Correspondence

New York, 1895

Wilson Palmer's Sunday Mail Service Raises an Objection.

To the Editor of the Long Island Farmer:

I notice that Wilson Palmer, of Floral Park, who used to write editorials in the Standard telling Jamaica people that they should be alive, has at last personally begun the work of reform. His first move is directed toward the establishment of a Sunday incoming and outgoing mail; but this is understood to be only an initiatory step, his intention being ultimately to make the reform sweeping and radical.

Being, I regret to say, personally unacquainted with Mr. Palmer, I take this means of offering a suggestion. I think he has started the reform in an unfortunately unwise manner. In my opinion, Mr. Palmer will clash with Jamaica's time-established and deep rooted reverence for the sanctity of the Lord's day when he attempts to institute any reform necessitating labor on that day. Moreover, I would like to ask Mr. Palmer, who, I understand, is a great admirer of the good old New England customs, if such a reform as he suggests would not tend to relegate the Bible and other sacred literature to a back shelf to make room for the letter-pad and Saturday weekly newspaper.

No doubt Mr. Palmer has personal reasons in this line. He has, if I have been correctly informed, a large correspondence, in addition to numerous newspapers which arrive each week containing complimentary references to himself I therefore appreciate his anxiety to be able to take this interesting literature to the cosey retirement of his study on Sunday. We admit the temptation is great, but in the interest of Jamaica's staid old family customs, which make the Scriptures the dominant, and sacred writings the only, Sunday literature, I would ask Mr. Palmer to reconsider the order in which he takes up his reforms, and leave the one in question until some future date. — PURITANICUS.

—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, Feb. 22, 1895, p. 12.