Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1893-02-16

and the groans Of dying men. wi7ts in the
! gallery the wives and children of those
down under the lions paw wrung their
handsand shrieked out in widowhood and
orphanage, while l0O, ,O0Opeople clapped their
hands, and there was a ''Ha, hap wide as
Rome and deep as perdition.
The corpses of that arena were put on a
,art 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
I sword and shield and the other with net
! and speass., The swor'lsman strikes at the
man with the net alS 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 let him up, or shall plunge this
spear into his body until he is deads"
The audience had two signs, either of
which they might give. Ifthey waved their
flags, it meant spare the fallen contestant.
II 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 "Killl KILL KILL Killl'
VARIATIONS IN THE CRUEL SPORT.
Yet il was far from being 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 a sea fight. What
funl 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
amphitheater, shouting "The Christians
to the wild beasts" and there 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 decency? 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
massacre of centuries One day while, in
the Coliseum, a Roman victory was being
celebrated, 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 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 a result of the overdone cruelty the
human sacrifices of the Coliseum were for
ever abolished.
What good thing, say you, that such
eruelties have ceased! My friends, the
same spirit of ruinous amusements and of
/ W
although it takes other shapes. Last sum-
mer in our southwest there occurred scene
of pugilism on which all Christendom look
ed down, for L saw the papers on the other
side of the Atlantic ocean giving whole
columns oft Will 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
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 re-
ported in half dozen lines of newspaper,
if reported at all, and now it takes the
whole side of q newspaper to tell what
transpired between the first blood drawn by
one loafer and the throwing up of the sponge
by the other Ioafer, 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 carrion.
The same spirit of brutality is seen today
in many an ecclesiastical court when a
minister is put on trial. Look at the coun-
tenances of the prosecuting ministers, and
not in all cases, but in many cases, you will
find nothing but diabolism inspires them.
They let out on one Yoor minister who can.
not defend himself the lion of ecclesiasti-
cism, and the tiger of bigotry, and the wild
boar of jealousy, and if they can get the
offending minister fat on his back some
one puts his feet on the neck of the over.
thrown gospelizer and looks up, spear in
hand, to see whether the galleries and eccle-
siastics would have him let up or slain.
And, lol many of the thumbs are down.
Il VILE POLITICAL WARFARE.
/ In the worldly realms look at the bru.
taIities of the presidential election eight
years ago. Read the biographies of Daniel
Webster and Alexander H. Stephens and
Horace Greeley and Charles Summer and
Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus Lamar and
James G. Blaine, and, if the story Of defa
nation and calumny and standardization
and diatribe and scurrility and lampoon and
billingsgate and damnable perfdy be ac
curately recorded, tell me in what respects
our political arena and the bowling and
disappearing galleries that again and again
/ look down upon it are better than the Ro-
man Coliseum.
When I read few days ago that the SUI
preme court of the United States had ap
propriately adjourned to pay honors to the
two last distinguished men mentioned, and
4 American journalism, north, south, east
and west went into lamentations over theil
n departure and said all complimentary
things in regard to them, asked; When did
the nation lie about these men? Was il
when during their life it gave them male
diction or now since their death when be-
slowing upon them beatifcation?
The same spirit of cruelty that you de.
i plore in the Roman Coliseum is seen in the
sharp appetite the world seems to have for
| the downfall of good men, and in the di.
vorce of those whose martial life was
thought accordant, and in the absconding
of a bank cashier. Oh, my friends the
i world wants I,nnra of thnf sriit of tsI ct hin,