A BRUTAL AND BRUTAL-D ISING EXHIBITION.

Evening Star, Issue 14414, 9 July 1910, Page 2

A BRUTAL AND BRUTAL-D ISING EXHIBITION.

That is how we describe the prize fight between Johnson and Jeffries. It was a fight between two human beings who were animated by the passions that drive brutes into battle. Of course, mind entered into the contest. So it also does in every fight between beasts, for there is intelligence (of a sort) amongst them. But in the case cf men this higher intelligence is devoted to what? To hammering another creature into a condition of insensibility—to reducing to pulp, if possible, a being that educated Christendom believes was created in tho Divine imago', there may have been science used in the doing of this,, but it is science prostituted :o the very lowest purposes. Jt is scienci used in the interest of what approaches very nearly to diabolism. One might almost :n well say tint murder loses its criminality i! it.only be committed scientifically. We arrive along these lines at the nefarious saying of a celebrated statesman that vied, oses half of'its"evil when it loses all its, greasness. As one reads the details cf the teno contest tho whole bass business, with its ‘‘upper cuts” and “ clinches” and bloodletting, reeks of the shambles. It is even worse than a contest of brutes, for brutes ire only living out their, natures; but in this case the higher intelligence is used for the lowest end, and human nature reel; oack into the savagery from which centuries, of evolution had slowly lifted it. * * * * * * * But that is not the worst. It would be a comparatively small matter if only two human beings thus sank back into bestiality. But they cannot do that without dra ging others along with them. Tho 20,000 people ,vho gathered in that comparatively obscure township to gaze at the fistic exhibition, and to breathe the atmosphere of it, must also bo more or less brutalised by the spectacle." It is impossible to look at such exhibitions without having the-finer sensibilities of tho nature indurated. For the great majority, we believe it to be true that they shrink from watching a prize fight. Centuries of civilisation have in some degree worked out the brute from our natures, but them is a remnant of it still, even in the best of us. And it only needs tho proper’ environment and it will leap up devouring. A youth ouco went to an Irish pugilist to get from him some lessons in what is euphonious!}* called “tho noble art.” He asked him how he would become an expert boxer. “Bcgorra, sir,” replied the professional, “if Nature hasn’t given you a bit of “a t:»te for it nobody could teach it to “you.” But that is just what Nature has clono for all of us. Wo have not yet completely worked out the beast. Tho remnants of tho apo and the tiger are in us still. In one of his recent novels Mr Hitchens tells the story of a doctor who was driving a staid, woll-behaved horse in a country lane. The animal -ambled forward at a gentle pace, flicking its ears lazily in order to circumvent the flics, and apparently at ease with its driver and all the world. But suddenly it raised its head, drew the air into its _ distended stopped, quivered in every limb, and then with a strange cry bolted liko a mad thing. Far away a, travelling men agerie was camped. ; It had scented the wild animals. The horse was wise, for it .knew whore its safety lay. But we know also that if it were left long enough to associate with its wild kindred it would soon revert to its original type. And it is the same with the higher animal—Man. There is still the strain of savagery in his blood; and, disguise it how we may, such exhibitions as that at Reno last Monday are manifestations of it. Like the horse, Iris safety would be in closing his eyes to them and running away. Cardinal Newman said truly that ‘‘-the security against sin is in being shocked at it.” But the repulsion against it Weakens with familiarity. And these boxing contests must bn stopped , oi l wo shMl have not only the victor, but the whole community where they arc permitted to, take place coarsened, and depraved by them. : - » « * - * * -x The most ominous feature connected with the Reno fight was the presence of women and children. It is bad enough to have the manhood of a country imperilled by an exhibition of this kind, but when it sweeps woman into the same degradation, the end either of these'spectacles or of the people who gaze at them cannot be far off. .Most of us have still enough left to shtidcler at the pictures

