The Donaldsonville chief. [volume] (Donaldsonville, La.) 1871-current, 1882-08-05
OUR NEW YORK LETTER.

what New YORK thinks OF Prize ElstltlnE
| The Grand Carnival of Gamblers and
Thieves-Stocks Booming III Wall Street
How the Gamblers are Caught, etc.
NEW York, July 90, 1882.
EDITOR CHIEF:
Taine, in his history of English liter,
ature, finds in the sports Of the English
man Of the nineteenth century but a
modified reflex ofthe atrocious barbarism
of the sixth. The man who in 1882 has
to work off his spare ozone by hunting
tigers in the malarious jnngles. of India,
walruses at the North Pole, OF hippopot-
ami in the rivers of Africa, had he been
a Saxon, he would have had no more
compunction in hunting down an ancient
| Briton than a Yorkshire squire Of the
present day would have i'll riding after a
fox; and if he had been Norman, he
would have bagged Saxon as cheerfully
as a Cockney shopkeeper would bag a
brace of sparrows. Undoubtedly Mr..
| Taine knew what he was talking about /;
the same old strain of savage blood
on crops ont in the average New Yorker,
and in addition to the above delectable
mixture we have slight sprinkling of
Attila's Huns, and the fiery warriors who
turned the tide of battle at Clontarf, and
Vinegar Hill. In spite of all our civili-
zing influences, missionary enterprises,
colleges, schools, philosophical societies,
spiritual circles and salvation armies, we
are still in q state Of comparative savag-
cry. Delnosthenes might get up in the
City Hall Park and deliver one of his
noblest oraLions, and if some of the
| Chatham street hoodlums didn't bring
him down with cabbage it would be
from the fact that at the present time
cabbages are scarce and high. We have
been put to a test Of our moral and
intellectual standing, and regret to add
that the trial has been very little to our
credit. OF course can tell you nothing
new about the Snlllvan-Wilson prize
mill all the great New York dailies
have anticipated me. The old Anglo-
Saxon, Norman, Celtic, Gaelic savage
cropped out i'll the entire New York
press, from the sporting Herald to the
moral Tribune, and the matter became OF
such general interest that for three days
at least it was the absorbing topic. 1t
was only step from Whitelaw Reid to
Harry Hin, and Sullivan, the slusger
was much bigger man than Jay Gould,
VIM. I'll. Vanderbilt or Henry Ward
Beecher. On Monday, if you had asked
any New York boy which he wonld
sooner be George Washington or john
l.. Jullivan, there is no question; but if
he was good New York boy, who at
tended Sunday school regularly, he would
have said John L. Sullivan, but if you
had asked the same good little boy OH
Tuesday morning which lie would sooner
be Buffalo Bill or Tug .Wilson, the
| chances are million to one that he
would have said Tug Wilson. Aud why
should he not9 Here, as elsewhere, we
regard things from the standpoint OF
| financial values, whether it is diamonds,
| bogus stocks or fashionable Fifth Avenue
preachers. The question is, what are
they worth What will they bring in
the market Try Tug Wilson by that
standard, and since Columbus first sang
out Land ahoy forrard there, splice
the main Brace" there has not been a
man OIL the continent Of America who
would compare i'll value with Tug Wilson.
He was engaged precisely twelve minutes
by the clock, and in that time he bagged
over nine thousand dollars in cash, or at
| the rate of $4,000 per hour. Think of
it, We professors in colleges at $500 a
year, ye freight handlers that work ten
miserable hours for 81 so, ye ministers of
the gospel, who, in the back country
towns, starve on $500 per year, what a
grand mistake you made in your calling.
| It is time that the Boston slugger
knocked the English champion into
| several cooked hats; there were many
| times in the brief encounter when the
| English champion seemed on the point
| of being killed. There is no question
but the large delegation OF the Board OF
A nj, E111nI fl,rao nf tho
private boxes, hoped lie would be, as
their money was Oh the great knocker-
out; in fact the cries came from all parts
of the house: {" Kill him, Johnny
sSmasll his conk," Bust his gourd,
and other such tender expressions OF
encouragement and comfort, all of which
of course, makes New Yorker feel very
proud-not that | think that sort ol
thing is peculiar to us. 1t would proba'
bly, have been the same in London OF
Paris; but if anybody has an idea that
the sports of ancient Rome are at a dis
count in Manhattan, he had better come
here and try it. 1 think that a few
gladiators, Polar bear or two, one Of
Barnum's giraffes, with tiger and a
hyena from the " biggest show on earth,
would make nice moral entertainment
| for the summer months. If there should
be any difficulty about the gladiators,
would suggest Sligo, Tipperary or Kerry
there are lots.of fellows just spelling fo
Il fight over there, who would be glad o
the opportunity to go in. At any rate
11,o,o So ,,,,pau ~, If which 7 oa,, Goa in M