Eureka Daily Sentinel

SUNDAY AT PHILADELPHIA
Our dispatches to-day concerning the opening exercises at Philadelphia are not quite so couleur de rose as they were yesterday. There appears to be some growling as well as some disappointment. Some of the critics are not satisfied with the opening march, composed by the great apostle of the music of the future; and if Yankee Doodle runs all through it we don't blame them. It is, moreover, reported that the preparations were not complete and that a great deal of disorder and annoyance was the consequence. Any regret that we feel on this account, however, is more than compensated by the intelligence that the Sunday restriction will probably be raised.
We regard the order to close the Exhibition grounds and buildings on Sundays as in conflict with the whole spirit of the occasion. That fierce Sabbatarianism which forbids a rational healthy enjoyment of the day of rest; which would forbid a man to kiss his wife on Sunday, and force him to attend service three times a day, is entirely an offshoot of Puritanism. It is not international, it is not national, it is not even local. It prevails among certain classes of religionists in Great Britain and the United States, and nowhere else. It is unknown in Protestant Europe: it is opposed to the spirit of the age; and in this case it would work a particular hardship, and a hardship upon those least able to support it. Visitors of leisure and of wealth can select such days as please them for their visit; but the poorer classes, who cannot afford to lose a day's work, would be, by the rule now in force, deprived of the pleasure and profit they might derive from the Exhibition. By all means let the doors be opened on Sundays.