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Show THE EXPOSITION OPENING. Press dispatches to hand say that in defference to the wishes of President McKinley the opening of the Paris exposition ex-position which was to have taken place next Sunday, ha9 been advarjjeed to Saturday. That Mr. McKinley has voiced the sentiments of any considerable consid-erable portion of the American people in making this request, may well be doubted. No doubt he did truly voice the wishes of the narrow and indolent sect to which he belongs, but with whose tenets he is not likely to sym-pathize sym-pathize in any great degree. We are surprised therefore to find the French authorities' making concessions to such illiberal and fanatical requests. The exposition should surely be opened on Sunday and there is no reason in the world why it should not. People who proclaim the Bible as the sole rule of faith will certainly find small justification in support of the de-mand de-mand which President McKinley has made of the exposition authorities to advance the opening to Saturday. P.ut this is not all, Mr. Peck, the American general, has had the lack of judgement to ask the authorities to close the American exhibit on all Sundays Sun-days during the life of the exposition. How small a conception Mr. Peck must have of the customs and habits of the civilized world to think for a moment that all the nations of the earth would acquiesce in a sentiment that has behind be-hind it only fanaticism. The Puritan Sunday never has found sympathy among the nations of international inter-national Europe, and it is safe to say never will. This is as it should be. Sunday is a day of joy or gladness and not of sorrow, and darkness. We are glad that the authorities have given no heed to the request of Mr. Peck. |