Sun Worship and Sunday Observance
Chicago bids fair to outrival all competitors in the matter of fraudulent financial operations in municipal affairs. One of the city attorneys charges that the frauds connected with the construction of sewers, water tunnels, and bridges in the last ten years will aggregate at least $5,000,000. Sewers have been built with slabs, and even baled hay, where the contracts called for brick. In the matter of religion, also, Chicago is said to be a city of much variety. A despatch of the 7th inst., says: Revelations incident to the self-immolation last week of Mrs. Concetta Rizz, who was burned to death in what appears to have been an attempt to sacrifice herself to the sun, which she worshiped under the pagan name Apollo, leaves little doubt that thousands of Chicagoans worship the sun-god, to whom they pray, and in whose honor they burn incense and pour libations. Those who have investigated say sun-worship is practised in this city by 10,000 persons, who, with rites and ceremonies of one sort or another, have revived the adoration of the fiery principle for which the sun has stood as a symbol and an embodiment from the remotest pagan times. However, this last revelation is not to be wondered at in any part of the world, when we consider the universality of Sunday observance, which had its origin in sun-worship, and was dragged into Christian worship as a popular compromise with pagan competition in political influence.