Weekly Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1853-1861, 1855-04-05
WEEKLY STATE SENTINEL.
Bin Poola,s Funeral.

BILL back to life, now and then, for good
purposes We request all our readers who
have any respect for religion to read this arti-
Gle, which is from the Ohio Farmer.
Every body who has read the papers of the
last fortnight, has been astonished at the
strange phase Of American life presented in
the streets of New York on Sunday, March
IL. Then and there, the largest procession
ever marshaled in our metropolis miles of
men on foot, on horseback, and in carriages
four thousand persons, looked upon by hun
bred thousand Others, lining streets, filling
windows, covering roofs, and perched on trees,
followed to the grave Mr.. Bill Poole, pugilist,
keeper of grog-shop, patriot, and rowdy in
general, who few DAYS before received his
death-wOund in bar room fight, itself the
result Of his past life of diabOlism received
i while offering to fight his opponents either
with "knives, OF pistols, breast to breast "
with his stomach full of champagne and his
lips dripping with curses. Having lived few
DAYS he died, expressing the hope OF DIVINE
forgiveness"
Sunday was chosen for the canonization of
this new saint in the American calendar; and
all New York turned ont to behold the con-
secration st. Bill Poole "was laid in his
coffin dressed in suit of black brOadcloth,
and patent leather boots, and Byron collar
turning over his coat - coffin shrouded with
the American flag laurels Topped around ii,
silver letters ON it announcing. =" die true
Aaeyican :" hearse drawn by four horses ;
two chaplains officiating several new orders
of American Protestant nobility, formed for
the occasion from New York, Philadelphia,
Baltimore, Albany, called WIN. Poole Asso-
Citations, '-in attendance. Thus was our new
saint borne to his Greenwood sepulehre. No
Washington, Adams, Webster, Charming
Clinton ever went to his grave with demon
STATIONS like this.
What does all this mean!
1t means several things not very commend
able TO the universal American people. For
the great cities mirror the nation, and all the
currents of national life center there, and flow
with ten-fold intensity. There, in our metropo-
lis. is exhibited the public and private virtue
of the land in the characters of many whom
the country loves to honor; in good institu-
lions and great works of benevOlence that
nobly characterize the advance rank of Anne
rican life. And there reigns rampant the con-
centrated baseness of the nation, in such an
organization of brutality, lust, incompetence,
and all crime, as strikes death chill to good
mans soul, when, as on this late event, it
makes its sign, and aifronts heaven and earth
by burying mfians with hOnors due only to
martyrdom.
This spectacle means that there is in Anne
rican life, deep below deep, the same brutali-
tv and sensuality, into which Rome sank and
was smothered, and which is the feculant pit
from which rise the fogs of lust, crime, super
stition and lawlessness, which most challenge
our apprehensions for the American name.
Bin Poole's funeral means, that the masses
in America are in periious condition of ex-
citability aching for a new sight every day ;
indifferent to the quolty of the spectacle. pro-
vided it fill the raging NAV of popular hunger
for the marvellous and astonishing. Now it
isa" craze" on Second Adventism 4" now
mania for ghost-seeing now rush on Cuba;
now series Of disasters by sea and land now
cholera and yellow fever now the death of a
Pugilist that is snatched up to represent this
ravenous insanity for excitement.
Thank Heaven this craziness does not be-
set all Americans, for it is one of the surest
signs of national decay. The Roman people,
as body, were once in the same bad way,
and amid the clamor for new spectacles, and
stimulants to the maniacal fancy of rulers and
subjects, the empire fell.
Isn't it time sober people began to train UP
their children to keep outside this whirlpool
of popular madness? else afew more gener-
atious will make us all lunatics, and the ma
ton an Insane Hospital. Let parents learn
to sequester the home from the street; to
rear and train their little ones in an atmos-
phere of sobriety and moderation. Simple
ity in living, sobriety in culture, conscien-
tious devotion to legitimate business, and Il
persevering support of those permanent insti-
tutions which outlive popular changes, is the
religious obligation of every good man in
America.
This spectacle bears witness also, to deep
seated adnixatien for brute courage above mo-
ral courage. Qozeszla>>-thsl-aazn a<az1asa -
bravery & grand Feature in the life of any
peon]e; but whether that reverence shall be
to the mere ferocity of the brute. or the
godlike sight Of moral intrepidity decides
the character of those who give it. We are
wide awake in America to the worth of mere
pluck We toss our generals upto the Presi-
Dental chair, like footballs; we chafe in our
harness at the sound of foreign wal, and snuff
like perfume, the bloody vapor of the Cri-
mea; we maintain a race of pugilists in our
metropolis, who have governed the city for
member Of the sporting fraternity
Where is our honor for the moral courage,
that dares to stand up and tell this young gil
ant of America his faults; reprove him for
his baSeness; take the cOnceit out of his tow
ering egotisln; and tell him his ferocious am
bition is only diabolical, instead of patriotic?
For such men We have rotten eggs; conven-
tons dispersed by rowdies; starvation, neglect
and abuse Of every kind, from this bravery
loving populace. Not that this courage fails
of its reverence from many souls, but the
masses are not vet up to the idea that it is a
more heroic thing to go on speaking the truth,
and living the truth in America, than to fight
the most formidable pugilist, or storm the
halls of the Montezumas, or pluck the beard
of poor imbecile Spain, or Sauce John
Bull.
If the people will open their eyes, they
will discover heroes among them, whose
words are more lotent than the fists of Hyer
Sullivan and Monissey; whose simple up
Tightness of life eontrasted with the rowdy
generosity of a staggering Saint Bill Poole,
is like the steady beams of the sun, subdu-
ing the smoking blaze of pitch pine torch
to weak ghost-hght
Parents, teach your children to honor the
true heroian of the soul, and prize at its de-
serts the shanl-hero of the stump, the ring and
the mob
But we are gravely told by respectable news
papers, that the murder of this villain, was
regarded as a national insult among the
Working men Of New York, and that this
display was vindication of wounded nation
al dignity.
1t appears that BIZ Pool, before his canoni-
zation was political bully, in the employ
ment Of the new party of Native Ameri-
cans;'' and his murderers, the DULLES Of the
American Democracy Therefore this
Patriotic" pugilist, in the words of the New
York Times, is looked upon as a martyr, and is
followed to the grave by chapters of the 80.
u. A." under the shadow of the American
Flag, with the lie written on his coffin, 81
die true American