Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1923-10-18
OLD-TIlWE RELIGION

DA@A@AA
others, prize fights appear almost, every
night in most of large cities Boldly,
and in defiance of the laws of the land,
these brutal exhibitions are advertised, and
to them thousands flock, including officers
of cities and states, and not few women
supposed to be educated and refined. These
spectators are not satisfied for the victors
in these coarse contests to Twin on points.
They demand "knockOuts," as Roman SEN
ators and matrons clamored for the death
of the gladiators. They pay large sums
in the form of admission fees for the
privilege of witnessing such wretched deeds
of "the ring
What immense sums were paid the two
brutes who fought recently in contest
which the newspapers reported under glazing
headlines above the most demoralizing de-
tails of the diaboical performance. One of
the fghters-the winner-was paid an en-
ormous amount which exceeded the earnings
of successful business man for lifetime,
and went far beyond the wages of the most
skilled laborer for all his toilsome days.
The loser was compensated with less sum,
but with an amount which scarcely less
than startling. Who paid these brutes? The
brutalized spectators, of course.
And who were among the spectators? Sen
atorS and congressman, milliOnaires and
their modish wives. 1t is said that the wife
of an eX-cabinet secretary, who served in
the administration Of one Of our former
presidents, one who viewed the spec
tacle with the most excited interest and
keen delight.
To what end will such things lead? We
turn away with adherence from the his
tory of the gladiatorial shows of ancient
Rome, but are not thousands of the Ameri-
can people treading the same downward
path to utter degradation and destruction?
Will modern education save the republic
from going to such a dreadful end? In
tellectual culture did not save the Romans.
Pliny in his "Panegyric' upon Trajan, praises
that poor creature for the brutal games he
provided, which games, says the philosopher,
edo not eneryate the minds of men, but on
the contrary inflame them to honorable
wounds and contempt of death as they per-
ceive even in slaves and criminals the love
of praise, and desire for victory" Seneca
called them Eight amusements." The poet
Ovid advised the spectators of those ''sports
that killed. to improve the opportunity for
love-making. These were the sentiments,
not of the rude and uneducated, but of the
most cultured and enlightened.
1t would not be surprising if it should be
discovered shat professors of some uni
versities, and perhaps a few preachers, eX-
emplars of metropolitan liberalism, Toasted
their sight-loving eyes upon the Dempsey
Firpo exhibition of brutishness Have not
some men euIogized such things as ilustra-
lions of 1.-The manly art? Have them not
said boxing" qualified men for martial
service in time of war? And yet when the
World war broke upon us, the boxers con-
tributed the smallest percentage of soldiers
/
were the Dempseys then? How many
coWardly slackers were among them, keep
ing their precious hulks out of the hardships
of camps and the dangers of the field? The
Roman gladators were as far above these
American pugilists as the brave Spartacus
was more noble than the brute Dempsey.
Boxing matches do not yield bravery
So much as they beget brutishness.
1t is time to end these coarse combats by
the enforcement of the laws against prize
fights. Statutes should not be evaded by
euphemistic phrases concealing brutality
with the misleading term Of boxing
Matches
More important than even law is revival
of religion penetrating and pervasive that
| it will purge the nation of these foul hlots
upon decency and civilization.
We have nothing more to save the republic
from ruin than what the Romans had to
arrest |'the decline and fall of their COM
monwealth-eXcept the Christian religion.
If our people reject the religion of
Christ, and revert to the paganism of Rome,
they will run to the ruin which fell upon
the Romans Do they propose to be Chris
| tians or heathens? That is the question
which probes them to the depths of their
nature. That is the issue upon which turns
| their welfare, or their woe.