Arizona weekly citizen., 1889-07-13
SULLIVAN AND KILRAIN.

|
 THE Governors of Louisiana and Miss
 issippi have issued proclamations against
 the coming mill, and respectable people
 all over the country are deploring the
 degeneracy of the age, as they call it,
 which tolerates such brutal exhibitions
 as prize-fghts. But for all that, the
 match which is to come of next Monday
 is attracting more general attention,
 even in what is called refined society,
 than any other topic of conversation and
 there will be demand for early news of
 the fight, which will remind survivors of
 the war of the breathless impatience
 with which people awaited intelligence
 of the result of battle. A prize-fight is
 piece of savagery, relic of barbarism,
 disgusting and demoralzing spectacle;
 but it seems that there is enough of the
 old savage left in man.. of us to make
 such occurrences nightly interesting. The most curious feature of the busi- | ness is, that while multitudes are dis
 cussing the fight, and forming opinions
 about its probable result, no sympathy IS expressed anywhere for either of the combatants. John l.. Sullivan is known throughout the country as a brutal, drunken bully, who beats his wife, IS
 forever in rows, and between whom and
 the constituted authorities there is ire
 praosil,Ia ao5 unaod;p1 x.-a-fora No
 body could rejoice over the triumph of such creature, or feel sorrow for him if defeated. But is Kilrain any better? As Hortensis says, there is small choice in rotten apples.
 The interest felt in the fight grows out of the still living regard of mankind for physical strength. We have made | progress since the days when the most | intelligent nation of antiquity paid court | to the winning athlete at the games, as if he had been little less than a god; but even now men worship thews and sinews and feel quickening of the pulse when they read of the laundering blows which the champion can deliver with his terrible right. Strength still has its al tars. At the schools boys choose as their favorite heroes Samson and Her cules and Ajax, who threw stones which a yoke of oxen could not move, and even girls bright eyes glisten when they read of knights who clove foe from crown to Saddlo uitb n oinrla ovr;rr of tbo;r ,o,, | derous battle ax. As a rule athletes are dull fellows; the metal which should have gone to make brains has been wasted on sinews, but the brightest mind and the most silvery tongue has trouble in holding an audience in general so- ciety when a youth appears who pulled stroke oar in the Harvard boat, or won the belt as champion of the lightweights.
 How will the fight result? Kilrain has the advantage of better constitution, which has not been wasted in riotous living, while Sullivan's tendency to go to sleep after the severe exercises pre- 5cribed by his trainer shows that his staying power has been impaired. It is said that if he gets in one fair blow with his right the fight will be ended, and so it may. But it is Kilrain's business to not let him get in that blow, and he knows his business pretty well. Besides Kilrain himself is hard hitter, and his fists have been hardened by the applica- ton of a chemical compound which has them into iron. If he gets in one fair blow it may be the champion who is put to sleep. Of course each man will do his best, and there is little fear of any hippodrome business, Sullivan has to redeem the laurels which were in the fight with Mitchell. Kilrain, if he wins, becomes the cham pion, which means a comfortable com potency to one who can keep sober and save his money. It is a curious illus Oration of the temper of the times that it should be estimated that half mill ion dollars will change hands on the event.-S. F. Call.