Rensselaer Journal, Volume 10, Number 45, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 April 1901 — Sunday Opening—An Opinion. [ARTICLE]

Sunday Opening—An Opinion.

The managers of the Buffalo fair have decided that the Pan-American Exposition shall remain open on Sundays. We congratulate John N. Scatcherd, John Milburn and the other directing minds of the great Buffalo undertaking on their sound common sense, says the Chicago American. We cannot find words to express adequately contempt for the federal authorities who refused any special appropriation unless the fair should be closed on the Sabbath day.

The great Pan-American Exposition at Buffalo is peculiarly well located to impress, even on the stupidest, the folly of closing on Sunday. They are working day and night and on Sundays at present on the exposition striving to have it ready on time. It would be reasonable to urge that the workmen who are permitted to work on Sundays and at night to get the fair ready might also be permitted to see the fair when it is finished. Their only chance of seeing it with their families, of course, would be on Sundays, since they must work at something else on weekdays when their work in the fair grounds is over. But an argument for Sunday opening far stronger than any other exists in the great falls of Niagara very close to the fair grounds. The power of that wonderful waterfall moves all the machinery in the fair, lights the buildings, transports visitors. Niagara falls is not closed on Sundays. The gentlemen who insist on Sunday closing for the fair will probably note that Niagara falls, the great attraction of the fair, is kept open weekdays and Sundays. Niagara falls is under the control of the great power that made the world and made the falls. That power could close up the falls on Sundays, stopping the supply of water and of power for that one sacred day. The days of foolish superstition have gradually gone by. Both the falls and tile exposition which the falls supply with power will be open all through the week. * * • It is amusing, by the way, to recollect that only a few years ago, when the Sunday closing stupidity controlled the whole world, gullible travelers used to be shown so-called “Sacred Springs,” springs which refused to flow on Sundays. The easily fooled travelers were probably shown intermittent springs that dry up occasionally without reference to the day of the week. But the easily fooled traveler—thanks to public schools—is getting scarce, and he will soon die out. Senator Pettus, who is 80 years old, says his age is telling against him. “I can’t keep up with the procession,” he says . “I can only stagger along.” On the other hand, Senator Morgan, who is 77, is remarkably active and' vigor, ous.