RANDOM SHOTS

Auckland Star, Volume XLI, Issue 16, 16 July 1910, Page 14

RANDOM SHOTS

Some wi ite —vain thought—for neeernl cash Some "write to Dlease the country clash, And raise a din. For xne, an aim I never fash — I write lor Inn. ±±±±±±ii±± An ex-Aucidander, now resident in Wellington, has sent mc a cutting from the "Evening Post/ which he would like mc io explain. I don't know that I can imd-erM-ke to elucidate it, but it may conceivably throw some light upon the dispute, thut has arisen between xwo distinguished athletes in the South over a series of running matches. According to the 'Tost," Sanson notified TTernbath, who, I am given to understand, is champion oi the Dominion over a variety of distances, that he (Sanson) was prepared to run .him (Treinbath) for ''120, f≥2o, and 440 years." Trembath replied that he was only ready to run a certain number o£ yards —it doesn't matter vrkat —and ever since Sanson has been accusing him of "bnclcing oux" and ''.funking" and refusing to delend his title. "Well, I don't blame ilr. Trembath. Life is short, £nd tii"Gre are ot-lier thin£rs to do in it ibesides running races: and 120 years — to say nothing of 440 —is a. long time to look forward to, even if you contem-{pls-te it, zl3 Or continuous '"o-o as you please." Therefore. I hasten to assure irty Wellington friend that in my opinion Irenrbath was thoroughly justified in reiusing to ran Sanson; and I must thank mj correspondent for calling my attention to this remarkable announcement. i(P".S. —I ita-ve just showed tois "shot" to a friend, who gives it as his opinion that the "Post" didn't really mean when it printed it. But it is not for mc to distort or modify the language o£ the "Post." "Zamiel," 1 =trust, knows his place.)

I thought we had finished with the Great Fight last -week, but it is still -with us, and. is likely to be so for some time. IThe very latest development is that the civilised world is tip in arms against the *" living pictures" of the contest. Suddenly witliant a moment's warning the people ot America and England and the " Dominions beyond the seas" have awakened to- the conviction that pictures of prize fights are bruial and degrading, and the air is thick -with denunciations and heavy -with, supplications and protests. .The curious part of it all is that before Johnson beat Jeffries- nobody over thought of objecting to the bioscope (or kineroatograph, or whatever the "living -pictures'' machine's correct name is) as an adjunct to these conflicts, and as a popular iind lucrative form of entertainment. When Johnson fought Burns the *" pictures" were an exceedingly important feature of that great international episode, and they were exhibited all over Australasia to enthusiastic thousands without arousing the least unfavourable criticism. But. you. see, the civilised world evidently thinks that Jeffries ought to Iba-ve won this figlrt because he is white, not. because he is the better man —and it is not prepared to allow the overthrow of xhe last available hope of the Caucasians to go upon record in this singularly convincing manner. Curiou=, isn't it? if "tKerc were anything in ttie oiitcry against -living pictures," of prize-fights on the score of public morality, why didn't we hear of it beiore Johnson won? It s-eema xo mc that white men are forgetting- not only bow to fight, but how to take a thrashing. ±±£-i±±s3A±

And the same remark applies with even more f-orce to the outcries that are now rending the empyrean against tie brutalities of tire prize-ring. I don't say that such displays as took place last week at lleno are edifying and elevating. But ■what I want to know i≤, why didn't the •white population of England, 'America, Australia, etc., etc., find out that boxing contests are a brutal and demoralizing iorm of sport before Johnson beat Jeffries? And if it were only possible, I would also very much like to discover .what attitude these eloquent critics of prise-fighting would have taken up if Jeffries bad beaten Johnson. It seems to mc that the social conscience which can stand a ii«ht in ■which, a white "man thrashes a '•coloured gentleman," 'but can't put up with a set-to in which the "t>lack man gets the best of it, is rather peculiarly '■organised. And if you come down to ■the facts of the case, all this talk about the alleged ferocity and brutality of the Johnson-Jeffries "mill" is utter nonsense. The next day both men were reported sound and well, c::cept for Jefiries' eye, and everybody who knows anything of the annals of modern boxing kitows xhat he got that damaged beyond repair in another fight ten years ago. 1 believe that I am well within the mark in saying that very few fights in recent years have resulted in so little damage to either of the contestants, and if it hadn't been for the result, wo would have heard nothing about the -''brutality" and "ferocity," and all the rest of it." I don't often quote Wellington 'papers -with approval, but I submit with whole-hearted sympathy the following from the ""'New Zealand Timos": —"A nice point for the future commentator on national character to decide may be whether the prize-ring fell into disrepute because of a quickening of the public conscience or because of Mr. Johnson. The evidence of the ■moment seems to point to the negro as the instrument of regeneration."

Some people say all men are born e-.juai. . v. jader i; the people who are in -the habio of making this consoling remark hav> ever heard of Mr Arthur Griffith. He is a "lightning calculator," iind hi 3 speciality is doing the work of fourteen men at once. TIo needs no pen or pencil or <rh.ii.ik. or blackboard, nor appsrtndy any large amount of time "to do anything suggested to him in the way of arithmetical feats. Her;; are a few of what he terms light mental exercises: What is the compound interest on one halfpenny at 0 per cent from the birth of Christ to the present date? What two sums cf all numbers from one upwards, added, make a sum of ail numbers from one upward: subtracted, leave a rum cf all numbers from one upward; and multiplied, make a sum of all numbers from one upward added? What number multiplied by three-tenths, fourtenth?, nine-tenths, ten-tenths and tsrelre-fcenths does not leave one figure out or put another figure in the product? E.eally, it makes one.tired even to think of it. After alij what is the .£OQd of Education?