The weekly intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1891-1901, 1893-02-18

IltdlU stay HILL
Yet it was far from being Il monotone
of sport, for there was u change OF pro-
grammc in that wondrous Colosseum.
Under Il strange and wonderful ma
chinery, beyond anything OF modern
invention, the floor of the arena would
begin to rock and roll and then give
away, and there would appear u lake
81 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 Colosseum,
armed ships would float and there
would be a sea fight. What fun! What
lots of fun! When pestilence came, in
order to appease the gods, in this Col
lesseum a sacrifice would be made and
the people would throng that greatam-
phitheater, shouting: The Christians
to the wild beasts, 'and t here would be
a cracking of human bones in the jaws
of leonine ferocity.
But all this was to be stopped. BY
the outraged sense Of public d~ecency?
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, a Roman
victory was being celebrated, and 10o,-
600 enraptured spectators were looking
down upon two gladiators in the arena
stabbing and slicing each other to
death, an Asiatic monk by 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 swordsmeu, 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 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 peo-
Pile had cooled off. they deplored the
martyrdom of the brave and Christian
Telemachus, and, as a result of the
overdone cruelty, the human sacrifices
of the Colosseum were forever abol-
ished.
What Il good thing, say you, that
such cruelties have ceased. My friends,
the same spirit of ruinous amusements
and of moral sacrifice is abroad in the
world to-day, although it takes other
shapes. Last summer in our country
there occurred a scene of pugilism on
which all Chris tendon looked down,
for I saw the papers ON the other side
Of the Atlantic ocean giving whole col
umns of it. Will some one tell me in
what respect that brutality of last sum-
.z.. .-oo e,.ea.t@, 10 fhn hrr1 1ttrr IF
the Roman Colosseum? In some re-
spects it was worse, by so much as the
nineteenth century pretends to be more
merciful and more decent than the fifth
century. That pugilism is winning
admiration in this country is positively
proved by the fact that years ago
such collision was reported in a
half dozen lines of a newspaper, il
reported at all, and now 1t takes the
whole side of a newspaper to tell what
transpired between the first blood
drawn by one loafer and the throwing
up of the sponge by the other loafer,
and it is not the newspapers fault, for
the newspapers give only what the peo-
Pile want, and when newspapers put
carrion on your table it Is because you
| pTtItE CdTIlOus AL 5plEib Vi
brutality is seen to-day ip many an
ecclesiastical court when a minister is
put on trial. Look at the c~ountenances
of the prosecuting ministers, and, not
in all cases, but in many cases, you will
find nothing but diabolism inspires
them.
In the worldly realms look at the
brutalities of the presidential election
eight years ago. Read the biographies
of Daniel Webster and Alexander II.
| Stephens and Horace Greeley and
Charles Sumner and Lucius Quintius La
mar and James G. Blaine, and If the story
of defamation and calumny and scan
d~alization and diatribe aud scurrility
and lampoon and bilingsgate and damn
able perfidy be accurately recorded, tell
me In what respects u political arena
and the bowling and disappearing gal
leries that again and again look down
upon it are better than the Roman Col
osseum When / read q few days ago
that the supreme court of the United
States had appropriately adjourned to
| pay honors to the w last distinguished
men mentioned, and American journal
ism, north, south, east and west, went
into lamentations over their departure
and said all complimentary things In
regard to them, l asked, when did the
nation lie about these men? Was 1t
when, during their life, it gave them
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