of tlio Roman dames in the Coliseum as they turned their thumbs either up or down in token of the life or death of the gladiators. Ichahod was already written in letters of flame on the Empire’s forehead when it gathered in its hundreds •of thousands,, women as well as men, to watch the gladiators “butchered to make a Roman holiday.” The nemesis of cruelty is extinction. It is therefore. not a little dismaying that in this twentieth century 100 women could be got■, together in a Christian land to pay their gold and «it out a show that in all its essentials recalls that of the decadent days of Rome. We may hope that most of them belonged to a class that was already lost to all sense of virtue—wandering wisps of painted humanity—or (very likely) many jf them wore women of wealth, who had exhausted all forms of pleasure, and were hungering for some new sensation to appease their tormenting appetites. They rwero such as these described thus in a powerful work of fiction that has been recently published ; • . . _ lunatics who stare away their days behind prancing horses in the park ; who worship in the sacred groves of bonnets; who burn inccnsc to rouged and powdered fashions; who turn Literature into a “movement” and Art into a “cult,” Humanity into a bogy, and Love into an adulterous sensation—the lunatics who think that to “live” is only another word for- to sin, that inno■cence_ is a prison, and vice liberty—the lunatics who fill their boudoirs with false gods and cry everlastingly “ Baal, : hoar us!” .till the fires come down from Heaven, which is no painted coiling over, by a plaster god. •» e ■» * «• »

And then think of the degradation which is done to the most sacred relationship in the name of religion. The. whole nearo race praying for (he success of their champion, and getting what they -will regard as the answer of God to their frenzied prayers! This would be ludicrous in the extreme if it were not so tragic. As to the race hatred which must bo engendered by the contest we need scarcely say anything. Wo arc almost inclined to rejoice that Johnson won, for his victory may help, perhaps, to humble a bit the white man’s pride in his primacy, and moderate Ids contempt for his black brother. It is true, however, that the average Yankee would scarcely -acknowledge him as such. Wo remember once asking a. Southern American what was the cause of the intense antipathy, to the negroes. “ Well,” he replied, ,- wc don’t believe they are human.” That was blunt and candid; and though it may seem ridiculous to us, yet that Ls undoubtedly the sentiment entertained by multitudes in America towards the negro. This race hatred is one of the most ominous problems darkening the American horizon, and its solution will not be made any easier by the event that has just taken place at Reno. But it is a question which America itself must be left to deal with. « * ' * -x- * -x- * Our immediate concern just now is how to protect ourselves arainst the brutalising influences of this prize fight. Public opinion is not vet perhaps educated up to the standard of absolutely prohibiting by law these public exhibitions. The time is ripe, however, for a discussion of that issue. Wo know what can be urged in favor of boxing as a means of physical culture. But it is not the only means. Other methods quite as good, and without the demoralising associations of the prize-ring, can easily bo found. It may bo valuable, too, as a, weapon of selfdefence. But that is a weapon which civilisation is making less and less needful. Moreover, when that weapon is in the hands of men whose tempers.are not under complete control, they will he tempted to use their lists under light provocation. hear about the danger of nations •piling mu armaments. If it goers on it must inevitably lead to an explosion. And the expert in pugilistic science will be under a constant temptation to make short work, of a disagreeable opponent. Furthermore, as the mi develops fewer can excel in it—the rest merely look on. This is the evil of athletics when carried to excess. There is sound sense in Mr Chesterton's paradoxical argument that Waterloo was not won at ■ Eton, where cricket was “in escel.ds." but on the English village greens,, where it was played ehunsilv and inartisti-c-ally-

It is a, good sign in a nation when ‘such things are done badly. It is a bad sign in. a. nation when suet) lliinss arc done very well,, .for it shows that only a few experts and eccentrics arc doing them, and that (he nation is merely looking on. * . ■» * * «- *

