The daily morning journal and courier., 1897-04-27
 GLADrATORIAL FOOTBALL.
An English Protest Against Referee Rafting A Snug Comparison witl


 America.
 If is impossible not to recognize, and,
 recognizing, not to deplore, the glaa-
 iatorial aspect that has for some tune come over the playing Of football II
 the manifestation bore the appearance
 of being a mere impulse of the hour,
 and, as such likely to pass by like
 summer thunderstorm, the wiser course
 would be to say nothing about it; but
 unfortunately, the indications point in
 the contrary direction. The history or
 the world and of the development of it's
 peoples supplies ample evidence of the
 demand of human nature in a certain
 stage of evolution for spectacle of Vi
 olent and even bloody nature, No need
 is there to do more than hint at the
 gladatorial combats of Rome and the tearing to pieces of Christians by wild
 beasts, or of the public burnings in many countries on religious grounds,
 which reached their apogee in the auto da fe of Philip II. of Spain. That leg acy of blood which he left his country we find perpetuated at the present day
 in the shape of the bull fight which presents a paradoxical combination of revoltng cruelty and great personal bravery that almost deties comprehen- sion.
 The normal mildness and love of peace of a people seem to be no guar antee whatever that this attitude is not that of the sleeping volcano, which may burst out In it's full fury at any mo- ment The traveller In Java, for in stance, could not fail to become inn pressed with the congenital gentleness of the native as exhibited in his con- duct toward dumb animals. Of this the dove is the actual emblem, for one
 of the commonest objects in the coun- try is the cage containing one or more
 of these birds, slung high in air at the end of a pole while the shooter who makes these birds part of his bag Is
 looked at askance. Yet, with all this
 gentleness, one of the spectacles of the year, before the standing and influence of the Javanese princes became the mere figures of speech that they now are, was the public batting of a tiger, the animal being freed within a huge circle composed of men armed with spears As for we English, who are naturally a pugnacious people, we have arrived where we are after a long course of sanguinary combats between almost every living thing that could be
 brought into antagonism, and there are many, doubtless, who look back to bull and bear batting, cock fights and prize | fights with lingering regret that the | law will have none of them. The prize ring is still represented in the glove | fight, and such is the strength of our pugnacous instincts that men strive | for the privilege of paying considera-
 ble sums to witness the evidently edify- | ing spectacle, to them, of seeing a man knocked out by the latest developed , tactics of the boxer.
 The multitude, however, has not
 much opportunity for the enjoyment of l this phase of combativeness, and, in
 looking around for something to grati- | fy its craving for the gladiatorial, the game of football seems to be the near | est approach to what it seeks that is ready and cheaply at hand. There is
 nothing in the game itself to suggest | brutality, except to the vicious mind in- | clined to brutal things. Of the old an | nual intervillage contests violence was to be expected, for they owed their ori- l gin to the spirit of communal antago-
 nism. and in the trouble and turmoil of
 strife plenty of opportunity was af-
 forded for the wiping off of old scores
 But the codified game of to-day is de- signed to differentiate between the ex-
 ercise of manly attributes and the let | ting loose of brutal feelings. With 8 | few exceptions this, we think, Is the view of the game taken by the players; and it is conceivable that any inclina-
 tion which might be felt to exceed the 1 proper limits of violent attack and de- | fence would be repressed by the admo- milton of what has been called the first 1 law of nature, self-preservation, the
 power of doing as you have been done
 by being vested in the football player i before all people
 1 We are, of course, speaking for Eng ] land only, for in that other country
 where football fiourishes-the United 1 States savagery is infused into the game for which it would be difficult tt | find a counterpart outside those regions
 that have the misfortune to come under
 the rule of the Sultan of Turkey. As a
 new people, the Americans have not