A SUNDAY AMUSEMENT.
WE have beard a good deal of argument of late as to the best means of providing some form of amusement for the populace of a big town which will serve as a counter- attraction to the dangerous allurements of the public-house, and yet not violate the unwritten law of Sunday observance. That is a question which Eastbourne, one of the most flourishing of our seaside resorts, has decided for itself, ap- parently, and in a way which has excited a good deal of com- ment on the part of the London Press. It must be confessed that the diversion in which its inhabitants indulge on the first day of every week is not a very edifying one, and that it belongs rather to those dark ages, before the days of the Reformation, and long before the days of Board schools and general enlightenment, when our holiday-making ancestors were wont to bait a bull or pit their dogs against a chained bear. The good Sussex folk respect their bulls too much to subject them to such a treatment, and are too kindly disposed to their dogs to risk their lives in an unequal contest—more- over, there is always the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty
to Animals to stand in the way of any return to those ancient but cruel delights—but, happily for Eastbourne, there is one class of beings whom it is the duty of no Society to pro- tect, from whom no retaliation nor reprisal can be expected, and whose baiting is as diverting as it is devoid of danger. To the unruly, to the rowdy, and to the merely idle members of that otherwise peaceable and rather dull community, the pro- ceedings and the contumacy of the Salvation Army have been an ever-increasing joy, and one of which they would to-day be very unwilling to be robbed. The announcement that the Salvation Army had retired from the contest would be pro- bably received by a good many people in Eastbourne with a -feeling not unlike consternation. Their Sunday occupation would be gone. They would have to fall back on the com- paratively tame pursuits of Sunday courting, of loitering 'outside the public-houses, or even of going to church. At present, however, there seems to be little chance of 'their being deprived of their game, and as long as the authorities lend them their countenance, and the Salva- tionists continue in their obstinate endeavour to convince them against their will, they are likely to enjoy their weekly amusement without any let or hindrance. It is to be feared that they do not really feel very strongly about the sanctity of that by-law which they are so eager to enforce ; but, on the other hand, it may be reasonably hoped that they are not inspired with any very malevolent spite against the Salvationists or their teaching. They care but little for the rights or the wrongs of the causes that they espouse or attack. All that they know is, that for some unaccountable reason they are at liberty, on the very day of all others when time hangs heaviest on their hands, to create a disturbance, to howl, to hoot, and to hustle inoffensive personages and each other, without any inter- ference on the part of the constituted authorities,—indeed, -with the conviction that they are helping to uphold the law which generally tries to repress them. It is not possible that there can be any town in England whose population would be :so virtuous as to neglect so unique an opportunity for mis- behaving itself.
To one who looked on at the proceedings at Eastbourne last Sunday afternoon, and who subsequently read the sensa- tional reports that found their way into the London papers, the perusal of the latter came with a shock of genuine sur- prise. It hardly seemed possible that so paltry and insig- nificant a disturbance should excite so much attention, or be worthy of such heated argument. A handful of Salvationists, some seven or eight men and as many women, made their way to the beach surrounded by a noisy mob, two or three -thousand strong apparently, who booted and cheered each other indiscriminately. Once arrived at their destination, the Salvationists proceeded to sing hymns and lustily beat upon their tambourines, entirely unmolested, while the mob, leaving them to their devices, amused itself by skirmishing about the adjoining road and parade on the look-out for the advent of the band which is the great bone of contention,—a mob that seemed chiefly composed of sightseers, among whom might he numbered a good many ladies and children ; a mob of which the worst element was a few rowdy lads, who con- tributed by far the greater part of the noise and the shouting, and whose continual rushes to and fro were a source of mixed annoyance and amusement to their quieter neighbours ; a mob, in short, that was neither malevolent nor dangerous, but simply anxious to amuse itself, after a fashion which was hardly pleasant to a few concerned, but which was at least perfectly good-humoured. The band not putting in an appear- ance, and there being in consequence no just excuse or pretence for molesting those Salvationists who were present, and whose singing, without the aid of any instrument but a tambourine, Zia not directly