to set tubs anew on Sunday in case of an extraordinary
run of sap. In California there was much necessity,
much mercy, and sap was always running.
Sunday, if possible, was chosen for public affairs, for arrests, trials, and executions, as there would be demonstrated greater public interest on that day. The maxim. Dies Dominicus non juridicus, had little weight with them. So far as mining-town morality was concerned, Sunday was a day for anything but work. Recreations of any kind were admissible, and shirt-washing, bread-making, gambling, drinking, horse-racing, fighting, and hanging, all came under this category.
There was here a complete return to primitive ideas regarding Sunday. Like Christmas, the Sunday of the pioneer Christians was a day of rejoicing. In Tertullian's time, the word Sabbatum marked the seventh, not the first, day of the week, and to fast on that day was deemed sinful. Indeed, if we may be- lieve Justin Martyr, there were Christians who, like our miners, considered it criminal to keep the sabbath.
During this epoch of abnormities, when a chaos of heterogeneous elements was under fermentation which brought to the surface the best and the basest quali- ties of human nature, many untried experiments must be wrought, many problems solved which never before had come within the range of social ethics. There must be a re-adaptation of individuals and com- munities to new environments. Strange remedies must be applied for strange evils ; new resources must be developed, new benefits seized and utilized. The epoch stands out on the canvas of history in ever deepening colors ; and only in ages to come, when the knowledge of human actions and divine laws shall be brought into nearer relationship, shall its true im- port be understood. It was an original melodrama, born of the time ; but under Thalia's laughing mask were hidden the club and steel of tragedy. The world had had its romance of religion, of chiv^alry, of the
