Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-12-12

GOSSIP FROM GOTHAM
Spanish Bull Fights Exceeded
in Brutality.
TESTS OF ENDURANCE
THE SIx-DAY BICYCLE CONTEST
AT MADISON SQUARE GARDEN.
Record Breaking Citizens of New
Jersey and What They
Have Done.
TESTS OF ENDURANCE
Special Correspondence Of The Evening Star.

| eled and fair-minded man who permitted
| himself to be seduced into visiting Madison
Square Garden yesterday. "the so-called
bull fight Of Spain is not so bad. 1t is
mean, and contemplate, and cheap. of
course, and Of the tawdriest mock-heroism
On the part Of the flashy bipeds engaged
| in the arena; but 1t is not acutely brutal
and the suffering of the beasts Is soon end
| ed The bull fight has the merit of being
short and crisp. and not long-drawn out
and the incomparably greater merit of not
exhibiting bodily and mental anguish The
miscalculatng natedor who gets himself
| tossed is promptly removed and shut away
from view, and the whole business OF bull
| fight is matter. at the outside. Of cou-
| pie Of turns Of the minute hand around the
dial of the clock. But that grisly affair in
| there and he waved deprecatory hand
! in the direction Of the garden and fastened
| his steps to forsake the neighborhood.
He referred. of course, to the six-day BIZ
| cycle contest in progress in the great
Madison Square arena He had just been
gazing upon a pallid wretch. sustained by
alcohol and a wholly perverted idea of the
quality of "gameness, agOnfZedly pumping
| his weary way around sthe banked bicycle
path, with shattered rib, a smashed
countepance and a body that was one OK
ening bruise. Every pedaling movement
of the mans legs caused him to groan in
| his misery. and 10000 bowling and cheering
bedlamites applauded his groans as a mani
festation Of his pluck and grit" The
harder he groaned. the louder they cheered.
Brutal as Gladiatorial Contests.
1t did not require any very great stretch
Of the Imagination to conceive of that same
twentieth century crowd vaciferously
cheering the unspeakable deviltries of the
Circus Maximus in the days of Nero. The
same flame-eyed spirit of barbarism seemed
| to be kindling their enthusiasm as actual
the demoniacal spectators of the ancient
games of death.
They gloated in the spectacle of a twitch-
ing poor devil, hopelessly Topping around
the path. with half a dozen huge splinters
embedded in the muscles of his back, with
much the same sort of savage approval as
the frenzied amphitheater regulars of
the regime of Commodus might have be-
slowed upon the two-legged beasts who
still struggled to fight on, with his head,
shoulders and arms hopelessly entangled
in the mesheS of his antagonists net.
In simple truth, from the point of view
of common sense, if not of ethics. the glad
iatorial games of the ancients are less
worthy of Reproduction than these so-called
tests of endurance" publicly pulled off in
New York in the twentieth century Of
Christian civilization. The ferocty of the
gladiators had in 1t this germ of nobility
The .'heroes'' Of the Madison Square BIZ
cycle path are striving ignobly for the
chance to share in the distribution of the
few miserable dollars which the manage
ment reluctantly doleS out to the racked
and crazed survivors who are sin at the
death"
Want to See Suffering.
It is impossible to visit Madison Square
Garden during the progress of one of
these contests without being forced to
agree with the deductions of those moral
lists of the pessimistfc school who declare
that no manner of cultivation is capable of
graduating the savage joy which the aver
age man experiences in witnessing the suf-
fering of his fellOw-man. That banked BIZ
cycle path Is one endless chain of acute
bodily and mental anguish. If it were pos
sible for these six-day bicycle riders to go
through their ordeal without any visible
suffering-if they rode on and on. as fresh
ON the final day as at the start-these
shows probably wouldn't be patronized
at all.
+. What the spectators want is their mon
ey's worth of bruised. broken, sodden, drug
drunken men. all of them more than three
parts out Of their heads after the third
day, circling round and round with the kind
of doggedness that causes the bull terrier
to retain his grip on the throat or paw OIL
his pit opponent until the very weakness
of death relaxes his Jaws. When there is
a crash and a bloody spill on the path,
they jump to their feet and bawl until they
are hoarse in their enthusiasm over the
action they are getting for their money.
and when the trainer of one of the delirious
riders is obliged to punch and club his
half-dead principal out on to the track to
relieve the noddfng and wabbling team
mate. the humor of the spectacle all but
doubles them up with laughter.
A Record-Breaking Wife Beaten.
If prizes were offered for perseverance.
there Is man in limbo, across the way in
New Jersey who is surely entitled to the
top souvenir He is decidedly the most
persevering man whose activities have
claimed public attention hereabout for a
good many years. This man was married
twenty-three years ago. Eighteen Of these \
years. or more than two thirds of his mari
tai life. he has spent in prison for beatin
his wife The wonder is not great that
New Jersey is proudly pointing to this I'M
aring ana persistent man as record
breaker. He has also gained undying fame
as bone-breaker, seeing that every time
he has undertaken to macerate his spouse
70 SQUASH ne has broken one or the other
OF her bones, and never by any chance re-
peated himself: but New JERSEY is willing
to preen itself solely upon the undaunted
zeal with which he has kept at his life
work during all of these years
That he regarded the smuggling of his wife
as his duly appointed mission in life is per- |
fectly evident from the fact that on the
very day he married her, twenty three
years ago. he punched her into a shapeIess
pulp. nor has he ever abated in his en-
thusiasm In the slightest degree since that
hour.
A Four Months Intermission.
His exalted sense of duty Is shown by the
fact that he would no sooner get out OF |
prison, after serving sentence for con-
verting his wife into six months charity
hospital case. than he would immediately
seek her out. and find ng her, proceed to ap-
ply corrective measures to her person all |
over again, without any foolish delay or un |
necessary shilly -shallying Only once did he !
falter This was about six years ago He |
permitted whole four months 10 go by |
without once endeavorfng TO punch the wife |
OF his bosom into the middle of the pre- |
vious week with his horny fists 1t is re- |
lated by neighbors, however, that he W s a |
singularly unhappy-looking and sheepish |
individual during those four neglectfuI
months. At the term nation of the four
months he nobly redeemed himself how
ever. and satisfied the reproving intimatioas
OF his spirit by tearing off one of his wife,s
ears and placing her nose somewhere in the
vicinage of her left cheekbone
Resuming Operations.
Nor did the creeping on of middle age.
which il generally supposed to cool en-
thusiasm and to diminish ardors formed in
young manhood. in any wise draw this sin
.1r~i n