The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1882-02-09
PRIZE FIGHTING GENERALLY.

PRIZE FIGHTING GENERALLY.
For weeks ana months past as is gener-
ally known, the newspapers of the country
have been filled with surmises, conjectures
and statements concSrning the participants
in the prize fight which came of in Missis,
sippi, near New Orleans, on Tuesday last,
Even the associated press dispatches have
been burthened with the loathsome
news of PADDY RYAN's condition and JoHN-
ME SuLLIyANs training. Long interviews
held with this that or some other eX-cham-
pion, or sporting man have been published,
and their opinions aired as to the pluck and
skill of RYAN, the strength and terribleness
ofSULLtvAN's blows and probabilities as to
which one would prove the victor in the
brutal fistlc encounter. No, we retract that
word brutal, for no brute, no beast of
the field or jungle, however vicious
or blood-thirsty, is capable of such
an action as these two men
SULLIVAN and RYAN have just pcrpetrated.
Made in COPS own image, endowed with
reason, taught at their mothers knee the
principles of right and wrong, and reared
among Christian and.civilized people, is it
not the superlatiye of depravity that these
men should Sc far forget the behests of So
ciety, tho laws of morality and the require
ments of common decency US to
beat each others faces into Jelly
to please bowling mob of ground
lings. RYAY's excuse for fighting was
that his honor was at stake. His honor F.!
What sort of honor could be INDICATED by
going into a ring and engaging in a bout
with naked fists, to give and to receive
Scars on the face that time itself has not the
power to remove. Scars won in battle
Ill defense of ones country, or scars
won in personal contest even, in defense
o right or of the helpless and unprotected,
are honorable, but scars won in Il prize
| fight are but badges of infamy. The wild
| beasts of the forest with no reason to
| guide them, no sense Of right or wrong to
| restrain them, may, when irenzied by an.
! GER, fight among themselves even unto the
| death, and nothing better can be expected
of them, but has not the civilization and
| the enlightenment Of this day right to ex-
pcCt more of man? And what can be
| thought of those bankers, merchant princes
and leading citizens, some Of them elders in
the church may-hap, who left their early
beds to go and witness the
outrageous spectacle? While GOVERNOR
Lowry, of Mississippi, is to be commended
for the one small effort he made to prevent
the encounter, the question arises: Gould
he not have been more vigorous in his at
tempt to have the law enforced" And
what must be said of the sheriff who,
ordered by the governor to prevent the
fight, shirkcd his duty-ayc, refused to do
it? Shame! shame must say every man
with any respect whatever for morality, for
good order, and for the ordinary tenets
of enlightenment and civilization.
In the days of old, when man
was little more than splendid
animal, before the educational breath of
civilization and of Christian enlightenment
had swept over the heights and valleys of
the world to elevate him, custom made
common gladiatoral combats, and the coils
scum of imperial Rome was the scene of
many n contest between men and fierce an
imals, its arena being licked with the
blood of the victims that stroyc and died to
please not only the shouting rabble,
but royalty itself Have we not in
cultured America advanced beyond this
era of savagcry and barbarism. Sport in its
Legitimate lines is all well enough, is com.
mcndablc indeed, and the development of
the physical organization should keep pace
in rational way with that of the mental,
Athletic contests, such as wrestling or foot
races, long and short, may reasonably be
encouraged, for they are promotivc OF
heath and tend to elevate the manhood of
the country, but prize fighting is degrading,
is dcprayed, and makes mcn cruel, selfish
and bcstial