, under penalty of losing a day's labor each week or desecrating their own Sabbath, is a harsh and unfeeling one. Maryland should either amend her laws or administer them in a more enlightened spirit.