The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-02-13

dered. All the arrangements were COM
plete, as enough Of the cellars and gal
leries still remain to indicate. What fun
they must have had turning lions without
food or drink for a week upon an unarmed
disciple of Jesus Christ! At the
dedication of this Colosseum, nine
thousand wild beasts and ten
90 that the blood of man and
beast was not a brook but a river, not a
pool but lake. Having been IN that way
dedicated, be not surprised when tell you
that Emperor Probus on one occasion threw
into that arena of the Colosseum a thousand
stays, a thousand boars ana thousand
ostriches. What fun it must have been.
the sound OF trumpets. the roar of wild
beasts and the grOans of dying men. while
in the gallery the wives and children Of
those down under the lions paw wrung
their hands and shrieked out IN WIdowhood
aud orphanage, while one hundred thousand
people clapped their hands, ana there was a
''Ha! ha" wide as Rome and deep as perdl-
ton. The corpses Of that arena were put
on cart or dragged by hook out through
what was called the gate OF
death. What an excitement IL
must have Teen when two oombatants
entered the arena, the one with sword and
shield and the other with net and spear.
The swordsman strikes at the man with the
net and spear; he lodges the sword, and
then filings the net over the head Of the
swordsman and Jerks him to the floor Of the
arena, aud the man who flung the net puts
his foot on the neck Of the fallen swords
man, and, spear in hand, looks up to the
galleries. as much as TO say: shall | let
him up or shall plunge this spear into his
BODY until he Is dead" The audience had
TWO signs, either Of which they might give
If they waved their flags. ii meant spare
the fallen contestant If they turned their
10 sis m
sionally TIE audience would wave their
flags and the fallen wOuld be let up, but
that was too tame sport for most occasions,
and generally the thumbs from the galleries
were turned down, and with that sign
would be heard the accompanying shout of
'Kinl KILL XIII Kill"
Yet 1t was far from being monotone OF
sport, for there was change Of programme
On that wondrous Colosseum. Under
strange and powerful machinery, beyond
anything Of modern invention, the floor Of
the arena would begin to rock and roll and
then give away, and there would appear a
lake Of bright water, and on its banks trees
would spring up rustling with foliage, and
tigers appeared among the Juugles, and
armed men would come forth and there
would be q tiger hunt Then, on the lake
IN the Colosseum, armed ships would float
and there would be a sea fight. What fun
What lots of fun When pestilence came,
scum a sacrifice would be made, and the
people would throng that great amphithe-
ater, shouting: The Christians to the
wild beasts" and there would be a crack
ling of human bones in the jaws OF leonine
ferocity.
But all this was to be stopped. BY the
outraged sense Of public decencyl No.
There lie only one thing that has ever
stopped cruelty and sin. and that is Chris
tianity, and it was Christianity, whether
you like its form or not, that stopped this
massacre Of centuries. One day while in
the Colosseum a Roman victory was being
celebrated, and one hundred thousand en-
raptured spectators were looking down
upon two gladiators ID the arena stabbing
and slicing each other to death. an Aslatic
monk by the name of Telemachus was so
overcome by the cruelty that he leaped from
the gallery into the arena and ran in be-
tween the two swordsmen and pushed first !
one back and then the other back and broke |
up the contest OF course the audience |
was afronted at having their sport stopped, |
and they hurled stones at the head OF Tele- |
machus until he fell dead in the arena. But |
when the day was passed and the passions |
of the people had cooled off, they deplored |
the marSyrdom of the brave and Christian |
Telemachus, and as a result Of the overdone
cruelty, the human sacrifices Of the Colos-
scum were forever abolished.
Waht good thing, say you, that such
cruelties have ceased. My friends, the same
spirit of rulnous amusements and Of moral
sacrifice is abroad in the world to-day al
though it takes other shapes. Last summer
in our country there occurred a scene of
pugilism on which all Chrstendom looked
down for l saw the papers on the other side
OF the Atlantic ocean giving whole columns
Of ii. VIII some one tell me IN what re-
spect that brutality of last summer was SUI
perior to the brutality Of the Roman Colos-
scum! In some respects it was worse, by so
much as the nineteenth century pretends to
be more mercitul and more decent than
the fifth century. That pugilism is
winning admiration in this country is posi-
lively proved by the fact that years ago
such collision was reported in a half-dozen
lines of newspaper, if reported at all, and
now it takes the whole side of u newspaper
TO tell what transpired between the first
blood drawn by one lOater and the throwing
up of the sponge by tine other loafer, and it
is not the newspapers fault, for the news
papers give only what the people want and
when the newspapers put carrion on your
table il is because you prefer carrion. The
same spirit Of brutality is seen to-day in
many an ecclesiastical court when
a minister is put on trial. Look at
the countenances of the prosecu-
ting ministers and not in all cases but in
many cases you will find nothing but
diabolsm inspires them. They let out on
one poor minister who cannot defend him
self, the lion Of ecclesiasticism and the
tiger of bigotry and the wild boar Of jeal-
ousy. and If they can get the offending
minister fiat on his back, some one puts his
feet on the neck Of the overthrown gospel
iZer and looks up, spear in hand, to see
whether the galleries and ecclesiastics
would have him let up or slain. And, lo
MANY of the thumbs are down
In the worldly realms look at the brutsli-
ties Of the presidential election eight years
ago. Read the biographies of Daniel Web
Bter and Alexander H. Stephens and Horace
Greeley ana Charles Sumner and Lucius
Quintius Lamar aud James G.. Blaine, and
II the story or defamation and calumny and
standardization and diatribe and scurrility
and lampoon and billingsgate and damnable
perfdy be accurately recorded. tell me in
what respect our political arena and the
bowling and disappearing galleries that
again and again look down upon it are bet
ter than the Roman Colosseum. When !
read few days ago that the supreme court
OF the United States had appropriately
adjourned to Ray honors TO tue two
last distinguished men mentioned, and
American journalism. north south, east
and west, weut into lamentations over their