The news scimitar. (Memphis, Tenn.) 1907-1926, 1919-07-09
THE NATURAL MAN

If the industrious Phineas Fletcher had waited until the
present time to write his great poem, The Purple Island" and
devoted the second canto to the natural man" he might have
taken Jack Dempsey for his subject. Dempsey is a natural
man, %unspoiled by the rehnements and effeminacies of cultiva-
ton. Lacking only tusks and taons, he is a cave man in whom
the first of human instincts, self-preservation, IS enormously
developed, This instinct includes the collateral desire to destroy
your enemy, instantly, This and strong muscles won him the
battle, and made him heavyweight champion OF the world, for a
season at least.
Dempsey is without imagination. and therefore it was no
trouble for him to concentrate his mind on the work in hand.
His objective was the point Of Jess Wizards chin, the one
vulnerable spot, and he reached it, His calculations and reason
ing, sent out from his training quarters, were the work OF some
OF the many newspaper experts, who were only too glad to do
the writing and the thinking in order to get a story Instinct
and not reason taught Dempsey that his surest road to success
was by way of quick assault with his heaviest weapons. This
instinct guided his every movement from the moment he entered
the ring until he left it $7 500 richer, and with the potenuahty
Of making money on his title in amounts greater than many men
can dream OF.
Willard tried to think and reason, and was incapable Of
either. He abandoned %primordial instinct, became confused and
lost his head and his title. In nine minutes he won 100000,
which is something more than $1,000 a minute. In no other
way can SO much money be earned" No cultivated man can
aspire TO more than a fraction OF this amount, no matter what
he does. Only the natural man can win such tribute from the
public, because IN the public there is latent a documentary ee-
ment OF the cave man that glories in witnessing the natural
man contest with natures weapons. Cultivation is in this way
condemned and discounted, and the natural man is placed in the
%ascendancy. Dempsey will be a popular champion. He will
fight, and fight anybody, Willard was perhaps the most unpopu-
lar champion the country ever saw. He avoided fights and
calculated. He tried to use his brains, and that is what the fight
fans do not want. They want pugnacious instinct and not rea-
soning powers. Sullivan had more popular affection than any
champion we ever had. He could and did think, but he fought
as il guided by instinct alone.
Because OF his department and intelligence Corbett enjoyed
more respect than any other champion, but no affection.
The sixth canto of Fletcher's great poem, dealing with "thc
intellectual man. could be left unwritten; he is not to be found
among the pugS. He is not popular with fight fans, many of
whom are intellectual, The primordal elements in men worship
what they will, and are continually referring back to first coudi-
tons, These ancient elements inure, No doubt cons ago our
agile ancestors were highly amused and laughed immoderately
when the prehensIe tail OF one OF their number loosehed its
hold on a limb, hurting its owner to the ground below, and the
same sense OF the ridiculous causes mOderns to paw Charlie
Chaplin 100000 a year for making them laugh by falling As
with Dempsey, it is the call Of the natural man to the residue
of the natural man that remains in everyone. Not compl-
mentary to our pride Of intellect, OF course. Only a sordid,
undeniable truth.
Whose seeks popularity must cling close to nature, and not
attempt flights to the higher realms, Wiser and surcr is he
who remains below, rather than above, mediocrity. Popular
favor goes to the one who holds to the p~rimordial and original
prescribing all else.