And this is true of boxing, as of any other sport. But boxing has this especially evil characteristic': that its inevitable tendency, when done before the footlights, is to destroy the higher sensibilities not merely of tlio Iroxers themselves, but of those who look on. If wa are not yet piepired for total prohibition of these public boxing exhibitions—what a. misnomer!— there are other things which we honestly believe that public opinion will endorse. We declare emphatically that the Press of a country, as the moulders of public opinion to a very large extent, are nuclei- a serious responsibility. It is surely open to question if the enormous amount of space and the undue prominence to exhibitions of the Reno typo arc really desired by the vast mass of the readers of our daily journals. We are persuaded that, in this Dominion at any rate, it k not so. Wo think, too, that (ho supply of (he details of the encounter and all that preceded it were out of all proportion to the demand. The effect eras undeniably to create a baleful Influence that was exercised upon thousands, who otherwise would not have cared two straws about the affair. Why, then, was it done? We fear it must be frankly confessed that in these days of fierce competition if one newspaper did not do it another would. It is not a very high typo of journalistic morality that such an admission discloses, but there is the fact—for fact it is—bluntly stated. For ourselves, wo should be very glad if elaborate reports of such-exhibitions were forbidden by law. We should like to see them placed in the same category as questions inimical to public morality. Something can be said, no doubt, about the desirability of giving publicity to such exhibitions, as otherwise they may degenerate into the pandemonium of rats in a cage; but that part of the business may very well be left in the hands of the police, who have full power to deal with it, if they so wish. And theatres, music .halls, etc., should be prohibited , from giving public displays of these fights, or from announcing the results from their stages. Further-more, neither women nor boys under a- certain age should be allowed into any building or . place where such contests are held. We may bo told by some that the presence of women would exercise a humanising influence on the “ entertainment.” The veriest buncombe, for instead of the presence of woman having a restraining influence, on such a “show,” it i would be the other way about. In the end the “ show \ would degrade them. -S *Sf * 'Hr Jr ' # ' Above all, the prohibition should extend to kinematographic pictures of fights and boxing contests. Wo regard such as oven

moro deteriorating in their effects than the reality, for the actual fight has certain wild and cruel features about it that tend to create disgust for those who are dabbling in thei' first experiences of the prize fight* These features are, however, absent from tho pictures. The worst and the most unedifying scenes are not shown by tho kincmatograph, or, if they ai - c, there is a certain icfinemenu and distilling away of tho odious and the cruel. Moreover, these pictures are seen by vast crowds who Would never dream of going near a prize fiirht. And thus a public sentiment —founded on imperfect knowledge—grows up in favor of toleration. Wo trust, therefore, that Parliament will see the .wisdom of taking immediate, steps, and before the pictures arrive here, so that contracts may not bo entered into, to make it illegal to exhibit in this Dominion any kind of picture illustrative of the Reno fight.

But ail these efforts at prohibition have the weakness that attaches to any external law. They are negative. The only effective remedy must bo positive, and it must be lodged in human nature itself. For we can only save the people from the degrada.ticn of these exhibitions by creating in our fellows a taste for something higher. At bottom, these exhibitions are engineered mainly as money-making concerns. All tho talk about them being either scientific or artistic is arrant rubbish. It is for neither of these purposes that they , are conceived, organised, controlled, and too often “worked.” It is the almighty dollar that is the veal motive. And certainly the amount of dollars in a transaction of this nature is extraordinary. In various ways the winner of the Reno fight will make, by the uac of his fists, in one brief hour a sum compared with which the salary of tho President of tho United States or cf the Prime Minister of Great Britain, or tho earnings for a lifetime of a great scientific or literary genius, is a mere circumstance. If Carlyle were alive to-day ho might find in this revelation a. new proof of his grim and cynical saying that the human race—or was it the English race?—consisted of so many millions, ‘■mostly fools.” Yet a journal of tho standing in the newspaper world enjoyed by the Melbourne ‘Argus’ committed .itself to the amazing declaration that “ the “bigger tho prize-money they win the “ bettor for themselves, the public, and

-the standing of the sport.” We may let '.he great prophet of the last generation— John Raskin—answer this extraordinary doctrine:

It seems to me a very' dark sign respecting ns that ivc look with so much in di If eve nee upon dishonesty and cruelty in the pursuit of wealth. In the dieam of Nebuchadnezzar it was only the feet that were part of iron and part of clay, but many of us are now getting a> cruel in our avarice that it seems as if, in ns, the heart Were part of iron and part of clay.

A nation may survive many malformations, but when it# heart corrode* it launches -tsclf on the riieam of things that is moving fast to oblivion. And it is such corrosion that boxing contests of tho Reno order portend..