Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1893-02-24

poet, says of it:
At once ten thousand saffron currents flow,
And rain their doors the crowd below.
| But where was the sport to come
! from? Well, l went into the cellars
opening off from the arena, and ] saw
the places where they kept the hyenas
and lions and panthers and wild bears
and beasty violences Of all sorts, with
out food or water until made fierce
i enough for the arena, and / saw the
underground rooms where the gladia-
tors were accustomed to wait until the
clapping of the people outside de-
manded that they come forth armed to
murder or to be murdered. All the
arrangements were complets as enough
OF the cellars and galleries still re-
manned to indicate. What fun they
must have had turning lions without
food or drink for a week upon an I'M
armed disciple of Jesus Christ! At the
dedication of this colosseum, nine
thousand wild beasts and ten thousand
immortal men were slain; SO that the
blood of men and beast was not a
brook but river, not pool but
u lake. Having been in that way
dedicated, be not surprised when tell
you that Emperor Probus on one occa-
sion threw into that arena of the Col
ossaum one thousand stays, one thou
sand bOars and one thousand ostriches
What fun it must have beeni 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
ont in widoWhood and orphanage,
while one hundred thousand people
clapped their hands, and there was a
"Ha. Ha p wide as Rome and deep as
perdition. The cOrpses Of that arena
were pat on cart or dragged by a
hook through what was called the
Gate of Death. What an excitement it
must have been when two combat
ants entered the arena, the one
with sword and shield and the
other with net and spear. The swords
man 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, and the man who
flung the net puts his foot on the neck
Of the fallen sworlsman, and, spear in
hand, looks up to the galleries, as much
as to say: "Shall l let him up, or shall
/ plunge this spear into his body until
he is dead?" The audience had two
'Igns either of which they might give.
If they waved their flags it meant spare
the fallen contestant. II they turned
their thumbs down it meant Stay him
Occasionally the 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 sho,.t Of
"Kill! KILL XIII! Kill!'
Yet it was far from being mono
tone of sport, for there was a change
of programme in that wondrous Colos-
scum. Under a strange and powerful
machinery, beyond anything of modern
invention, the floor of the arena would
begin to rock and roll and t hen give
away, and there would appear lake
of bright water, and on it's banks trees
would spring up rustling with foliage,
and tigers appeared among the jungles,
and armed men would come forth, and
there would be 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 pcstilence came. in order to ap-
pease the gods, in this Colosseum a
sacrifice would be made, and the peo-
pie would throng that great amphi-
thcater, shouting: ''The Christians to
the wild beasts, and there would be
cracking of human bones in the laws
of leonine ferocity.
But ali this was to be stopped. By
the outraged sense of public Gecency?
No. There is only one thing that has
ever stopped cruelty and sin. and that
is Christianity, and it was Christianity,
whether you like its form or not, that
stopped this massacre Of centuries. One
day, while in the Colosseum, IL Roman
victory was being celebrated, and one
hundred thousand enraptured specta-
tors were looking down upon two
gladiators in the arena stabbing and
slicing each other t. death, an Asiatic
monk by the name of Tclemachus was
SO overcome by the cruelty that he
leaped from the gallery into the arena
and ran in between the two sw ordsmen,
and pushed first one back and then the
other back, and broke up the contest
OF course, the audience was affronted
at having its sport stopped and they
hurried stones a the head of Tulemachus
until he fell dead in the arena But
when the day was passed and the pas
sions Of the people had cooled off they
dcplored the martvrdom of the brave
and Christian Telenachus, and, as a
result OF the Overdone cruelty. the hu- /
man sacrifices of the Colosseum were
forever abolished.
What Il good thing sa~ YOU, that
such cruelties have ceased. Nv friends, |
the same spirit of ruin"us atnusements
and Of moral sacrifice is abroad III the |
world to-day, althouga II takes other /
shapes Last summer in our country |
there occurred scene Of pugilism on
which all ChriStendom looked down, !!
for saw the papers on the other side !
Of the Atlantic ocean giving whole !
columns of it. Will some one tell me
N what respect that brutality OF asst |
sJW.n>r Was superior 20 toe brutality !
Of the Roman colosseum? In some re- :
spects ii was worse. by so much as the
century pretends to be
more merciful and more decent than
the fifth century. That pug;lism is
winning admiration in this country
is positively proved by the fact
that years ago such collision was
in q halt dozen lines