Herald and news. [volume] (West Randolph, Vt.) 1878-1943, 1889-07-18

lrdue, lrdnspOTldIlOn, tIusts, idDOi, Gu
ucation, morals, the things that pertain
to national and individual well-being,
are pushed out of sight and the papers
are eagerly sought for by millions of in
terested readers who gloat over the de-
tails of the brutal scene very much as
we may suppose the Romans in the de-
clining days of the Empire gloated over
the struggles of human beings in the
clutches of wild beasts in the spectacles
that were devised TO amuse and pacify
and enslave the populace. 1t cannot
be said in the Sullivan-Kilrain fight
which is just now the talk of the town,
that the classes commonly denominated
rough are the only ones interested. The
staid and dignifed, the conservators of
public morals are anxious to know who
wins. 1t is surprising how many there
are ready to condemn, yet desiring to
know. The majority of the newspa-
pers give column after column in their
news department to descriptions, guess
es, speculations, surmises, opinions, and
spin them out to an interminable length,
while in the editorial department they
condemn the whole performance and
seek to excuse their inconsistency upon
the plea that the public is entitled to
the news. The fact is, they assume
that they have right to make all the
money they can out of the event and
they take advantage of the peculiar state
Of public sentiment which permits this
without reference to consistency. 1t is
one of the evils of the times upon which
we have fallen that the material domi-
mates over the mental A thousand
can be gathered to witness an athletic
contest or even fight where scarcely
a score would attend an intellectual con-
test. The old Greeks offered prizes
for poems that were read in connection
with the Olympic and Isthmian games.
We have an endless amount of mental
food furnished us in these days, but the
average boy will take twice the delight
in dog fight that he will in new
book, and a genuine prize fight between
two human brutes in any one Of our
villages would clear the whole country
side of larger part OF the population,
while literary contest would have no
charm for only few interested friends.
Sullivan and Kilrain have set the law
at defiance and escaped its officers, and
have associated so many with them in
their transgression as to render the vim
dication of law well nigh impossible by
ordinary processes. These men may
think themselves shrewd but their con-
duct may have a re-actionary influence.
In looking through this affair we can
see nothing to approve. 1t was dis
grace to all concerned in it. The in
terest awakened in it is shameful rev.
elation of the sentiment that can be
found so extensively in the public mind.
Ii is a shameful thing that the details
of the fight and the annex should have
been so extensively published through |
the country. More has been done to
iemoralize public sentiment by this one
event than a year of vigorous moral eff
fort can repair. 1t might satisfy a
sense of justice if even now these viola
ors of law could be subjected to a well
deserved penalty. 1t might be better
policy, in view of all the animosities
hat would be aroused, to pass it by in
ilence, with the hope that the evil i'm
,ression made, will in this way soonest
ade out. We trust it viii be many
lay before another such scene viii take
lace on our own or any other soil. 1t
GEMS to us unwise to extend an inter-
st in athletic games to such an extent
S to bring in hand-to-hand fights, when
he wisest and best statesmen are en-
eavoring to make permanent the peace
III method of settling all national DIFF
culties. We admire physical strength
ut strong men can put it to a better
Sc than by pounding each other. We
elieve in preserving just balance be-
ween the physical and the mental and
eplore the tendency to allow the form
r to dominate in the life of the COM