Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1924-04-29
THRILL HUNTING
By H. Addington Bruce

~HOUGH few seem to appreciate It, the
great national pastime today is thrill
hunting. 1t is a pastime zealously
pursued by people of all ages and all condi-
tons of life. And myriads pursue 1t day
after day, almost from the moment they open
their eyes in the morning until they close
them in sleep at night.
Nay, there are some so insatiate in their
thrill hunting that they even wake them
selves during the night to get a thrill. Thus
we hear of people who, having installed
radio sets in their homes, tune them to re-
ceive from distant parts Of the world, and
set alarm-cocks for one or two in the morn
ing that they may then hear something
which perchance will thrill them
This same craving for a thrill accounts
for the huge circulation of sensational news
papers and magazines, 1t accounts for the
popularity of melodramas and so-called mys-
terry plays, for the colossal sums taken in by
the promoters of prize fights, wrestling
matches, athletic contests of every kind.
If it were not for the thrill craving
financial writer's would have to chronicle a
habi$ual state of dizziness in the stock mar
ket, and gambling rooms would be Well-nigh
deserted Police magistrates, too, would
have far less to do, for demonstrably, vice
and crime are largely stimulated by thrill
hunting.
Which suggests. of course, that thrill hunt
ing is not a wholly harmless pastime.
1t is the reverse of this. And the dire
fully significant thing is that it is continually
gaining in favor, that the growing gener-
alton threatens to be a generation OF more
ardent hunters than any generation that has
gone before. Or in the language of one
Clear-seeing observer:
The youth of our day is fed on wonders
from infancy up, and is ever demanding
Justify, Come on, give us thrill today -
Now this rising passion for thrills IS, IN
part at all events, product of recent prog
ress in science and invention which has not
only multiplied the means for obtaining
thrills but has so over-estimated the nervous
system by increasing the complexities of eX-
istence as to cause an eXcitability that inten-
SITES the thrill craving. And, most unhap-
PLY, the more the thrill craving is INDUCED
| the stronger it becomes.
| Necessarily this means much wasting Of
energy that should be conserved for useful
ends Still worse. it also means individual
and racial exhaustion. The rising tide or
nervous and mental disease, of vice crime,
/ divorce, and other social ills is an ominOus
sign of a condition Of which thrill hunting
/ is at once symptom and cause.
One cannot, it must be conceded. check
| the progress of science and invention. En-
! istence is certain to become even more COM
| pick than at present. But one can at least,
through the home, the school. and other ed
vocational agencies, develop habits of thought
and action that will serve to hold the thrill
! craving in check.
That is what must be done If society is
to be saved from collapse. There are already
| multitudes of people who have learned how
! TO lead lives sanely resistive to the passion
for thrills. Their example shows what can
be done-what really must be done if civil
ization is 10 endure.
(Copyright 1924)