The Olden Time Series, Vol. 3: New-England Sunday | Page 7

thought fit to adjourn. This is to give notice, that the meeting of said Association stands adjourned, to meet at Concord, at the former place of meeting, in Hamilton's Hotel, on the first WEDNESDAY in February next, at ten o'clock A.M.
A general attendance is requested.
CHARLES STEARNS, Per Order.
_Lincoln, January_ 11, 1816.
Columbian Centinel.
The following notice from the "Columbian Centinel" shows that rapid driving on the Lord's Day was forbidden in Boston as lately as 1817:--
POLICE OFFICE.
_Boston, July_ 12, 1817.
COMPLAINTS having been made at this office of dangers and disturbances arising from the rapidity with which carriages are driven on the Lord's Day, special persons have been selected to take notice of this indecorous conduct, that the law on the subject may be rigidly enforced. It is forbidden to drive, during Divine Service, or while the inhabitants are going to or returning from their several houses of public worship, any carriage at a greater rate than a walk or moderate foot pace; and masters and mistresses are responsible, if the servants are unable to pay the penalty incurred by them in this offence.
NEH. FREEMAN, _Superintendent._
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Making hay on Sunday is here condemned in some very choice lines.
--> There is much more PIETY than POETRY in the following stanzas:--And though the employment condemned, cannot occur for a season at least, the MORAL inculcated we trust, will have a tendency to prevent other breaches of Holy Time.
_THE PIOUS FARMER._
SHOULD it rain all the week and the Sundays prove fine, Though others make hay, yet I'll not work at mine; For, I don't think, for my part, such sun-shine was given, Us mortals to lure from the path-way to heaven.
Some to work on the Sabbath will make a pretence, That taxes are high, and they can't pay their rents; But my rents and my taxes I'll still hope to pay, Though on sun-shiny Sundays I do not make hay.
For this shall my heart never call me a sinner, While I still hope in God I shall ne'er want my dinner; To lay up a store, I'd try every fair way, But on Sundays, though sun shines, I will not make hay.
Some plead in excuse, that, not waiting for Monday, Great battles are won, though they're fought on a Sunday! At famed Waterloo too,--there's none greater than it, But then, 'tis well known, the lost Tyrant began it.
'Tis a custom with me to spend godly that day; But while French go to war, and the English make hay, Though the season proves wet, and hay gets in but slowly, Yet I would not do other than keep the day holy.
Far, far be from me, to ape those saving Elves, Who rob God of his due, to grow richer themselves; But be mine the pursuit, which all good men approve, To strive to be rich in the Regions above.
If it rain all the Week, then on God I'll recline, And not work on Sunday, although the sun shine: In this Faith deeply rooted, no ills I forbode, That a man's seldom poorer for serving his God.
Columbian Centinel, Nov. 27, 1816.
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From the "Essex Register," Salem, May 18, 1822, we learn that there had been trouble caused by ill-bred young men congregating at the public corners on Sunday evening, and also that some females had behaved badly at that time.
One of those ill bred and riotous fellows, who have become notorious for their bad conduct of late, at the corners of our streets, was arrested by one of our most vigilant constables, at the corner of North and Essex streets, on Sunday evening last, carried before a magistrate, committed to prison, and bound over for his future good conduct. Our municipal authorities, and all others concerned in bringing this person to punishment, deserve the thanks of their fellow-citizens. The town of Salem, once so distinguished for the purity of its manners and the good order of its society, has been disgraced of late, by outrages upon the peace and quiet of the community, committed by noisy assemblages of young men at the public corners--and even females have been seen to exhibit a demeanor in the streets disreputable to the town, and disgraceful in the highest degree to themselves. This conduct should receive not only the discountenance, but the decided reprehension of the respectable part of the community. Every citizen is interested, and is moreover bound to manifest his interest by his acts, in bringing every offender to prompt and condign punishment. The stake which every one has in the good order of the community, is great--it behoves, then, every one to exert himself to re-establish and preserve it.
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In 1819 in New York there were loud complaints of the violation of the Sabbath, as we see by an account