Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1921-01-01

The recent Dempsey-Bresnahan bout In
New York was enormously attended and
seats sold for about $28 each. Fashionable
folk turned out to see it, and leading news
| papers gave a detailed account OF it the
place of honor next day. The fact cannot
be lodged that the ring battle is coming to
occupy very much the place in American
| life that the bull fight does in Spain.
| The game seemed to be getting black
eye a few years ago after the famous JEFF
| fries-J ohnson battle. The race rioting
which follow d that event provoked gen.
eral disgust, and Roosevelt, who was then
the national arbiter of almost everything,
pronounced against the prize fight, although
defending boxing as sport Of high Or
der and one which he followed himself.
| But the revulsion of public opinion was
only temporary and the ring fight has been
growing in favor ever since. The coming
! fight between Dempsey and Carpenter is
the leading topic of conversation in sport
! ing circles, and the rise of the prize fight in
France, AMI the development of first class
| fighters in that country, has given the thing
| new international aspect. For prize fight
| ing 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 tanner than ours. The French
BOXERS on the 9th r hand, are to all accounts
| the gamest, the most ferocious the world has
| yet produced. They ask no quarter and they
]
are generally heard IL this country when
bout becomes one-sided AMI too much blood
| begins to flow, are never heard in France
The fair ladies of fashion are found at the
ringside there s here, and they are said to
be the most un.nerciful Of all. It Is prob
able that our champions will from now on
never lack French challengers, and that
these international bouts will give the game
a new dignity and interest. They will at
least be better than the inter-racial strug-
gle which prize fighting threatened to be-
come in this country few years ago.
| A Sign Of Decadence
Even so according to the best scientific
opinion we can get, the rise of the prize
fight is not thing for Americans to be
proud of. 1t shows that we are in some
sense a decadent peorle-that we are losing
virility.
Whenever you hear a defense of prize
fighting you usually hear a defense Of box
| ing. These partisans of the ring fight usual
~ fail to see that there is all the difference
in the world between taste for putting on
| the gloves and fighting, and a taste for sit
ting in perfect safety and watching the
other fellow fight. The one is an evidence
of healthy manhood, and the cher an evil
dence Of manhood slightly gone to seed.
| The lust for battle is an ineradicable and
necessary part of the human animal. We
are all effective in whatever We do just In
so far as we are bold and determined fight
ers. But as cities grow large and life grows
soft, the need and the opportunity for phys
| ical battle grows less and less. Fifty years
ago man in this country was always in dam
| ger of being called upon to fight with dead
ly weapons or with his fists. But now the
duel has gone out of fashion and fsticuffs
are popular only among small boys. we 90
our fighting In the law courts, on the stock
exchange, in all the relations of business,
in labor unions, in legislatures, and In con-
gress. You fight the boss for raise, and
your wife fights for a certain social position
Life remains battle, but 1t ceases to be
physical battle. ..
| But we are physical beings as we'll as
mental ones These civilized struggles may
sharpen our brains, Sbut they not harden
our nerves. A man swho can face left
swing at his jaw can also face threatened
catastrophe in his business. AnG the man
who would vince from blow = also apt to
vince from the GAIT in business or politics.
| We try to avoid this decay of the nerve
bv all sorts of artificial physical battles,
such as golf and tennis But fewer and
fewer of us can afford these things as they
rise in price Therefore we are becoming
race which is strange to physical combat OF
any sort. We are becoming a race with
weak nerves. May not that be one reason
why we are so easily imposed upon by
profiteers and grafters and all the rest OF
the predatory fraternity?
Battle by Proxy
| But the old taste for blood am battle is
always with us. 1t is a permanent part OF
us. We can no longer fight directly and so
we like to fight vicariously. Hence we gather
around a ring and watch couple or fellows
pummel each other with blows which we
could neither deliver nor endure.
We will pay a people ten times as
much to witness that spectacle as we Will TO
see anything in the .heater, even muslcal
comedy And -ot one in y thousand OF the
chaps who gather at the rings1de ever hao
glove on in his life or ever will have he
is a staunch defender of the manly art.
But for him it represents no art ma1nller
than that of sitting on a hard bench ana
smoking a cigar.
| AS life grows soft and easy all the sports
and amusements Ct a people Lave THIS ten
dency to degenerate from games In "nlcn
| all participate into spectacles in which few
do the work and thousands look on. you
can trace the same line of development in
| ton like ours dancing is sport in which
! everyone participates. Far from being
| DANGEROUS or immoral one, as some OF our
| reformers would have us believe, it Is So
cial safety valve. The young folks dance
off certain energies which would other"'ise
be dangerous to the and to society as con-
| stituted.
| In old and decadent civilizations, like that
of the near East for example, dancing al
| WAYS degenerates from a sport into spec
tacle In the Orient the dancing is all done
| by girls who are hired for the purpose, and
the men merely watch. 1t Is then that
| dancing becomes a really degenerat1Ve
amusemen for it awakens 1ibidinous en-
ergies without providing an outlet for them
You can see our own social dancing going
| or,I NV TaNI 20