The Indianapolis journal., 1895-07-03
JOHN LAWRENCE SULLIVAN.
Kindly Public Feeling Toward the
DethrOned King Of Ffstiana-
Naw Yarlx C,,n


New York Sun.
Boston god of old days. had a benefit in
this town the other night Much Of the
great talent Of the art OF, swatting was
present. The Hon. James John Corbett con-
sented to appear for one night as a minor
star. and the red kangaroo of the bush was
there d1er % IN heart. If not in actual fist. Many
the occasion. which was wild with en-
thusiasm and productive of gold beyond
austere moralists are passing their days in
sackcloth ana ashes. lamenting the decline
OF public morals which permits a testi-
uncommon. pugilist. We have no desire to
add to the grief of the moralssts, but the
solid truth must be spoken. Sullivan is
ened in body and doubtless in mind by the
excesses of his days of triumph. 1t is
EASY EASY, to be be rigorous % with him to decry his
rogance with which he accepted. and the
mad prodigality with which he wasted, the
The cordiality with which he was welcomed
the other night by men, many of whom
have lost large sums in blind dependence
upon those physical gifts which he had not
the good fortune to regulate by decent
seif.controi, is perhaps no answer to the
obvious. criticisms that must be made Of a
career boisterous and unhappy. Yet the re-
gard with which this man is still re-
ceived by men cynical enough and void of
thing.
1t shows that there is a public which
clings to an old favorite from whatever
that foolish Sullivan has been, there is
still a perception In the public mind that
amid great temptations to which he easily
succumbed, and in spite of brutalities with
which he has been credited, justly or un-
justly. there was some rude elemental
We don't say this to excuse his e,y,esses
or to maintain that they were inevitable.
Corbett Is as quick to save as Sullivan has
ment first and then of habit. and the
saving habit makes good citizens.
in so far, and the wealth and
graduates of the colleges or the youths
most prudently educated, privately or.
abroad. and say how many of them could
ton boy in the twenties. could have en-
dured a sudden and surprising prosperity
with a. even heart. And he did not have
posed or hoped to save the rapid young
gentlemen in the colleges from ruin. He
knew baseball, but not history, and there
roundings to preserve him from the elation
famous, for the hour: than Pas as
own natural idea of his money-making
possibilities than the Rothschilds. He
sprang at one bound into fame and the
man of the Rome of the decadence had
more retainers and fiatterers and syco-
plants. He made money without effort and
he squandered it like Coal Oil Johnny. He
was the victim of impulses which. have
brought thousands of other men to 9eury
and disgrace-men without his ,tecnpta-
tions men convivial and too social, and not
too choice of their amusements. THE gulf
and the grave of Maginn and Burns en-
gulfed and buried this man of purely ply
sical distinction, who had no training
and no aptitude for intellectual pursuits or
for the ways Of business. He earned and
threw away hundreds of thousands of dol
lars. He was for few brief years bar
barian prince. His revenues, his glory,
and his constitution are no more.
There could be no easier subject with
which to point moral or adorn a tale.
Yet II seems to us that there is something
not altogether unworthy in the surviving
kindness to Sullivan of old admirers whom
he has donet so much to estrange. There
were and are primitive instincts of gener-
osity and kindness in this man, and they
are not forgotten by persons whose man.
ners and morals may sorely need mending.
but in whom the struggle for a doubtful
livelihood, won upon the test of ad-
venture, has left certain sentimentality
not inconsistent with doubtful practices,
not deserving of praise, perhaps, in the
sight of lofty moralists, but no conscious
humbug, and its intentions virtue. There
are plenty of other persons in the staider
walks of life who remember when John
sullivan was the great dynamic swatter of
the world, the hardest plant and finest
flower of physical superiority.