The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1892-03-15
SEATTLE. TUESDAY, MARCH rs.
FATAL PRIZEFIGHT.

Inc disgusting worship OF Drutai all-
letics that prevails in too many parts OF
this country bore bitter fruit in fatal
prizefight at Portland on Sunday. Let US
hope that the melancholy death of young
Henderson will produce revulsion SO
strong against the whole brutal business
of prize-fghting that public opinion will
hereafter be so hostile to the ring as to
make its combats few and far between.
The stern legal punishment of all parties
to a prizefght, including the spectators,
would soon extinguish this barbarous
spectacle. The laws are stern enough now,
but "the drunken broadcloth" of San
Francisco and other cities on this Coast
has surrounded ''the ring" with the shell
ter of wealth and the patronage of super
fetal and fictitious responsibility, so that
prize-fghting has been handled tenderly
by Law whenever interfered with at all by
the authorities.
The shameful feature of prize-fghting,
even when it does not proceed to fatal re-
suits, is that it cultivates the cruel brutal,
cowardly side of human nature. The
manly courage and hardihood is utterly
without foundation. Brutality is gener-
ally associated with cowardice, seldom
with true courage. The poet who sang
'The bravest are the tenderest; the loving
are the daring" told the truth. The most
heroic men on both sides of our civil war
were men of gentle, humane spirit, man
ners and speech. The Lowells, the Shaws.
the Putnams, the Cushings, who fell
at the front, where battle in desperate
charges foamed itself away, were all men
who would no more have consented to wit
ness a prizefght than they would have
witnessed the lynching of a horsethief or
the burning alive of negro. General Lee
loved athletic sports; he rode well; he
was as fond of outdoor life as Washington,
but can anybody conceive of a humane
soldier like Lee or Grant belonging to an
athletic club that encouraged prize-tight-
ing? The most heroic soldiers of modern
times have been men who heartily hated
and despised all brutal sports that tended
10 cultivate the spirit of cruelty and the
spirit of insensibility to scenes Of animal
brutality.
When Lord George Paget charged with
"the six Hundred" at Balaklava he con-
tented himself with parrying the blows
aimed at him, saying that it was his bust
ness to lead his men, to defend himself,
not to kill men in single combat except to
protect his own head, and Napoleon's
great cavalry leader, Marshal Murat, al
ways charged at the head of his men, with
nothing but his riding whip in his hand
This may seem Quixotic conduct in a
soldier, but it illustrates the high spirit
which lifted Paget and Murat above the
ambition of sinking the officer and the
gentleman to the level of hired journey
man butcher. Admiral Nelson, utterly
fearless amid scenes of death and horror,
had the same hate and disgust for wanton
cruelty and brutality. Napoleon's bravest
of the brave, Marshal Ney, had the same
spirit of contempt for needless brutality,
the same humane aversion for spectacles
of cruelty for cruelty's sake
There is not single name among the
notably heroic soldiers of Christendom
during this century who has had the prize
fighting physique, temper or taste; the
devotees of the modern prize ring, both in
Europe and the United States, have not in
this century been drawn from the ranks OF
men baptized by the fire of battle The
constituency of the prize ring is chiefly
made up of wretched, feeble fools that
never fight except with their tongues, or
red-necked, sturdy ruflians that never
fight except when they have the adj,
vantage; 1.-THE drop on YOU" fellows tina;
are at once brutes and towards, since they
are never brave except when sure of vic.
tory.
The fact that baseball. football, aquatic
sports, hunting and angling, all humane
and healthful recreations, fail to satisfy
some natures, who find delight in that
brutal, disgusting spectacle we call prize
fight, is proof that the brain and heart of a
bulldog is not seldom wrapped in human
hide. The vast mass OF prize-fghiers are
at heart towards as well as brutes. but
they are generally ignorant and stupid
creatures. The people, who are really re-
sponsible for the perpetuatiou of prize.
fighting are not the prize-fgAters, but the
men of wealth and nominal responsibility
in San Francisco and New Orleans who
create and support by their money and
social influence these dogpits where men
are matched to fight like brutes.