Milford chronicle., 1893-02-17

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, 000people clapped their
hands, and there was ''Ha, hap wide as
Rome and deep as perditiOn.
Tho corpses of that arena were put on q
cart or dragged by a 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 spearl The swOrdsman strikes at the
man with the net and spear. He dodges
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 / 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. Ifthey waved their
flags, it meant spare the fallen contestant.
If they turned their thumbs down, it meant
slay 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 kill Kill KILL Killw
VARIATIONS IN THE CRUEL SPORT.
Yet it was far from being n 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 a tiger hunt. Then, on the
lake in the Coliseum, armed ships would
float, and there would be a ga fight. What
funl What lots of funl When pestilence
came, In order to appease the gods, in
this Coliseum a sacrifice would be made,
and the people would throng that great
amphitheater, shouting, 'rhe Christians
to the wild beastsP' and there would be
of human bones In the jaws Of
leonine ferocity.
But all this was to be stopped. By the
outraged sense Of public decency2 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 100000 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 50 overcome by
the cruelty that he leaped from the gallery
into the arena and ran in between the two
sworlsmen 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 a result of the overdone cruelty the
human sacrifices Of the Coliseum were for
ever abolished.
What good thing, say you, that such
cruelties have ceased! My friends, the
same spirit Of ruinous amusoments and of
moral sacrifice is abroad in the world today,
it takes other shapes. Last sam
mer in our southwest there occurred sceae
of pugilism on which all Christendom look
cd down, for I saw the papers on the other
side Of the Atlantic ocean giving whole
columns oft. VIII some one tell me il 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 us the 195h century pretends to
be more ineTciful and more decent than the
fifth century.
That pugilism is winning admiration in
this country is positively proved by the
TACT that years ago such collision was re-
ported in q half dozen lines Of newspaper,
il reported ct all, and now it takes the
whole side of a newspaper to tell what
transpired between the first blood drawn by
Dne loafer and the throwing up Of the sponge
by the other loafer, and it is not the news
papers fault, for the newspapers give Only
what the people want, and when newspa-
pers put carrion on your table it is because
you prefer cauiol.
The same spirit of brutality is seen today
IN many IA ecclesiastical court when a
minister is put on trial Look at the COM
.enances OF the prosecuting ministers, and
not in all cases, but in many cases, you will
ind nothing bat diabolisn inspires them.
They let out on nue poor minister who can
not defend himself the lion of ecclesiasti.
,ism, and the tiger Of blgotry, and the wild
boar of jealousy, and If they can get the
minister flat on his back some
1ne puts his feet on the neck of the over
thrown gospelizer and looks up, spear in
land, to sec whether the galleries and occle-
,iastics would have him let up or slain.
And, lol many of the thumbs are down.
VILE POLITICAL WARFARE.
In the worldly realms look at the bgu-
alities Of the presidential election eight
7ears ago. Read Che biographies OF Daniei
Webster and Alexander H. Stephens and
Horace Greeley and Charles Sumner and
Iucius Quintus Cincinnatus Lamar and
James G. Blaine, and, if the story Of defa
nation and calumny and scandalizatlqp
md diatrihe and scurrility and lampoon aad
lillingsgate and damnable perfidy be ao-
.urately recorded, tell me in what respects |
,ur political arena and tho bowling and
,laspheming galleries that again and again
ook down upon it are better than the Ro-
nan Coliseum.
When / read few days ago that the srt-
,reme court Of the United States had ap-
,ropriately adjourned to pay hOnors to the |
wo last distinguished men mentioned, and |
american journalism, north. south, east |
nd west went into lamentations over their |
departure and said all complimentary |
hinge in regard to them, asked; When did |
he nation lie about these men? Was it |
yhen during their life it gave them male |
fiction or now since their death when be |
towing upon them Qualification?
The same spirit Of cruelty that you dc
lore IN the Roman Coliseum Is seen in the |
harp appetite the world seems to have for
he downfall Of good men, and in the di- |
orce of those whose mcrital lie was |
hougbt accordant, ard in the Gbsconding |
f bank cashier. Oh, my friends, the |
world wants more Of the cpirit Of ''Let him |
ip," and less of tie spirit Of Thumbs |
.ownr' There are hundreds Of men in the |
,risons of America who ought to be dis |
hargcd, because they were the victims Of |
circumstances or have suffered enough,