Life — December 23, 1920 — page 20: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

Ba ie \: BA: DECEMBER 23, 1920 London Offices, Rolls Ho HERE hardened resident of Albany, N. Y., said there were two annual holidays he always kept. One was Christmas and the other was the anniversary of the great storm that blew the Pilgrim Fathers off the coast of New York and onto the coast of Massachusetts. These anniversaries come together. The Pilgrims landed on December 21st (Forefathers’ Day), which must been after the was once a who close soon storm ‘ate the storm, but this being the three hundredth year since the landing, Forefathers’ Day hav Only exceptional people commem will have something like national recog- nition this year, and the flags will be out, including, one hears, the British flag once more on the Union Clu». The Pilgrims’ long suit was y had it abundantly and strong in quality Their defect which was the basis of the Albany man’s dissatisfaction with them was that, true to their day and derivation, they were puritans, and fairly strict about it, though less cantankerous, it may be, who landed later in Their ac- tual descendants are liable to be neither strong in the faith nor puritanical in de- portment, but their spiritual descendants than their brethren the neighborhood of Boston. abound, and are apt to disclose both char- acteristics. To them, doubtless, we owe Prohibition, which the original puritans would not have dreamed of, and to them we also owe, no doubt, the current explo- sion in favor of a puritan Sunday. The old puritans, whether in England or America, had about as much of Juda- ism in them as of Christianity, and in par- ticular were very Sabbatical, and prone to try to make up in strict observance of “While there is Life there's Hope” Published by LIFE PUBLISHING COMPANY 17 West Thirty-first Street. New York Sunday, and strict regulation of every- body, what they lacked in toleration and charity. If the Reverends Bowlby and Crafts, who inherit some of their characteristics, can put the puritan Sunday over on us, we shall get some good of it just as we get some good of prohibition. Probably they won't be able to do it, but we will do well to regard their attempts with phil- osophical equanimity, remembering what a lot of urgent people are loose just now in a stricken world, and how natural it is for them to regard us all as the corpora vila of experiment. Our liquor situation when Prohibition swooped down on us was none too good, and our Sunday, as we know and use it, is quite like ourselves in being no better than it should be. And perhaps the Rev. Bowlby and mplices are doing us a service in tr gy to make this country a little less pleas- ant. To pare down the Sunday papers about three-fourths and discourage day travel would not really ruin us in the little while it would last, and for a lit- tle while just now anything that abates joy and makes our land look gloomy to the Europeans may help to defend us from too great an incursion of admiring aliens, of whom, one hears, about fifteen millions are- meditating from Europe alone. descent on us P RECISELY what the relation of Sun- day is to what we know as the Chris- tian religion is a great mystery that is always in process of investigation and al- ways being elucidated to suit the tastes, ies of the elucidator. The Jewish Sabbath was as definite and habits and propen: VOL. 76. No. 1990 » Breams Bldgs, London, E. C, precise as a steel trap. The Christian Sunday is more like the income-tax law It is nd modi- you have to feel your way into it. the Jewish Sabbath a day lat fied by the suggestion ‘that it was made for man. Out of it, as out of the rest of his days, man is to get what good he can, going after it according to his lights. But he must not use his Sunday in a way that hinders other folks from getting reasonable use and benefit out of theirs The trouble with Bowlby and his kind is a limitation of knowledge that makes them suppose that their Sunday is the Perfect Day, and insist on putting it over, if they can, on people whom it would suit. The one point on which there will | genuine agreement is that to knock work one day in every seven is a gi thing and fit to be cherished and protected even by law. FTER everyone had advised him not to, and given convincing reasons why he should not, Senator Harding, on his way home from the West Indies, went to the Senate and made a nice little speech, speech. It was a ve! good taste and showing a good spirit. Taking affection- ate leave of his late colleagues, he de- clared his when he President, to be as mindful of the Sen- purpose, becomes ate’s responsibilities as he has been jeal- ous of them as a Senator. at the same time,” he s “But I mean id, “to be just as insistent about the responsibilities of the executive.” : That happened on December 6th, when Congress met. The next day President Wilson sent his annual message to Con- gress, and that also has been well received hy almost everyone. Mr. Wilson wrote XUM comicbooks.com