Country Morals Vary But Little With City Standard

1910

By Rev. Eliot White

The question whether moral standards are the same in city as in country probably cannot be answered alike for every comparison of urban with suburban. Some cities are notably narrow and backward, like overgrown villages, while some country places have so much civic sense and alert pride that they rank high in what we might call moral incubation, being true hatching places of better social ideals and keener ethical perceptions.

At the same time several elements in the comparison make it in the large possible to contrast city and country morals. For example, the power of neighbor opinion is considerably less in the city than in the country. By this I mean that dwelling near another person in the city does not mean necessarily acquaintance with or notice of him; whereas in the country, neighbor censors neighbor, often than not gossips about him or her and therefore exercises a certain degree of restraint upon him. Much of the laborious and often petty casuistry that harasses the typical country place and that the city dweller finds intolerable, is due to this.

Religious intolerance, with its magnifying of theological trifles, for the same reason flourishes in the country, while the city forges ahead and away from it like an express train from a stage coach. People have other and healthier occupations for thought.

At the same time the city independence has its faults. Isolation is a terrible strain for the young man or woman. The country may mean gossip, but it means united support and "company" as well, and to be transplanted from such rootage to the lonely places of the great city involves some of the severest temptations to which a character can be subjected.

The moral standards probably in themselves vary little between city and country, much as they may differ in application in the two places.

Franker instruction by parents end schools on physical matters should help boys and girls "find out things" in wholesome fashion, instead of through whisper. Festivals, open-air dances and romps are needed to feed the hunger for companionship, color and joy. More freedom under wise supervision for the children and youth of both sexes together has promise of nobler development and moral standard for both city and country of which we can all as Americans be proud.

How Sunday Was Observed in Merry Olde England

1903

OLD ENGLISH SUNDAY

How the Day Was Observed Prior to the English Revolution.

For a considerable period prior to the English revolution Sunday was a day of great festivity and high revelry in the old country. Incredible though it may appear, its observance was governed and ordered by a paradoxical royal declaration, issued by King James I. This document is generally known as "The Book of Sports." In its preamble it recites a royal rebuke, administered to "some Puritans and precise people" for "prohibiting o' unlawful punishing of Our good people for using their lawful Recreations and honest exercises upon Sundayes and other holy days, after the afternoone sermon or service," and then it refers to "the general complaint of our people that they were barred from all lawful Recreation and exercise upon the Sundayes afternoone, which cannot but produce two evils; the one the hindering of the conversion of many, whom their priests will take occasion hereby to vexe, persuading them that no honest mirth or recreation is lawfully or tollerable in our Religion which cannot but breed a great discontentment in our people's hearts; the other inconvenience is that this prohibition barreth the common and meaner sort of people from using such exercises as may make their bodies more able for Warre, when we or our successors shall have occasion to use them."

Then follows the royal mandate "that no lawful Recreation shall be barred to our good People," and "The Bishop and all other inferior Churchmen and Churchwardens" are enjoined to "bee careful and diligent both to instruct the ignorant and convince and reforme them that are misled in religion." "Our pleasure likewise is That the Bishop of the Diocese take the like straight order with all the Puritans and Precisians within the same, either constraining them to conforme themselves, or to leave the country according to the Lawes of Our Kingdome and Canons of our Church." The declaration proceeds to define "lawful Recreation" as "Dancing, either men or women. Archerie for men, leaping, vaulting or any other such harmlesse Recreation, including May games, Witsun-Ales and Morris-dances and the setting up of May poles and other sports therewith used. But withal wee doe here accompt still as prohibited all unlawful games to be used upon Sundays onely, as Beare and Bull baitings, Interludes, and at all times in the feaner sort of People by Law prohibited, Bowling." A penalty was inflicted upon those who did not join in the Sunday sports, and no one could take part in them without first having attended divine service in the parish church, which was also enforced under pain of penalty.

In those days the clergymen would, in obedience to the royal decree, publicly recite the "Book of Sports" from the pulpit; after divine service he, with his church wardens, would proceed with the congregation onto the village green, there to indulge in all kinds of "lawful Recreation." While the sports were going on it was the custom for the parson and his church wardens to retire to the adjoining room.—New York Evening Post.

—Davenport Daily Republican, Davenport, Iowa, March 4, 1903, page 3.

Women Seeking to Prohibit Peyote Use

NEW INDIAN DRUG

Colorado Women Seek to Prohibit Use of "Peyote"

Denver, Colo., Jan. 29. — Peyote prohibition has made its appearance in Colorado. It is being urged by a group of socially prominent women in Denver under the leadership of Mrs. S. A. R. Brown, and is an effort to stop the traffic among the Indians in "peyote," the dried leaf of the cactus, which in similar in its effect to opium or cocaine. A bill has been introduced in the legislature which absolutely prohibits the sale or gift of peyote in Colorado. A similar bill is now before the legislature in Utah.

To get a better hold on their victims, the peyote peddlers have lent a religious tone to the ceremony of eating the drug, so that the peyote is worshiped in a semi-barbaric festival before an orgy is held.

—The Van Wert Daily Bulletin, Van Wert, Ohio, January 29, 1917, page 1.