The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1897-03-20
NOT WORTH SEEING.
John ]. Ingalls, Comment on the Prize
Fight and Prize Fighting.

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Fight and Prize Fighting.
Copyright dispatch in Chicago Tribune
Carson, New, March 1S.-It was very
much like a presidential nominating
convention or a political rally in the
open air toward the end of a campaign,
when party feeling runs high and pub
lie questions are to be debated by pop
ular orators The audience was COM
posed almost entirely of young men UNI
der 80. There were few in middle life
and the gray boards scarcely outnum-
bered the women.
1t was good natured jollying crowd.
but not bOiSterOuS, nor rough, nor guy
ing, nor turbulent. The newspaper rep
resentativeS were charming young fell
lows and the sports and toughs appear
ed to be affable men of the world, as
much interested in the preservation of
order as the magistrates or the police.
The clergy and the professors were
not present, unless disguised, but every
other rank in society had its represen-
tatiVeS.
Altogether the assemblage was fully
up to the level of those in attendance
at horse races, base and foot ball games,
bench shows, agricultural exhibitions,
and similar gatherings east or west. AS
at those, here also were takers, crooks,
gamblers, ladies of the half world, gen.
tlemen with Cleveland necks, diamonds
on hands not strictly manicured, sa-
looms in full activity, games of chance,
pool rooms, and the usual opportunities
for indulgence and dissipation. Any
gentleman desiring to risk his money
or his brains could find the chance as
he can in San Francisco or New York
But l did not see a drunken man nor a
pistol nor hear more than customary
profanity a the arena, nor elsewhere in
Carson, Notwithstanding the alleged de-
pravity of the people of Nevada in leg
islating glove contests.
MODEST DEFENSE OF PUGILISM.
If the encounter between Corbett and
Fitzs1mmOns was one of the memOra-
BILE battles of the world, as asserted by
many chroniclerS and judges of such
events, then the sorrow, the dangers
and the immOralitieS of the prize ring
are largely the product of Imagination
The ordinary game of football between
two college teams displays more bru-
tality and is attended with more peril
to life and limb than appeared in any
of the IA rounds that closed so disas-
trOuSly for COrbett. More broken ribs
and fractured collar bones result from
hurdle jumping and horse racing every
season than are possible in pugilism
for century.
Ring fighting has become one of the
esta blished industries. 1t is a regular
trade or vocation. The Carson meet
ing was a purely mercenary venture
thoroughly advertised by ingenious
proVOcatiOnS to public curiosity and
adroitly managed as a money making
speculation. 1t lacked every element of
personal hreOism.
The danger was mimimized by what
ever precautiOn ingenuity could devise
without depriVing the public altogether
of an opportunity for excitement and
emotion. The two wary veterans enter
ed on weeks of elaborate preparation
by exercise, diet, practice and atten-
ton to the rules of good health, appear
ed at last in the arena, like actors upon
the stage of theater, for cash. Meth
err seemed to be spelling for fight. The
object apparently was to avoid rather
than to infiict injury.
There were minutes and embraces,
genufexions, side talks and horse plays
and grins at the audience. The catas-
trophe came unexpectedly to both,
harmlessly, with no more pain than the
drawing of a tooth under the influence
OF either, perhaps not so much.
Taken altogether it was an interest
ing spectacle, but with no more excite
ment in the audience than passion in
the performers. AS an exhibition of
gymnastic skill. deXterity and physical
science, 1t was success; but as a
g1adiatOrial combat, whose participants
were ''butchered to make a Roman hoI-
iday," it was defective. The perform
ance might have been witnessed by
women and children like the feats of
Sandow and the trapeze performances
of a circus, with no moral or intellect
ual Improvement, perhaps, but with no
detriment to mind and health.
Those who Travelled 5000 miles and
paid $40 for seat to witness the battle
may possibly question whether it was
not high price for a tame hour, but
they Will have no reason to lament the
injury to their manners or their morals
There are great many things in this
world that a man is glad to see once
but does care to see again. 1 never saw
prize fight before, and I shall not at
tend another, no matter what compen-
saiOn may be Offered-nOt because it
is wrong, but because once is enough
for me. [ feel like Lord Chesterfield.
who, after his first days hunting in
Quired of his host if a gentleman there
did it a second time.
JOHN J. INGALLS,.
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