UNDER the heading "Adventists Might Keep Open Sunday," the St. Louis Globe-Democrat says:
A novel way of evading the Sunday-closing law is suggested by Senator Buel L. Matthews, of Clayton, who says all the saloon-keepers have to do is to join the Seventh-day Adventists, and close their places on Saturday. The supreme court has held that a man can not be punished for working on Sunday, if the observance of some other day in the week is a matter of religious belief with him.
Some years ago, while Senator Matthews was prosecuting attorney of Gasconade County, Mo., some of the church people there had a number of Seventh-day Adventists arrested for working on the Sabbath. It was shown that they observed Saturday by resting, and the supreme court decided that they could not be punished.
While some of the saloon-keepers would hate to give up Saturday's trade, they could more than make up the difference on Sunday, if their competitors were forced to remain closed.
This was probably intended as a joke, yet it is so connected with actual occurrence that some people might think it really possible. The logic of the suggestion is self-stultifying. The advice is to saloon-keepers in general. And, if all in the city were to adopt it, there would be no "competitors forced to close." There are forty reasons why the suggestion to saloon-keepers to join the Seventh-day Adventist Church, for the purpose stated, is impracticable; the first reason, however, will cover the ground in the main. Reason No. 1 is, that no saloon-keeper could join the Seventh-day Adventist Church without giving evidence of conversion, and giving up the business altogether.
The senator who gave the aforementioned counsel is no doubt aware that men in that nefarious business do hold membership in some of the Sunday-keeping churches, and, from this fact, was probably under the impression that they could also become members of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. We have taken this much notice of the foregoing news item in order to disabuse any minds so misled.
