[Sidenote: Sunday Observance] Looking at various results of this incoming host, in regard to reverence for Sunday and observance of it, it is fair to assume that the millions of Germans, with their continental Sunday, were leaders in breaking in upon our Sunday customs. While they have as a people observed the laws--although seeking to have the laws changed so as to permit here the home customs of open concert halls and beer gardens on Sunday afternoon and evening--their influence has been strongly felt in favor of loose Sunday observance, and this has been sufficient to stimulate the natural tendency of the American element to make the day one of amusement and recreation, regardless of laws. The result is that now we have a lawless American Sunday quite different from and more objectionable than the continental Sunday. [Sidenote: Disregard of Law] In the larger cities throughout the country the encroachments of the money-makers have been steady. Performances of all kinds are permitted, theaters run either openly or with thinly veiled programs, saloons are open to those who know where the proper entrances are, and many forms of business and labor are carried on seven days in the week. The Jews claimed that it was a hardship to have to close on Sunday, when their religious observances came on Saturday, with result that a good many manage to keep shops and factories open all the year around. Pleas of necessity have been put forward where contractors desired to push jobs and profits. Sunday excursions are universal, and in order to gain their Sunday pleasure-outings several millions of people of all races keep several other millions hard at work on the day of rest. All places are crowded on Sunday except the churches. Go among the foreign elements in the city and you would never know it was Sunday. Holiday has supplanted holy-day. Observe the trolley-cars or subway or elevated trains on Sunday and you will see nine foreigners out of every ten persons. Go into the suburbs and you will find springing up in out-of-the-way places, where land can be secured cheap, little recreation parks, with games and dancing platforms; and here there will be throngs of Italians and other foreigners all day. [Sidenote: Loss of the American Sunday]