The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1896-02-22
THE ABSURD PUGILIsTs.

When the great American people get
after" anything that is incompatible
with their sense or sentiment they have
way of driving it into last ditch in very
short order and then filing in the ditch.
The alarm created in persons Of con-
science and morality, and the disgust that
grew in everybody of wholesome mind
and intelligence by the elevation of pro-
fessional pugilism into popular heroics
within the past ten years, resulted in
quiet but mighty protest The good
sense as well as the moral spirit of the
American people was scandalized by the
development of idolatry for the pugilist.
1t is safe to say that today TO the rising
generation the names and prowess Of jim
CoRBETr and JOHN l.. SULLIVAN are
quite as familiar as are those of GEORGE
WAsHIN GToN and ABRAHAM LINCOLN.
Ridiculous as this may appear there is
evidently menace to mind and morals
in the situation.
Ridicule is powerful weapon to attack
an evil OF this sort. 1t is powerful to iab
the heroics of pugilism full of holes. At
first, combating the laws made for their
suppression and finding public sentiment
a-plenty behind the laws, the professional
face-pummelers have at last been com
PEELED to flee from law and public senti-
ment. A supposititious hero In fight is
an absurd figure. A world champion on
the dead run to get out of the way of
something is a spectacle to make horse
laugh. Fake and Bluff and Bluster col
lapse when Good Sense "gives them the
laugh"
And so ii may be believed that for a
good many years to come the professional
pugilist will cease to be q menace to the
moral sentiment and. the growing
sense of the rising generation. The past
year has been notable for pugllistic fas-
Goes instead of great" battles" in the arena
where the manly art OF self-defense is
supposed to have been exemplified. Yes
terday the championship of the world
was fought for, lost and won under cir
cumstances so amazingly absurd that the
teacher OF morals, who views pugilism
with alarm, may well afford to smile al
the spectacle presented despite any at
tempts to bolster up the straw-stuffed
heroes. Two professional pugiIsts who,
and whose friends, had been clustering
from one end OF the country to the other
for several months finally met, but there
was nothing in the circumstances of theil
meeting to stir the blood of the most
imaginative schoolboy. One of them wore
the Stars and Stripes for a belt, poetically
significant OF the claim that he was an
American, while the other wore green
belt and represented" Ireland--as II
Ireland had not burdens enoughl Driven
to the borders of civilization, and then
over the edge of the border by devious
ways and muddy paths, and across swol-
len river, like pair of "yaller" dogs
kicked from door to door, to dismal
hole in the earth, these two absurd heroes
meet at last to contest for the cham
pionship of the world and sizable
money prize. There had been months OF
preparation and months of talk and nc
end of lodging and running away from
law and order and policemen. 1t al
wound up in the dismal hole in the
mountain over the southwestern border
of this great country and the country
could we'll afford to let them alone there
and laugh at the exhibition of heroics in
distress. Mr.. FITzsIMMoNs jabbed Mr..
MAHER on the point of the chin, as we
are told, and Mr.. MAuER "went outs
without taking time to deliver any last
words.
Could anything have been more absurd?
We guess no one need bother any more
about the menace to mind and morals
from pugilistic heroics.
The country is safe decidedly.