violate the Act, the mob should have rightly dispersed, having successfully vindicated the majesty of the law of Eastbourne. Unfortunately, they did no such thing : they were there for amusement, and their amusement they would have; therefore they remained in order to help the police to escort the devoted little band of men and women back to the barracks from whence they came, a proceeding which was accompanied by a good deal of shouting and hustling. The male Salvationists lost their caps, and had to undergo a good deal of rough pushing, but there seemed to he a genuine anxiety on the part of even the worst of their assailants not to hurt the women, or, indeed, to do any serious injury to the men. Their entrance into their citadel was the signal for more bowling on the part of their escort, who sub- sequently found fresh food for excitement in the speeches that some strangers attempted to make to them, to the effect that it was not seemly for a man to raise his hand against a woman, and that they, the strangers in question, had come all the way from London to inform the people of Eastbourne of the fact. Even that uncalled-for interference with the freedom of their ideas and their actions failed to rouse the crowd to anything like real anger, and they finally dispersed in high good-humour with themselves and their doings, having spent a very enjoyable and pleasant afternoon. It was in vain to look for traces of that bloodshed which Mr. Bramwell Booth so pitifully describes. The martyrdom to which the Salva- tionists—with the exception of their leaders—are so eager to expose themselves is not of a very terrible description ; the ferocity of the mob of their persecutors may be measured by the fact that it was controlled by the presence of some half- dozen policemen; and the extent of the disturbance was con- fined to so small an area of the town, that it was not easy for a visitor to find his way to the actual scene of conflict.
The whole business is perfectly contemptible, as well as very discreditable. But it is difficult indeed to decide who it is who merits the largest share of contempt and dis- credit. The authorities in Eastbourne would be perfectly right in enforcing the observance of the by-law that they have enacted for the protection of their town, if they would take the proper measures to enforce it. The Salvation Army would be justified in appealing against that law, if they consider it an unjust one. But both parties prefer to follow an absolutely unjustifiable course of their own, which is supported by neither reason, law, nor common-sense. It is quite impossible that the central authorities of the Salvation Army can think that the present state of affairs at Eastbourne is conducive to the salvation of souls, or to any good purpose whatever. The dogged obstinacy with which they maintain their position and turn a contumacious front to their best advisers, is probably owing to the fact that they are unwilling to relinquish the opportunity of gaining an easy notoriety, and an advertisement of their work which is cheap indeed at the expense of a few bruises to a few uncon- sidered members of their staff. Undoubtedly their policy is a good one from their point of view, as long as they are aided by a sentimental Press that loves to fill its columns with tales of bloodshed and hysterical descriptions of modern martyr- doms. The least to blame in the matter are the unfortunate martyrs themselves, mere lads and young girls for the most part, who are simply puppets in the hands of their superior officers, and whose unpleasant duty it is, Sunday after Sunday, to go through this ridiculous travesty of public persecution. Almost as little to blame are their persecutors, who can hardly be expected to refrain from riotous behaviour when the law appears to be on the side of the rioters. And equally to blame with the Salvationist authorities, are the municipal authorities of Eastbourne, who seem to be in- capable of keeping their own laws, or, at least, have adopted an extraordinarily perverse method of enforcing them. They complain, and possibly with some reason, that these continual disturbances have a deterrent effect upon their visitors, and have already reduced to a certain extent the business of the
town. If that is the case, surely the remedy should be in their own hands. Still, however incapable Eastbourne may seem to the outside world of managing its own affairs in the best way, it is to be earnestly hoped that no attempt may be made to interfere with that management. The rights and wrongs involved in the particular case are utterly childish and unim- portant, and the amount of injury that is inflicted by one side or the other is really infinitesimal. Eastbourne declares, fairly unanimously, that it does not want the Salvation Army : well, if it would only leave the Salvation Army alone, it would be left alone in its turn. In the meanwhile, if it likes to spend its Sundays in baiting the Army, and if the Army prefers being baited at Eastbourne to going elsewhere, there is nothing more to be said.
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