Herald and news. [volume] (West Randolph, Vt.) 1878-1943, 1893-02-16

VI W DO tuufucfcu. All the tttlau-cl--Ni-Ai
were complete, as enough of the cellar:
and galleries 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 Coliseum 9,00t
wild beasts and 10000 immortal men were
slain, so that the blood of men aud beasts
was not a brook, but river; not pool, but
lake. Having been in that way dedicated
be not surprised when ! tell you that EN-
peror Probus on one occasion threw into
that arena of the Coliseum a thousand
stays, thousand boars and a thousand os-
triches. 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 and
orphanage while 100, OOOpeople clapped their
hands, and there was "Ha, hap wide as
Rome and deep as perdition.
The corpses of that arena were put on a
cart or dragged by hook out through
what was called the Gate of Death. What
an excitement it must have been when two
combatants entered the arena, the one with
sword and shield and the other with net
and speari 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, and the man who
flung the net puts his foot on the neck of
the fallen swordsman 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?n
The audience had two signs, either of
which they might give Ifthey waved their
flags, it meant spare the fallen contestant.
If 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 accompany
ing shout of xiii KILL KILL Killl'i
VARIATIONS IN THE CRUEL SPORT.
Yet it was far from being a monotone
Of sport for there was a change of pro-
gramme in that wondrous Coliseum. Under
a 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 jungles,
and armed men would come forth, and
there would be tiger hunt. Then, ON the
lake in the Coliseum, armed ships would
float, and there would be sea fight. What
fun What lots Of fun When pestilence
came, in order to appease the gods, in
this Coliseum q sacrifice would be made,
and the people would throng that great
shouting, THE Christians
to the wild beastsl' and there would be a
of human bones in the jaws of
leonine ferocity.
But all this was to be stopped. By the
sense of public decencyg No
There is 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
of centuries. One day while, in
the Coliseum, Roman victory was being
and 10000 enraptured specta-
tors were looking down upon two gladia-
tors in the arena stabbing and slicing each
other to death, an Asiatic monk of the
name of Telemachus was so overcome by
the cruelty that he leaped from the gallery
into the arena and ran in between the two
swordsmen and pushed first one back and
then the other back and broke up the con-
test.
OF course the audience was affronted at
having their sport stopped, and they hurled
stones at the head of Telemachus 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 martyr
dom of the brave and Christian Telemachus,
and as result of the overdone cruelty the
human sacrifices of the Coliseum were for
ever abolished.
What good thing, say you, that such
,ruelties have ceasedl My friends, the
same spirit of ruinous amusements and of
moral sacrifice is abroad in the world today,
it takes other shapes. Last sum
ner in our southwest there occurred a scene
IF pugilism on which all Christendom look
ID down, for l saw the papers ON the other
tide of the Atlantic ocean giving whole
columns of it. viii some one tell me in what
respect that brutality OF last summer was
superior to the brutality Of the Roman
Coliseum? In some respects it was worse,
by so much as the 10th century pretends to
Dc more merciful and more decent than the
fifth century.
his country is positively proved by the
act that years ago such collision was re-
ported in half dozen lines of newspaper,
f reported at ALL and now it takes the
whole side of newspaper to tell what
ranspired between the first blood drawn by
me loafer and the throwing up of the sponge
" the other loafer, and it is not the news
,apers' fault, for the newspapers give only
What the people want, and when newspa-
,ers put carrion on your table it is because
-ou prefer carrion.
The same spirit of brutality is seen today
n many an ecclesiastical court when a
minister is put on trial. Look at the coun-
enances of the prosecuting ministers, and
lot in all cases, but in many cases, you will |
ind nothing but diabolism inspires them. !
they let out on one poor minister who can
lot defend himself the lion of ecclesiasti- |
ism, and the tiger of bigotry, and the wild |
,oar Of jealousy, and if they can get the !
ministk fiat on his back some
ne puts his feet ON the neck of the over
brown gospelizer and looks up, spear in !
and. to see whether the galleries and eccle- |
iasties would have him let up or slain. |