Perth Amboy evening news., 1920-12-31
THE HASKIN LETTER
RISE OF THE RING BAT
ME
BY Frederic J. Haskin.

fight seems to he taxing on new Ire
all over the world, and in this
country especially. The recent
Dempsey-Bresnahan bout in New
York was enormously attended and
seats sold about 2S dollars each.
Fashionable folk turned out to see
II. and leading newspapers gave a
detailed account of it the place of
honor the next day. The fact can
not be lodged that the ring battle
is coming to occupy very much the
place in American life that the bull
tight does in Spain.
The game seemed to be getting a
black y a few years ago after III
famous Jeffries-Johnson battle.
The race rioting which followed
hat event provoked a general dis
gust, and Roosevelt, who was then
the national arbiter of almost every
thing, pronounced against the prize
fight, although defending boxing as
a sport of a high order, and one
which he followed himself.
But the revulsion of public opin-
ion was only temporary and the
ring fight has been growing in favor
ever since. The coming fight be-
tween Dempsey and Carpenter is
the leading topic of conversation in
sporting circles. and the rise of the
prize fight in France. and the devel-
opment of first class fighters in that
country, has given the thing a new
international aspect. For prize
fighting is a new sport in France.
England has always had her boxers,
but few of them have been able to
stand up against the best of the
Americans. The English game has
always been ame than ours The
French boxers, on the other hand,
are to ell accounts the gamest. the
most ferocious the world has yet
produced. They ask no quarter and
they give none. The cries of stop
it," which are generally heard in
this country when a bout becomes
and o much blood be-
gins to flow, are never heard in
France. The fair ladies of fashion
are found at the ringside there as
here. and they are said to be the
most unmeroiful of all. 1t is prob
able that our champions will from
now on never lack French challen-
gers, and hat these international
bouts will give the game a new dig
nifty and interest. They will at least
be better than the inter-raoial strug-
gle which prize fighting threatened
become in this country a few
years ago.
A Sign OF Decadence.
Even so. according to the best
scientifi copinion we can get the rise
Of the prize fight is not a thing for
Americans to be proud of. 1t
shows that we are in some sense a
decadent people-that we are losing
virility.
Whenever you hear a defense of
prize fighting you usually hear a
of the ring fight usually fail to see
that there is all the difference in the
world between a taste for putting
on the gloves and fighing. and a
.aste fer sitting in perfect safety
and watching the other fellow fight.
The one is an evidence of healthy
manhood, and the other an evil
ience of manhood slightly gone to
;eed.
The lust of battle is an ineradi-
cable and a necessary part of the
human animal. We are all effective
In whatever wo do just in so far as
are bold and determined fight
srs. But as cities grow large and
grows soft, the need and the OPP
portunity for physical battle grows
less and less. Fifty years & a mar
in this country, always in danger
IF being called upon to fight with
ieadly weapons or with his fists.
But now the duel has gone out of
and fisticuffs are popular
only among small boys We do u
in the law courts, On the
exchange. in all the relations
Il business in labor unions, in leg
islatures, and in Congress. You
sght the boss for a raise, and your
wife fights for q certain social posi-
Life remains a battle, but it
eases to be a physical battle.
But we are physical beings as
veil as mental ones. These c~iviliz-
ed struggles may sharpen u
but they do not harden u
A man who can face a left
swing at his jaw can also face a
threatened catastrophe in his bust
hess. And the man who would
vince from a blow is also apt to
vince from the gait in business or
We try to avoid this decay of
the nerve by all sorts of artificial
physical battles, such as golf and
But fewer and fewer of us
can AFFORD these Things as they rise
in price. Therefore we are becom-
ing a race which is strange to ply
combat of any sort. We are
a race with weak nerves.
May not that be one reason why we
are so easily imposed upon by pro-
Ulcers and grafters and all the rest
Of the predatory fraternity?
Battle by Proxy.
But the old taste for blood and
is always with us. 1t is a per-
manent par of us. We can no long
err fight directly and so we like to
fight vicariously. Hence we gather
around a ring and watch a couple
Of fellows pummel each other with
which we could neither de-
nor endure.
We will pay as a people ten times
as much to witness that spectacle
as we will to see anything in the
theatre, even a musical comedy.
And not n in a thousand of the
chaps who gather at the ringside
had a glove on in his life. or
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