Arizona republican., 1903-09-24
ELOQUENCE OF THE STUMP AND
 THE PRIZE RING.

Ii is believed that no one has called attention yet to the very obvious rela- tion between the oratory practiced by a professional spellbinder and the tall writing" employed by followers of the prize ring to describe the fights and fighters. Whether the pugilistic writers have influenced the stump speakers or the orators have given the cue to the sport lovers. or both have been affected by prevailing impulse to substitute noise for accomplishment
 the fact remains that both species have developed along much the same lines.
 When it was said, descriptive of Jeff fries before his recent fight with Cor bett, that his ponderous fist was like the adamantine skull of a prehistoric brontotheirium" there was the same proclivity displayed as when a political orator referred to that knightly sol dier who led the tattered hosts of the confederacy when rampant war yoked the red dragon to his iron cart"
 redundancy of words and a choice of 'highfaultinG" expression are char acteristics common to both types. An authority on sports who was defend ing one pusilist from the accusations of another declared that "a featherless
 biped who dwelt in a crystal palace ought not to launch projectiles'' It
 was as impossible for him to write that
 "a man in a glass house shouldn't
 throw stones'' as it would be for the spellbinder to talk of the sky and not
 call it the "cerulean dome of Heaven. . It is not easy to understand just
 what popular propensity is gratified by
 this resort to fiowery jargon. In the case of the sport writers it is appre- ciated that they write for their own amusement as much as anything else No one could note the shrewd and so- phisticated qualities of the men who coin such phrases as the punch so- porific' and not realize that they are having fun with their clientele and that the ludicrOus misassociation of high flown metaphors with the "pugs" of l the squared circle" appeals with ex- quisite relish to their sense of humor But there is no humorous side to the professional spellbinder. He takes him.
 self and all that emanates from him with most prodigious seriousness. His face assumes an expression of stern severity, and if his eyes are set close together to give him a sinister appear
 ance so much the better for his pur-
 poses. He is dreadfully in earnest when he talks about woody dells' and gold
 en, glnting sunshine which melts from rapturous skies of softest blue" His whole 'get-up' is in marked contrast to that "cocky," knowing and yet ami able manner of the wise reporter of l sports. What he says is not delivered
 in jest, and, though it is ill reality very ridiculous, neither is it received in a
 spirit of fun by the majority of his
 auditors. His tribe would not be so
 many nor his occupation so lucrative if
 there were not some strange appetite l in the populace which craves the sort of food Ae serves them.
 Of course. neither the natural wit of
 the sporting editor nor the native den- sity of the spellbinder-whch attain equivalent results through dissimilar
 motives-explains why their efforts meet with so much success. The ma jority of men, whose vocabulary is lini- tied in use, if not in possession, ridi-