Pocahontas star herald., 1911-11-17
Does History Repeat Itself?

The first history we have OF me
human family, we find as people
became dissolute they instituted
plays, become sportiye, and lost IN
terest in government. We read OF
three thousand being destroyed IN
IN one day for disobedience to the
laws of Jehovah, they became 50
eIated over their golden calf that
tbey lost all regard for the law of
God. "Thcy set down to eat and
drink and rose up to play" Seven
hundred and seventy-slX years be-
fore Christ the Greeks, an enlighten'
ed and intelligent people, became
SO dazzled by their success IN war,
and the renown of their leaders they
Ilost sight of every virtue, and
everything that would make them
peacefully happy, they instituted
their annual festivities, and their
Olymyrc games where hundreds of
lives were sacrificed, and the rewards
to the visitors became so great as to
impoverish the treasury of state.
So we find that Greece is no more.
Along down the line of history
we note the Roman Empire, the
most powerful empire then on earth,
in her afiiuence, and splendor, a
number in idleness and luxury,
having their national games which
were a degraded imitation of the
Grecians, and like them wantonly
cruel and barbarOus.
Neither pen nor tongue can de
scribe the horrors of the scene in an
ampitheator where gladlators
fought, wild strains of music to
drown the cries of the dying, the
ordor of Syrian perfumes to over
power the scent of blood. The
killed and mortally wounded were
dragged from the arena with hooks.
Thus perished hundreds OF the
most noble young men of the nation
for no other purpose than to amuse
wanton, deluded, and heartless
populace, and be it said IN shame to
humanity, women actually partlcl-
pated in those barbarouS plays.
When we read of such inhuman
conduct we are made to wonder why,
and shudder to think the law did |
not stop such brutal, and cruel playsh =
But alas, listen. "They shouted their
applauseas a ghastly blow was dealt
which sent the lifeblood spoutlng .
forth, (Hock- habit she has it, he
has It," burst forth from a
thousand throats, and is re-echoed
not only by a brutallzed populace
but by imperial lips, by purple rob,
ed senators, knights, noble ladies,
and consecrated maids. (See Shep-
pard's Fall of Rome.) So you see
such horrors were not only tolerated
by the law, but were actually in
augurated, participated IN by kings
and court. AND THE ROMAN EN-.
PRE- FELL.
In all candor, and honestly, can
we see anything now being enacted
ON the arena in this our dear land
Of liberty, and the home Of the
brave. that in any way resembles
the gIadiatoual plays? l say can
we? Yes we can see hundreds Of
our good, and intelligent citizens so
excited at just such plays that they
will yell with almost throat bursting
applause to cheer the victors, and
hiss the vanquished at a baseball
or football game, while the poor
deIuded players, bruised, gasping,
and exhausted drag themselves to
some place to rest, family asking
for water, and breath. Statistics
show that there has been more
casualties in the past ten years from
baseball and football than was
caused by the Spanish.American
war, yet we hear professors and
high school principals say such
things are good for the students,
it teaches them to control their
temper, Such logic is about as
good as to say, we ought to fire our
chiIdrens clothes to learn them to
guishextm the flames, Again they
say ball plavIup learns bors s,ro,o