Los Angeles herald., 1907-12-11
LIVE GAME

TN moralizing over the "gameness"
of Morris Buck, the murderer who
= expiated his crime in San Quentin
prison few days ago, the Sacramento
Union is moved to make inquiry of its
readers whether they do not regard it
as more glorious to Give game" than
to die game
I'm San Quentin prison." says the
Union, there is a padded board to
which a condemned prisoner may be
strapped and supported on his way to
the gallows il his cowardly legs will not
hold him up. 1t is the glory of the
prison that it's use has never been re-
quired. All over the prison, after each
execution. the anxious query is hastily
passed from mouth to mouth. Did he
die gamer and soon the answer flies
along the files, He died game and the
prison rests content. If any executed
felon should show the white feather in
the final hour the whole felonious fra
ternity would feel Inundated and the
memory of the culprit who flunked
would be execrated for generations"
So Morris Buck, common murderer,
died camel In the eyes of those with
whom his last days had been spent in
confinement he was a brave man. Per-
haps he was-so much depends upon the
point of view. He "died game" but
how much better for him and for the
world in which he lived if he had "lived
game." Read what the essayist in the
Union has to say along this line:
"If Morris Buck, the brutal murderer
of q defenseless woman. can walk the
gangplank and take his final plunge
into an unfathomable abyss without
twitching of the muscles or quaver
of the nerves. should not more of us
be able to jeopardize the loss Of patron
age, of the vindictiveness of the powers
that be- that we may stand for free
government by a free people, for such
La restraint of all municipal and social
evils as will make them as little evil as
possible? Why should so many men
and women be brave only to die, but
not brave to live? Is 1t because moral
courage is so much more rare, so much
higher in quality than physical cour-
age? A thousand men will turn out and
pay SIS to $40 each to see two men welt
each other with clenched fists, cheering
the man who can take punishment as
loudly as the man who can infiict 1t;
but how many of that thousand, who
have rendered such homage to physical
courage, could face chance to make
thousand dollars crookedly and still
stand up and not take the chance?
Isn't it about time for thoughtful per-
sons to be putting the recompense of
their adulation upon deeds OF moral
daring?
zone of the arguments made for the
acquittal Of Tirey L. Ford. and with
much effect, was that it is impossible,
not in human nature, for the assistant
prosecuting attorney to give his time
without monetary recompense for the
exposure of graft and the vindication
of the law. Is it, therefore, so extraor-
binary that a man shoul6 live game
when any beetle-browed ruff1an and
woman-killer can die as gamely as a
patriot fighting for the liberty of his
country? What has made us place so
low an estimate upon the moral
bravery of our fellow men that we ex-
pect nothing disinterested to be done.
no service for the public to be per-
formed without recompense in gold
coin of the United States? Have we
become so wrapped in our worship of
the golden calf that we have forgotten
the law and the Law Giver? If the
trend of our time teaches any truth
worth thinking over on Sunday, 1t is
that there should be higher purposes IN
life than wealth gathering, that the
decent citizen should be as game to
live as the merest thug is game to die.
If we do not feel and know this to be
true then it is because we are prodigals
and have strayed from the faiths of the
Fathers"