The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1883-03-09
TWO TRUE HEROES.
How Jere Dunn and Jim Elliott Appear to
New York Editor.
New York Times.


New York Times.
The recent Chicago tragedy that filed Mr.
Elliott with mourning and bullets, and sub
jected Mr. Dunn to the inconvenience of a
night in the staton-house is full of interest
to the rising generation. Elliott and Dunn
are recognized by all readers and lovers of
dime novels as true heroes, and there are
thousands of boys who will take a keener in
tereSt in the story of Elliott's death than
they would in almost any other imaginable
event, except, perhaps, fight between Sulli-
van and Mace.
The late Mr.. Elliott was in every way
man deserving of the highest juvenile ad-
mlratlon. lie was a prize-fghter, and, al
though there are some writers of dime nov
els who hold that bandit is, on the whole
nobler than priZe-fighter, there can be no
question that the latter is necessarily a true
hero. Mr. Elliott was, moreover man of
much versatility. He was eminent as a
thief, burglar and highway robber. and
he had once murdered a policeman There
are few prominent jails in which Mr.. Elliott
did not, at one time or another, take ND his
abode; but, like other gentlemen of his class
executive clemency usually shortened his
residence in prison. In short, Mr.. Elliott
had risen to the very front rank in his pro-
fession, and his was career of which no boy
OF spirit could read without an earnest de-
sire to follow his example.
Mr.. Dunn is, in his way, almost as cele-
brated as Mr.. Elliott. He is a prominent
murderer and a well-known professional
gambler. He has never pursued prize-ight-
ing as profession, but he has labored in be-
half OF the cause by arranging prize-fghts
and training fighters
When these two great men, Dunn and
Elliott quarreled it was understood that
blood would flow. Each one avowed his de-
termination OF numbering the other, it being
we'll understood that neither had any reason
TO fha rxoliN
ment of vengeance being reserved exclusively
for negroes and Italians. When they met
the ensuing battle was fought with the ut
most skill. They not only shot at one an
other with a splendid carelessness as to how
many OF the spectators might be killed. but
they clinched and pounded one another
with magnificent energy. As is well
known, Mr.. Dunn escaped with his life
for the reason that Mr. Elliott's bullet
struck him in the forehead which
proved impenetrable. Mr.. Elliott was more
wisely shot in the abdomen, and died glori-
ously upon the battlefield His was death
which fifty crowned his noble life. Dime
novels teach us that to die with our boots
on" is the only way in which a true hero
should consent to leave the world. Elliott
has gone without stain upon his memory,
unless it may be the fact that he never rob-
bed railway train; and Dunn has added to
his laures, and when acquitted by Chi
CdSO 1uTN-aS ne undoubtedly Will De-ne
will more than ever deserve the admiration
and emulation of the young
Of course there are old-fashioned people
who fancy that Dunn and Elliott were vu-
gar villains, and who only regret that both
of them were not killed. The day of such
prejudced and pusillanimous opinions has,
however passed away. Dunn and Elliott
were precisely the sort of men of whom our
boys read with delight. Dime novels have
taught them that to be prize-fighter or a
murderer is infinitely more worry of lad
OF spirit than to be clergyman, a lawyer
or an honest merchant. They do not look
with prejudice upon theft, even of the most
vulgar variety, for the dime-novel writers
main tain that it is smart" to steal, and dis
honorable only when one steals from ones
fellow-thief There is nothing in the career
of either Elliott or Dunn which eXcites the
slightest disapprobation on the part of our
boys. At least such is the result which pro-
longed reading of dime novels ought log
ically to produce in the minds of Juvenile
readers, and that it does actually produce
precisely this effect upon many OF them is
daily proved by the records of our police
courts.
While one villain like Elliott dies by the
pistol of another, the dime novel writers are
daily training scores to take their place
There are at least a dozen so-called ''i-
brares' pouring out every week fresh stor-
les which teach the theory and prac-
tice of crime. These are read by almost
every boy who knows how to read. It
is idle to suppose that boys can constantly
read without injury books in which thieves
and murderers are held up to their admira-
ton. The particular class OF evil books
which the Society for the Suppression of
Vice makes war never had at any time any
but a secret and necessarily limited circula-
ton, and, infamous as they were, it is doubt
full if they were an evil as dangerous and
as wide reaching in its effects as is the uni
versally read dime-novel literature. Years
ago the probability that any boy of decent
parentage would become Dunn or an Ell
lott was extremely remote. To-day the
strongest educating influences to which our
boys are subjected tend directly to make
them like the ruffians whom they learn to
admire.
TET,EGRAPHIO RREVITIES