The Sunday Law of California.
AN ACT TO PROVIDE FOR THE BETTER OBSERVANCE OF THE SABBATH.
The People of the State of California represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows: Section 1. No person or persons shall, on the Christian Sabbath, or Sunday, keep open any store, warehouse, mechanic shop, work shop, banking house, manufacturing establishment, or other business house, for business purposes; and no person or persons shall sell, or expose for sale, any goods, wares or merchandise on the Christian Sabbath or Sunday; and every person who shall violate any of the provisions of this section shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction thereof shall be fined in the sum of fifty dollars, together with the costs of prosecution; and the judgment shall also order that the defendant shall be imprisoned until the same shall be satisfied, which imprisonment shall not exceed one day for every two dollars of such fine and two dollars costs, or in that proportion. Sec. 2. The provisions of Section 1 of this Act shall not apply to, or in any manner affect, the business of hotel keepers, inn keepers, tavern keepers, keepers of restaurants, boarding house keepers, keepers of livery stables; or the retail business of druggists, or dealers in medicines; or the sale of fresh meats, fish, or milk; or to the sale or disposal of any article or thing, or to any act or thing done in cases of necessity, or charity, on such Sabbath or Sunday; nor shall the provisions of said Section 1 apply to such manufacturing or other business establishments as necessarily require to be kept in continual operation to accomplish the business thereof. Sec. 3. The provisions of this Act shall not be so construed as to conflict with or in any manner affect the provisions of an Act entitled "An Act to prohibit barbarous and noisy amusements on the Christian Sabbath, passed March sixteenth, one thousand eight hundred and fifty-five; provided that any person who shall sell or expose for sale milk, fish, or fresh meat after 10 o'clock A. M. shall be liable to all the penalties of Section 1 of this Act. Sec. 4. This Act shall take effect on and after the first day of June A. D. one thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight. Approved April 10th, 1858.