El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1913-04-24
As to the Prize Fights
Vulgar Exhibitions Are Degrading
and a Worse Blot on
Name of City.
by Chns. H. Parkhurst

RIZE FIGHTING. called for popU.
lar effect boxing" is a question
= that is being considered in Bos-
ton, as well as in New York
A letter recently received from there
asks: VIII you send me some litera-
ture upon the natter"
To which I replied: you need no
literature. Attend one of the bouts
Inspect its brutality. Observe its
bIood-Ietting That viii be literature
enough. Then go away and tell what
Won have seen. Describe the character
Of the crowd that gathered to the oc-
casion To the extent that you are
yourself human and not brute
YOU viii 20 back furnished with all
the argument needed for the persua-
sion of men that have been Christian
lied, or even civilized, or even semi
ANY man who has an honest desire
to have the worlds morals improved
cannot afford to be Indifferent to the
effectiveness Of those influences that
are making for the worlds degrade
Malaria and Fights
If there were a ms1arial quagmire
existing anywhere near city, the
health department would promptly get
busy with il or an impatient and i'm
periled public would insist on know
ing why.
If the department confined its at
tention to such parts of the city as
are already in a fairly sanitary con-
ditiOn and left unguarded the MAS
matte spots and the stench-holes, and
the typhoid fever breeding grounds,
the town would be up in arms.
Letting it be known that such spots
exist is all that would be necessary
to assure their cleansing
Now, why is It that in commun-
ity seemingly concerned to rid the
city Of influences that faint and pol
lutte the minds Of men and that cor
rupt the character Of boys almost be-
fore they are old enough to have any
character-Why is it, 1 say, that the
pulpit and the pew, and the great out
side respectable world give so little at
tention and care to those debasing
forces that are consuming manhood
faster than the church and the syna-
cog can produce it2
Pull Spectators Down
Prize fights pull men down to the
coarse and vulgar level OF the face
smashing. eye-blackening and blood
letting that are the salient features
of the performances, and populate the
underworld faster than the churches
are putting a moral finish and re-
ligiOus polish on the denizens Of the
It is not enough to hear about
them. or to read about them, or to
see them cartooned- Let the occu-
pants of the pulpits and Of the pews
go over and sit close enough to the
arena where these bull fights, per-
formed by creatures nominally human,
sledge- hammer each other, put out
each others light and split open each
others blood veins That is the only
way to become sufficiently intimate
with the facts to realize all that they
mean and to be able to talk about
them with effect.
Every Man in Danger.
There Is no man so white morally
Dr. so sanity religiOusly as to run any
risk Of being contaminated by close
contact with the performers if he at
tends only out of honest desire to
know the worst, in order that he may
be in condition to sound in the ear or
the public a warning note
Bad conditions cannot be estimated
by standing off at a distance and in
specting them through an opera
glass Physicians do not ordinarily
liza gnOse the ailments Of their patients
over a telephone wire.
Those who are Christians, whether
In the pulpit or out Of it, cannot let
he underworld alone without being
for what is going on in
he underworld. and 10 spend all our
line and effort in trying to make a
lew respectable people blossom at the
iame time that we are letting hordes
d disrepectable people rot, is not the
way to fulfil our obligations, nor is II
the way TO make a city a great city