Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1889-08-12
" DR. MuLpooN AGAIN.

Muldoon, the wrestler, who, by the sue
cessful underhold he got upon Sullivan's
stomach, won from J. 81. Stallard, NJ. D.
the title of "Dr. Muldoon," has broken
forth in anger:
They call US bru.es ana do not want us to
give exhibitions lest we demoraliZe their cigar
ette-sucking, dwarfy, puny offspring We, who
would teach them an exercise beneficial to
body and mind We would abolish their cigar
cites and develop their puny bodies, yet we are
brutes and our sparring exhibitions are british
displays and should be stopped.
We regret sincerely that the new tDoc-
tor" has lost his temper and descended to
the level of vituperation, for there is no
strength in it. Now, as a matter of verify
no one has called Muldoon or athletes or
self-respecting boxers "brutes," or has
spoken of their displays as "brutisl."
No one has had word but the word of
praise for the training system that enabled
this same Muldoon to lift a physical
wreck and dyspeptic ruin up to the full
yigor of health and bodily strength.
This is what IS complained OF, that slog-
ging, brutal man-beating, mere gross en-
durance in the ring, is not boxing; it is
not "the manly art of self-defense." Not
one-half the sloggers who give british
bruising matches and call about them the
riff-raff of society, are boxers, or can stand
toe to toe with contestant and "scientifi-
cally" demonstrate the art of defending
the vital parts from assault; or so box
with blackened gloves as to indicate a
blow delivered only by the mark left, that
testifes to the "touch" made. That is to
say, boxing is to prize-fghting what fenc
ing with its graces and fine points of honor
is to deadly dueling with the rapier or
small sword, or buttonless foil. Boxing
not mere brutal slogging-boxing as the
art Of defense, humans no man to under
stand it; it is a legitimate part of the
curriculum of well-conducted gymna-
Sums, and ought to be of well-conducted
academies and colleges. But when the
art is dragged down to the level of the
prize-ring, is employed neither in defense
of honor, person, virtue nor the weak, but
is made mere money getting and rib
smashing to satisfy morbid taste, it be-
comes brutal and the exhibitions of it are
all british.
DR." Muldoon is too intelligent an
athlete to wish to be understood as saving.
that cigarette smoking and effeminacy and
physical degeneracy are best counteracted
and eradicated by slogging, or that they
are to be lessened by the exhibitions of
the prize ring, Or the face-smashing dis
plays that for coin are protected by So
called athletic clubs" We recall when
Muldoon gave short lecture in theater
in this city, illustrating how every muscle
in the body may by judicious exercise be
made the servant Of the will, with result
ing health and bodily vigor. But we do
not recall that the wrestler at that
time advised the cultivation Of the prize
ring as means to the end, or that he
championed the modern pugilist as the
apostle of reform among the puny-bodied.
All this discussion about Muldoon, it
must be understood, has very little rele-
vancy TO that individual as person; it
relates to him only so far as his success as
a trainer has proved anew the possibilities
that lie within a.. strict, well-ordered
dietary, and a properly proportioned course
of exercise when applied to the man of
well developed body and vital organs. But
there is infinite value in the discussion
apart from Muldoon, from the fact that it
involves ell that there is of redeeming
quality in the slogging craze of the day,
and calls attention to what may be done
for the race by proper physical culture.
For i; must be confessed that Of late yesrs
we have given but little attention, as
race, to the subject. 1t has been left for
the most part to the Turner gymnasiums
and the collegiate clubs and crews 70 Study
results in this direction through practice;
the great mass of men plunging into bust
ness with a spirit akin to madness, and
neglecting the body for the purse What
we want now aud to retain, is general
moderate athletic practice general OBJ
servance Of the laws of development aad
strength and with these we will not need
DIR. Brown-Sequard's elixir to revitalize
us in old age. For men who live rightly.
have lived to their full usefulness when age
lays them upon the shelf of inactivity:
such are content to accept the satisfactions
@nd retrospects OF their many years, and
fnally-death.