Rensselaer Republican, Volume 13, Number 52, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 September 1881 — Leadville’s New Sunday. [ARTICLE]

Leadville’s New Sunday.

Leadville Herald. A Sunday in Leadville to-day is a very different thing from what it was two years or even a year ago. At that time the only distinction between the days of the week was that on Sunday, if anything, more business was done, and the crowds on the streets was greater. It was the day generally selected for all kinds of entertainments, and, with the exception of one or two modest congregations that met for religious services whenever they could find a spare room, there was little or no opposition to the attractions to the theaters and billiard halls. Merchants and clerks looked forward to it as a day of extra long hours and Laid work. At the mines the seven days Were one and the sama, and the fashion which they set, was the one that generally prevailed. The sound of the church bells would have been mistaken for a fire alarm, so novel would it have seemed, and even the strictest church goers at home kept track of the days of the week merely by the aid of the almanac. Gradually a few leading merchants closed their doors* on Sunday, and its importance as an exceptional day of business began to decline. Others followed the example thus set,and a gradual reaction set in, until many of the mines discontinued all work not absolutely necessary. Still the day remained more of a holiday than one of religious observance, as in the freedom of a western mining town it will always remain to a greater or less extent. During the transformation the various religious denominations had been organizing and gaining strength and soon the proverbial liberality of a mining community was seen in the number o handsome churches that arose. For tunately their pulpits were filled with liberal minded men, who could sympathize with the sentiments and rough customs of a new community, and were thus able to exercise an influence that would otherwise have been but little felt, and if the idea of a paster presiding over a dancing party among his parishoners seems a little too liberal to some of the good conservative people in the East, they must remember the story ot Mohammed and the mountain, as well the greater freedom and liberality of Western and especially mountain customs ' and ideas. Practical, common sense preaching, and earnest parochial work have built up large and healthy congregations, and when the church bells ring this morning the Sabbath quiet of the street and the throngs of well dressed and intelligent people wending their way to the church, will witness that the orthodox Sunday has at last reached Leadville.