Los Angeles herald., 1892-10-11
TRIALS OF STRENGTH.
Doctor Oswald Advocates the Revival of
Olympic Festivals.

CINCINNATI, Sept. 27.-California papers
few weeks ago published a story of a
Mexican rancher who had discovered the
placer mines of the Stanislaus valley many
years before the arrival of Fremont, but
managed to keep the secret to himself
He preferred to herd cattle at few dollars
month; but with that single exception
the greatest puzzle of the financial universe
seems the question why some enterprising
Yankee does not organize a syndicate for
the re-establishment of the Olympic festi-
vals
A roomy arena for the competitive exer-
cises of our champion wrestlers. runners,
leapers and boxers would pay its expenses
In the first season, and in the course OF
few years it's popularity would turn the
surrounding country into camping
ground resembling the pilgrim bivouac of
Mecca. Olives do not flourish on our SOIL
but the rent of reserved seats and camp
tents would enable the managers to gild
the crowns of their victors; their prize Of
fers would set the athletes of every village
a-training and turn thousands of boy topers
into Qymnasts; ward delegates would run
for something besides office, and the col
lapse of railway trusts during the festival
week would not exhaust the limits of his
torical precedents, since the testimony of
unimpeachable witnesses oblige us to be-
neve that at the approach of the Olympic
field days Grecian magistrates dismissed
political offenders on parole, and the COM
manders of hostile armies patched up
truce for a few weeks. The victors of the
Isthmian and Nemean games enjoyed the
privileges of a modern archbishop.
They were exempt from taxation, be-
came the idols of their native towns and
were secured against the vicissitudes of for
tune by literally endowed annuity fund.
Egenetus, humble citizen of Agrigen-
tum, won three out of the five prizes of
the ninety-second Olympiad, and was at
once raised from poverty to opulence by
the presents which the enthusiasm of the
spectators poured upon him before he left
the arena. On his return trip, instead of
being chased by Tennessee sheriff posses,
he was treated to a series of ovations II
arrival at his native city was attended by
q procession of three hundred chariots,
each drawn, like his own, by two white
horses.
Foreigners, including famous warriors,
and even kings, like Dionysius of Syra-
cuse, competed for the prizes of Olympia,
and had perhaps reasons for envying such
victors as Diagoras, the Rhodian, who had
been successful athlete in his younger
days and was present when his two Sons
won the entire pentathlon-i. e., carried off
the five prizes contested by the champions
Of all the Mediterranean coast lands.
When the boys uplifted their father and
carried him through the arena the shouts
Of the assem- bled multitude were heard in
the harbor of Patrae at distance of
seven leagues, but Diagoras himself had
haard nothing on aarth n after tho bar 1d'S
voice had proclaimed the names of the vic
tors, ''the gods" as Pindar observes, "hav-
ing granted that the happiest moment of
his life should be his last" Would po-
lice commissioner have ventured to i'm
peach that triumph in the name of the
Law and Order league?
The monk emperor Justinian used his
power for purpose of that sort and inter
dicted nonreligious mass meetings of all
kinds, and in 528 the gates of the last arena
were closed. But 200 hundred years after
the sham battles of the Spanish Moors at
tracted spectators from far and near, and
before long the cities of Christendom re-
sounded with the din of tournaments,
which were by no means limited to lance
practice, but often included wrestling
matches or miscellaneous trials of strength,
as at Ratisbon, where in 1903 schild-
knappe; or henchman, of Suabian cavalier
def1ed all corners to touch him unarmed
and prevent him from doubling them up
into his large forage bag Eight knights,
stout six footers some of them, are said to
have been successfully bagged in that
way before the rustic Hercules at last met
his match in the person of gorilla listed
trooper.
Physical prowess indeed often asserted
itself in unexpected places, and in Venice
Leonardo da Vinci occasionally astonished
his friends by jumping to the ceiling and
knocking his feet against the bells of glass
chandelier.
The Andalusian bulls were at first baited
with dogs, but the kings of Aragon intro
duced trained swordsmen, and bull fight
ing then became national passion. Sara
gossa, Malaga and Madrid Wed in the
splendor of their matanzas, and at the end
of the Fifteenth century all the larger
towns had bull rings of their own. Several
popes tried to stop the game, but, as an
English historian remarks, their bulls
failed to scare the matadors, and the clam
VII to pass a special ordinance legalizing
bull fights on church festivals! Uecky's
History of Rationalism, vol. i, p. 30S)
At present no saint can hope to rival the
popularity Of successful matador. A
French publisher, Hallerman, made a for
tune by chromotyping the portrait of the
torero Perez. Jose Maria Perez began his
career as Carthagena canallon, or circus
sweeper, and in spite of his dissolute habits
died the richest man of his native town.
His arrival in bull ring city produced
regular furore Merchants closed their
shops and teachers their schools; disguised
monks escaped from their converts and
mingled with the rabble to enter the arena
unpercsived; paupers pawned their last
coat to raise the requisite real.
The chronicle of the excitement preced
ing the last Olympiad of New Orleans,
would likewise furnish a suggestive con-
tribution to the history of civilization, un-
less the historian should prefer 10 record
the still more characteristic episode of
Aug. %, 1881, when Georgia mountaineer
captured wildcat and brought it to
Birmingham, Ala. The dignitaries of that
city assembled at the court house and re-
solved by acclamation, first, to pit the
cat against certain town dog; second, to
celebrate the event by a general holiday.
On the following morning all work was
suspended, and the population OF the town
formed ring, while the mayor held the
stakes. The cat won in two rounds.
Incidents of that kind are signs of the
times that can be interpreted without the
aid of telescope. "Red tape fetters can
not stop the progress Of popular cause"
said Professor jain, the founder of the
Turnerbund, when he was imprisoned by