SABBATH DESECRATION.

Cromwell Argus, Volume 2, Issue 95, 5 September 1871, Page 6

SABBATH DESECRATION.

To the Editor of the Cromwell Annus. i Sir,—" Fifteen six, ami six are twelve, and / his nob are thirteen : I'll bet you five bob I win i this game." "All.right! Put your money down ; I'll cover it." A man of a well-regulated mini would ex- . I c perience a feeling of uneasiness at hearing the j, Sabbarh desecrated by such expressions as j . these : yet the like may be heard any Sunday | , evening in this district, by anyone unused to! feigning possession of that convenient organ, a j deaf ear. A strict observance of the Sabbath j f can scarcely l>e looked for in a community such | ( as this ; but the frequenters of a hotel, who no j doubt meet together for the sake of sociability, and as a relaxation from the tedium and mono- j j tony of their weekly avocations, might surely , find some more rational form of amusement,!, some more befitting way of recreating themselves I ] on the Sabbath, than card-playing and gambling, j, It seems to me to bs quite at variance with the!, manners of the Site of any society to follow such : practices on a day that, even if only for the s:ike : of conventionalism, should be treated with some j show ef respect and reverence : yet most likely, I if I were to hint at the non-respectability of j persons guilty of such depravity, they would | immediately repel such an insinuation by cha- j' raeterising me as a detractor and mischief-maker. > But, apart: from the immorality of such proceed- j ings, does the owner of an hotel bring himself; within the pale of the law by allowing such de- j linqaencies iu his house on the Sunday '? because : if he does, it is to be regretted that a lictle more j zeal and activity are not displayed by certain } functionaries, whom Punch once facetiously denominated the "invisible blues." Although! Convictions lot *.j-~"Z oftllm£f bav*. aot b:sa so i common of late, still no little credit is duo *.* a " ! indefatigable "guardian of the peace" for the' shrewdness and activity he has shov:n in such matter*. But after converting " shanties" into! public-houses (for a large proportion of hotel-1 owners are ex-shanty-keepers), his alertness to-1 wards thorn seems to wane ; he appears to think | that less caution is required,—that things are! pretty well "squared up," in faafc. For my own I part, in so far .-s regards my experience of com-1 nmnitics like this, [ agree with the writer who I said, " It is the fear of detection, not the crime, which shames a man ;" the inference to be drawn ! from which is, th.it many who have been shanty- < keepers would be so to this day, but for the fear! of a swoop from some one invested with similar! power to the vigilant individual aforesaid. It | will be ear, r to understand, when the foregoing i remarks are taken into consideration, why a miner will often enter a grog-shanty as readily, j may-be, as a licensed house ; ifc is not through! "pure cimednsss," as Artemua Ward calls it, I 11 >r is it through having or allowing a contempt for the law, or any other kind of perverseuoss. It is simply because he looks on licensed ami unlicensed "boozing" establishments as being alike tarred with the same brush,—-because, in short, hi SOO3 a distinction without a difference ; and I. am afraid that s<> lmg as be sees the trail of the serpent over the one as well as the other, he will continue to hold the same opinion. However low and despicable a shanty-keeper appears iu thu eyes of all right-minded persons, the landlord of a hotel degrades himself to a level with him, and renders himself quito as contemptible, by permitting such flagrant offences as cardplaying and gambling iu his house on the Lord's Day : and however lightly the habitues of such a place might seem to treat these ramarka, I feel (piite certain thai the majority of them will, after a just consideration of the matter, concur with me in my opinion, that to regularly follow up such practices on a Sunday is, to say the least of it, exceedingly disgraceful. To the heedless and unreflecting, these observations will be in*

effective ; but to the conscientious man, the prevalence of misdeeds like unto these herein mentioned reveals a laxity of morals, and a state of society, which are not only much to be deplored, but which suggest also the necessity of a stricter surveillance than has hitherto been observed. ' But, in conclusion, Sir, I wish it to be understood that I am not one of those who Shut their teeth, and ne'er undo 'em, To suffer wet damnation to'run through 'em ; for, when I can't get anything better, I can take my nobbier of potato brandy with the rest of the hoys. But to speak candidly, were lin want of refreshment on a Sunday, I would quite as soon enter a shanty for whatever I required, as a licensed house from which, so soon as I opened the door, there issued forth a series of explosive roars and thundering bangs, the usual accessories of card-playing in this district.—l am, &c., An Old Miner.