The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-10-09
PUGlLISTIc EDWARDS.
Willing to Face Gloves, But towards
On a Battlefield.


New York Times: If the story pub
lished by one of our esteemed contem-
poraries in regard to the educational
work carried on by Mr.. James Nc
Ginness of Arietta street, Tompkins-
vile. is correct in all its details, Mr..
McGinness ought to be locked up in
Jail and kept there as an enemy to
the welfare of the state. The facts, as
set forth, may be summed up in the
statement that Mr.. McGinness is teach
iEg boys of IL or II years of age to be
p'sizefighterS, and our contemporary
gives an illustration of mis- labors in an
account of the knocking cut of Thomas
Perrine, aged II, by James DAILY, aged
H.
Now the plain truth is that Mr. Nc
Ginness, who naturally makes his liv-
ing by selling whisky, is maintaining a
Fad Citizen mandatory, and his work
ought to be stopped. These boys, of
course. do not realize that they are be-
ing handicapped for life; that they are
being educated to be the poorest Speci-
mems of mankind that it is possible to
be. Neither does Mr.. McGinness. who
undoubtedly regards prizefighter as
hero. And even our esteemed con-
temporary writes of the whole business
as if il were creditable to all concerned
cheer DriZefighters and rough riders
impartially. Yet the poorest of Colonel
Roosevelt's cavalrymel was a better
man than the best orizefighter that
walks the earth today, for the simple
reason that he offered his life in the
service Of humanity, While the prize
fighter offers nothing in the service of
anything.
How is it possible for people who pro-
n q ire f1<
their courage to admire them any
longer after the recent war? Where
were the priZefighters? At home train
Ing for harmless kaleidoscope fights
with large purses at the end of them,
or writing foolish letters TO equally
foolish newspapers abusing one an
other. Has anyone read of any deed
OF Valor at the front performed by a
Mccoy or a Corbett or F'itZsimmons?
Not at all. The prizefighters are alto
gether too much afraid of the things
that test real courage to face priva-
ton, hardship, or pain, least of all
death
Nearly every one of these fellows is
an arrant coward at heart They are
brave to face only the knocking-out
process, which, according to their own
descriptions of it, is neither dangerous
nor severely painful. But they do not
and muddy trenches, Mauser bullets
and yellow fever. Men went out to
face those things in the service of
their country and humanity; but they
were bank clerks, lawyers, college boys,
clubmen and common soldiers of the
regular army, who wore the honorable
livery of Uncle Sam day in and day
out for S1S month and no percent
age from any kaleidoscope concern.
These oh do
clared it to be their opinion that foot
ball was more degrading and less
manly, sport than boxing" as they are
pleased to term it. Yet there is hardly
college in the country that did not
contribute some of its crack football
players to the volunteer army, and the
courage that made these men valuable
on the gridiron made them heroes in
battle. When the football players were
saying nothing and doing many deeds,
the prizefighters We're at home talk
ing.
r. The little substance of this whole
ma tier is that as type the prizefghter
is the most Ditiable and contemplate
of human creatures. tt has generally
been. conceded that he was not of much
value as a citizen, but he has been
admired by many as an embodiment of
manly courage. The truth is that he
is q ooltroon of the poorest sort, and
the men who drove thee0ack trains at
Santiago, men who never wrote letters
declaring that certain other men were
not in their class are better and drawer
and cleaner specimens of true manhood
than any DriZefighter that ever lived.
And that's the kind of gospel that
ought to be preached to all boys while
Mr.. James McGinness of TompkinsvilIe
is in Jail.