SUNDAY ENFORCEMENT NEWS.
By Editor
FOUR arrests in one day for violation of the Sunday law, is a current news item from New Orleans. In White Rock, S. D., a man was recently tried in the circuit court for doing business on Sunday, and was convicted by a jury. A movement for Sunday-closing in Milwaukee is said to have been instigated by fourteen ministers of South Side churches. “A crusade against Sunday baseball has been inaugurated in Marshall, Mich.,” says the Detroit Journal. The crusade was being led by four ministers and the local W. C. T. U. The mayor of Paducah, Ky., where Sunday enforcement has been inaugurated against saloons, has announced “that his determination to enforce the Sunday-closing law is just as strong in regard to drug stores as saloons,” and that he will “revoke the license of any drug store found guilty of selling liquor on Sunday.” “Because of the many complaints, made principally by the Woman’s Sabbath Alliance, sent in to police headquarters,” the speeding of fast horses on Sunday on the Mamaroneck Avenue speedway in White Plains, N. Y., has been stopped by the police. “While speeding may take place on week days, there will be no more of it on Sundays.” “More determined efforts are to be made to enforce Sunday closing against Indianapolis barbers,” reports the Indianapolis (Ind.) Sentinel. “Members of the barbers’ union will more closely investigate the status of Sunday closing in the city, and have determined to secure evidence against the violators of the city ordinance, and prosecute them vigorously. To do this work in a thorough manner, a special committee has been appointed by the union, and the shops of the city will be kept under a strict surveillance throughout the day on Sundays.” Special attention will be given to “shops conducted in connection with hotels, where entrance to the shops may be gained from the hotel lobbies.” The Ionia County (Mich.) Ministerial Association, “recently organized to include ministers of all denominations,” has “put itself on record as opposed to Sunday baseball.” At the last monthly meeting of the association in Lyons, the ministers “decided to notify the sheriff that they would expect him to be on hand every time a Sunday game was advertised or expected, and see that the state laws were not violated.” It is by calling upon the civil officials for the “enforcement of law,” that the clergymen almost invariably put themselves on record when opposing anything on Sunday. And so it was in the Dark Ages; all the religious persecution was simply the enforcement of civil law. The clergymen of Niagara Falls, N. Y., have given notice of their “intention to fight Sunday baseball again this year.” They state that they will see that the law is enforced as long as it is on the statute books. At Bryan, Texas, on March 15, the grand jury, on adjournment for the term, after being in session seven days, reported among other things that they “had carefully investigated the enforcement of the Sunday law in Bryan, and found that the officers were discharging every duty along that line.” The general naval board at Washington, of which Admiral Dewey is the head, recommends to the Secretary of the Navy that, on account of the situation in the far East, another battleship be added to our Asiatic fleet. There are already three battleships in that fleet, but it is deemed advisable to keep approximately an equivalent force to that of Japan in the Orient. Another item is that the joint army and navy board has decided to expend all the available fund for insular defenses—about a million dollars—in strengthening the defenses in the Philippines. As we are now logically to be reckoned as among “the kings of the East,” it will not do to be behind in any resource, lest we lose also our home prestige. A Paris telegram says: “In the utmost secrecy both the French army and navy are being rapidly prepared for a general mobilization. All leaves in both services have been stopped, officers are being summoned back in haste to their regiments and ships, and at both the War office and the Admiralty the most feverish activity prevails.” So says the prophet with reference to the last days: “Prepare war, wake up the mighty men, let all the men of war draw near; let them come up; beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruningbooks into spears; let the weak say, I am strong,” etc. Joel 3:9, 10. The Turkish prince, Ahmed Kemal Eddin, brother of the sultan, has died and been disposed of, and the whole affair occurred so quietly and secretly that it is generally supposed to have been at the dictation of the sultan himself. The sultan is always in dread of assassination, and if his chief of police intimates that there is danger from any source, that source is soon disposed of; and it is said that there has been enmity between the chief and the now dead prince, who was heir to the throne in case of the sultan’s death. Such is court life in oriental countries. As the sequel to the practical destruction of the Russian navy by Japan, Grand Duke Alexis, high admiral, and Admiral Avellan, head of the Naval Department, have resigned. The grand Duke, who is uncle of the czar, is said to fear assassination. Extensive frauds in connection with the building and operation of the navy are generally alleged. Fraud seems to be the bane of the Russian Government. It would be well for the world if that were the only government so affected; but it is not. The Southern Pacific Railroad Company is about to begin the work of tunnelling the Sierra Nevada. There will be five tunnels, one of them five miles long. The first will start a short distance north of Donner Lake, and the series will end at the foot of Blue Canyon on the American River. The contracts already let call for an expenditure of over $25,000,000. That our Chinese Exclusion Law is too severe, is the judgment of the Secretary of War. Perhaps the probability of China’s carrying out a retaliatory exclusion policy has something to do with it. The Orientals are old experts at that business, and if they undertake the work, it will be done effectually. China has given notice to an American railroad company that it must either sell its concession to the Chinese Government at a reasonable price or submit to the confiscation of the concession. The company has agreed to sell. It has been agreed that representatives of Russia and Japan will meet at Washington, D. C., to arrange terms of peace. Japan, however, does not agree to stop fighting until Russia unreservedly declares for peace.