The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1893-02-23

or IN time Of rain, awnings Of elk were
suspended, the Colosseum having no
root. The outside wall was encrusted
with marble and had four ranges, and
the three lower ranges had
eighty columns each and arches after
arches, and on each arch anexquisite
statue of q god or hero. Into $50
feet OF altitude SCARED the Colosseum.
1T glittered and flashed and shone with
whole sunrises and sunsets Of dazzle
ment. After the audience had assem-
bled, aromatic liquids oozed from
tubes distilled from pipes and rained
gently on the multitudes, and filled
the air with odors Of hyacinth and
heliotrope and frankincense and
balsan and myrrh and saffron, so
that = Lucan, the poet, says Of II:
At once ton thousand saffron currents flow,
And rain their odor on the crowd belo ".
. But where was the sport to come
Iron? Well, | 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 beastly violences of all sorts,
without food or water until made
fierce enough for the arena, and Isa.v
he un foreground room where the
gladiators We're accustomed to wait
until the clapping of the people OUT
side demanded that they come forth,
armed to murder or to1be murdered.
All the arrangements were complete,
as enough of the cellars and galleries
still remained to Indicate What fun
they must have had turning lions
| without food or drink for week up
on an unarmed disciple Of Jesus
! Christ! At the dedication of the Col
osseum, 5000 wild beasts and 10000
immortal men were slain; so that the
blood Of men and beast was not g.
brook but a river, not a pool but q
lake. Having been in that way dedi-
Gated, be not surprised when l tell
you that Emperor Probus on one oc-
casi0n threw into that arena of the
Colosseum 1000 stays, 1000 bears and
1000 ostriches What fun it must
have been! the sound of trumpets,
the roar ofwild beasts and the groans
OF dying mon! while in the gallery the
wives and children of those down un-
der the lions paw wrung their
hands and shrieked out. in widow
hood and orphanage, while 100000
people clapped their hands, and there
was a la! hal" wide as Rome and
deep as peridition. The corpses OF
that arena were put on cart or
dragged by hook 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 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 swocdsman and jerks
him to the floor OF the arena, and the
man who filings 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?"
The audience had two signs, either of
which they might give. Ii they waved
their flags, it meant spare the fallen
contestant. II they turned their
thumbs down, it meant slay him, Oc-
casionally 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, aud with that sign would be
heard the accompanying shout of
"Kill! Kill! Kill KILL" ~.
Yet it was fac from being q mono
tone OF sport, for there was q change
of programme in that wondrous Col
osseum. Under q strange and power
full 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
it's banks trees would spring up rustl-
ing 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 pestil.
ence came, in order to appease the
gods, in this Colosseum g. sacrifice
would be made, and the people would
throng that great amphitheatre,
shouting: '"The Christians to the
wild beasts" and there would be a
cracking OF human bones in the jaws
of leonine ferocity. a.-.s..-
! But all this Was to be stopped. By
! the outraged sense of public decency?
No. There is only one thing that has
ever stopped cruelty and sin, and that
! is Christianity, and it was Christianity
whether you like it's form or not, that
! stopped this massacre of centuries.
One day, while in the Colosseum, a
Roman victory was being celebrated,
and 100000 enraptured spectators
were looking down upon two gladia-
tors in the arena stabbing and slcine
1 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 swords.
men, 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 o.
Telemachus until he fell dead in The