New-York tribune., 1907-03-06
certain for the Cabinet as well as for the par
lament.
ANOTHER MYTH SMASHED.

One venerable weakness of cultured people
is that of standing in awe before anything hail
ing from east of Suez and adorned with job
lot Of consOnants and vOwels. Not long ago 1t
was somebody like SwamivivicOnundrum that
terrified the "brainy" Then IT was a Buddhist
priest from Japan. The awe soon spread be-
yond the narrow confines of the intellectual
world and crept insidiously into the hearts Of
men-that is, ordinary citizens. that jiu-
jitsu found the Western world prepared to
receive 1t with the servillty and credulousness
demanded by Oriental potentates, real and hgu-
rative.
Jiu-jltsu came. 1t stood in the same relation
to Anglo-SaXon 6sticuffs and catch-as-catch-
can as the Grand Lama of Tibet does-Or did
to an African Methodist exhOrter. 1t was
held to be as superior to wrestling and sand
bagglng as a Japanese clOisOnne vase is to a
Jersey City imitation Strong men went down
before 1t in paralytic terror Of it's misty origin
and name. Babes and cripples pitched giants
PROSTATE upon the mat with its rules. And
then the fear. of a japanese invasion smOte
the Pacific Coast and sent the land staggering
into the thrOes of an earthquake.
There was only one way by which the spell
could be broken: some innocent must be lured
into the game. somebody who had never tried
to spell 'HOkahama" or pronounce 'Banshai."
If you ever want TO lose money on four aces
at poker, sit down with somebody who doesn't
know spade from a diamond If you ever
want to have your variation of the Ruy Lopez
opening in chess sent scurrying off the board
in panic, find an opponent to whom you have
to teach the names Of the pieces. SO. too If you
ever want to feel the full force of the argument
against the solar plexus blow, put on the box
ing gloves with some greenhorn who thinks
that John L. Sullivan is the man who writes
those catchy operas:
Now. since the AGITATION for mira food Ioy
has been started several unprejudced inno-
cents have been experimenting with jiu-jitsu
and have found it to be nearly as harmless as
boiled rice. Annapolis, after trying ii for q
while. cast it off quite rreverently, and several
jiu-jitsu dens in this city have closed up be-
cause Of the alarming decline of enthusiasm.
But with the experiments made upon Patrol
man Mead. of the East 51st street police sta
uOn jiu-jitsu may now be definitely classified
as innOcuous. Mr. Mead was tested day before
yesterday by one N1otO Ishiyania-or there
abOuts-a japanese with jiu-ish blood in his
veins. Mr., Mead, having received his educa-
ton In Ireland and Manhattan exclusively
proved immune to the hypnotic virus Of the
Oriental name and did accordingly flop the
vassal Of the Mikado upon the damp, firm pave
ment OF 43d street with much vigOr This flop
ping process was kept up until the Japanese
scientist was thoroughly convinced that there
are more things west OF Suez than were dreamt
of in his philosophy.
May we be pardOned for remarking that we
have always expected this outcome? We could
never convince ourselves that Celts and Yam
KEGS. who for centuries have been fighting
am!cably and otherwise at DOnnybrOOk and
county fairs and behind the barn on Sunday
afternoons, could have overlooked any effective
method Of doing up" the other fellow. Jiu-
jitsu feaZed our belligerent countrymen for Il
while simply because II was rougher than
polite wrestling, more polite than rough-and-
tumble fighting and had been imported with a
strange label from n wonderful country.