THE APOTHEOSIS OF MUSCLE

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 2315, 27 December 1889, Page 2

THE APOTHEOSIS OF MUSCLE

(Prom oar Melbourne correspondent,) A. thoughtfully written article appeared m the columns of the •' Age " last Saturday which will commend itself for the good sense oonained m it to all thought fal readers, It referi to the undue prominence which has been given to the achieyemeutß of Searle, the boatman— a prominence that has been accentuated by the untimely death of a young man The "Age ' very pertinently aaka what are we to think of the utterly undue, or rather disproportionate intereßt that has been exolted by the de«*th of Searle. It was only natural that athletes of all classes would cluster round the dead man's ooffin, for he had shed lustre upon the possession of abnormal muscular development, and more than ordinary pluck and endurance. But, as the " Ago" pertinent'y iemarks ; *' The oarsman, Jise the cheee player, leavs mankind pretty much where he found them " He amuses people, and famishes them with a little harmless recreation. But «• his patriotism falls very far short of that of the successful atateman or General who has restored the drooping fortunes of hla country by a master-stroke m the Council room or the battle field " If he bad not contracted this fatal d'seaee and died, he would havo gone to hie home comparstlvely unno icad exoept by a fow enthusiafctfo sportsmen. If he bad fallen battling m the CiUße of | down-trodden humanity as, Gordon did j I if he had spent years of his life m the aamo cause, cut off from friends and oivilieation as "Kmin Pasha has done ; if he had braved death In a thousand forma as Stanley ac done; if he had even made two b'adeo of gisaa grow ia the p ( 503 where hardly one grew before, as the OhtfErfy Broihera are now doing, if ho h*d done any one of theae thingß, or a tenth part of any of them, one <nulcl then understand the fuao over (he fale that has befallen him — a fate which overtakes far more nseful man every day of our lives. It augurs badly for the future of the young Austral an giant, when m its infancy I* is taught that notoriety In the oricket field, the football field, or upon the rmr, are more desirable objects of ambition than deßtinotion m the study, the senate, at the bar, m medicine, m agriculture, or even commerce, One oan eynipa^h §9 with any patent who has been bereaved of a son Bat what are we to think of a man, who rises m the Senate House, and propo les a vote of condolence over the death of a young oar^m^n, oiting as a precedent, and hid (xotiee for doing so, a votj that was a> paeSfid where death eaatohftd away the i!lualriouß rultr or! a pjwetful nation with which we have frundly relations. Why, oven Mr R. S. Smyths, the pr-ifes-siontl (< Star '•' m<m&ger, does not riae to that level ia a letter which he has addreaeed to the "Argun" this morning, where he describes Mr H. M. Stanley as •'the fearless missionary." Livingetone was a missionary, and bo was Gordon — ftlthoogh the latter was never accredited by any mssionary or society. But 1 never yet Itpari of Stinky passing as a raiss'lonarr, and I rath?;' think he would bf» amused at anybody else who thus posed him Molbouroe, D«Q«mber 16, 1889,