Los Angeles herald., 1910-07-04
RENo-IULY 4

III p regret to say that while to-
w day is the anniversary of great
event in our history and some
tens of thousands will foregather to
recall the patriotic deeds and saeri-
fees of the fathers who handed down
the blessings of liberty, millions more
look upon the day as great chiefly
because two large men will strip in
an amphtheater at Reno, New, and
pound each other with their fists until
one finds the pneumogastric nerve or
the solar plexus of the other and lulls
him into an enforced sleep long enough
for an arbiter to count ter.
1t is an amusing as well as seri-
Gus comm, ntary upon our twentieth
century culture that the bulletin
boards and the arena will be the CEN
ters Of interest today, and not the
parks and groves where song and
story will revive the memories of her
oic souls who risked their all for the
common veal. Some very good peo-
pie, we fear, who acutely see the in
congruity of general culture and f1s-
tic prowess, will hasten from the
patriotic concourses to ask with bated
breath, who won?" And the evening
''uxtry" will find its way into homes
of refinement, that the suspense over
the relative prowess of the black and
the white man may be quickly re-
leved.
1t is an interesting study in psycholo-
hot will ha
interesting because it reveals to us
what we are-brutish animals, after
all, with a pretty but rather hypocri-
tical and thin veneer. 1t is reported
that in some parts of the country pious
colored brethren are offering up prayers
to the throne of Grace that power may
be given to the elbow of their cham
pion. 1t is we'll known that our last
previous president, cultured man that
he is, does not disguise to his close
friends lively interest in affairs pug
ilistic, and it would scarcely be denied
by the admirers of the late lamented
polished gentleman who was king of
Great Britain and Ireland and en-
peror of India, would, if he had
chanced to be living in the vicinity of
Reno, be the leader of a congenial lit
tie party at the ringside, and not be
particularly secretive about it.
Some of us explain to ourselves that
our interest, concealed or unconcealed,
as the case may be, in the pugilists is
the instructive racial rivalry. Those of
us who have Caucasian skins want
MIR. Johnsings block knocked off be-
cause the white races boast of superb
ority is dear to us; while our Ethiopian
contingent is equally jealous of the
contention that it's color is not stamp
of social or physical inferiority.
But let US be candid with ourselves.
We of the white race love the plea
sures of the senses, even to the british
things, and the colored brethren love
not only the elation of victory but the
fried chicken and checked clothes that
are represented by successful bets.
Speaking with entire seriousness, we
look upon the meeting at Reno where
thousands who can afford the time
and money will howl themselves as
hoarse as any savage Comanche at the
sight of blood, as a quite ephemeral
thing that will leave the participants
and spectators just about what they
were before But we do feel a regret
that modern invention is going to take
moving pictures of the cory affair and
spread them out before the millions
of young eyes of the country. That, to
our thinking, is the most serious part
of the prize fight of these latter days,