UNKNOWN
The sight of two meti who have only brute force to recommend them pounding each other until neither can see and boll) are temporarily reduced to physical wrecks i-, one that has a pecu- • liar charm for the Anglo Saxon race. It ,is shown that lighting with the lists is isudi an important matter that it is worth while to send the 'negro Johnson ill the way from Home to Australia to pound the hero Burns. The fact that many thousands of people are willing to pay large sums of money for the felicity of seeing two men lash each other for something under an hour is a tremendous accusation that we as a race a~e the most pitiable hypocrites. It is a hard thing to say, but there is no doubt of its truth. The "noble art of self defence'' is considered to be one that breeds tile fine instincts of the race—self control, evenness of temper, magnanimity and all the rest of it. Yet while we claim that boxing is a British institution, only a few Britons here and there box, and the rest enjoy the idiotic sensation of watching two mental decadents thrash each other. They have achieved nothing when cither is thrashed except money,
The nation is not stronger because a! pin-headed negro pounds a money-mak-ing American, and if Burns can punch hard and Johnson can hit like a sledge hammer, a horse can kick harder and a mule would heal either in a list to heel conflict. The ■horse and the mule are the more admirable animals because they are not reasoning animals like prize-lighters. If the art is a noble one, inculcating isclf-coulrol and the manly instincts this is probably why an English prizefighter two years ago struck with his list .and killed an old man who was singing \o the disapproval of the gentle prizefighter in a railway carriage, Because the noble art is a line hotbed for the gentlemanly virtues it is probable that these were the virtues that led a famous lightweight iu Sydney to pick quarrels in public houses by snatching somebody else's beer from the bar
counters and then thumping the owner. In short. Tom layers, Harry Kcenaa, Mitchell, Sullivan, Jackson, Flavin, and all the rest of the exponents of the noble art were gentlemen of the first water, who did not fight because they were money-waking punching machines, but merely a? exponents of the catechism of gentility. We have not until recently produced any glove lighters in Xew Zealanders, an. 1 any champion,hip that may be given bv the aristocratic institution which "controls" boxing iu the Dominion are held by people who are not Xew Zealanders.
One of the controllers of Hie noble spoil iu New Zealand not long ago j made pointed references to the "baby-1 faced people who objected to public glove-lighting" refusing to acknowledge tlmt glove-lighting in the Dominion has already degenerated into' a money-mak-ing venture pure and silnplc. it lias atlnicted only men with/iut educati-ii of any kind and who merely take to it as to something that muc(i monev niav [ be earned in a few minutes, supposing I they are "good" enough \ u give the other follow a "knock-out.'' if all the virtues of the British have been purchased by excellence in the lUtic arena. it is remarkable that all ii,e pioneer.-, of New Zealand were not ;.. xor.=. Tt
is conceivable that if piiut-'hiicy awHhe-l fellow round a ring is an illustration of a Union':, best powers, thai. More :i man can plough or sow or reap or w he must first of all have sho.wi that he is handy with the gloves ', It is a little remarkable that" New 'Zealand people who are particiilarlv ami hypocritically soft-hearted in doalin*- with misdemeanants, should howl like nlauiaes for blond when men are in the iWin'. ring. That they do so has been moved time a'.id time again sinie the gientle [ aristocrats who control boxing Initioscountry have made such a .siktc-s Af it.i from a monetary point of view. • At .
the frequent tights which nmvadavs take place in all the New Zen land Centres our benevolent legislators froouelill.v have front seats. Tt is not unco'uimon for several Ministers of the Crown and a dozen or so ll.IVs of 0:10 kind and another to watch with inl, i est two stupid persons dancing round .'■ ring welting wildly at each other. Tin Parliamentarians who represent whet they consider to be the must benevolent ' legislature iu the world concede bi their presence thai i s j, j very line thing. ■ •- . Paiiiamcnl cxM.s only to discover what is good for the people and give it to them, This being so, Parliament I
must necessarily during next sessiou bring iu tile Compulsory Teiiclihig of lloxing Bill, the chief object of which will be to teach the art not only to two men in every ten thousand, l,t!l to every one of the ten thousand. Jl has been shown that boxing brings out all tlie noble elements in. a man's nature ' and as only two men in ten IJiousiuulj know how to box sufficiently well to draw u big ''house" it follows Unit about 00 per cent, of Britons are without any British virtue. in our opinion, there
is nothing to which exception can be taken in the learning and exercise of boxing for private amusement, and the increase of muscle and skill. The public exhibition of glove-fighting is degrading to the last degree. Bull-baiting has gone, coekfighting has departed, and the all-day bare-list lights of the SayersHeenan days is mere history. If Xelson or Wellington or Napoleon or any other of the great fighters had depended for their positions on their ability to beat a Johnson or a liurns—well, there wouldn't have been any British Empire for one thing. Johnson could probably I smash every Prime Minister in the Knipire in the ring. Why don't all the Prime Ministers train to light him? Burns could probably kill the Command-er-in-Chief of the British Army in half a round. Why doesn't die Commander-in-Chief get some of the British quality that the people who don't box out gather the "gate" r:ive about ? Even Elliott or, Godfrey or Gosling or any in New Zealand might got away with a quarter of a dozen Ministers' of the Crown in a few rounds. Why are not Elliott and Gosling and Godfrey and tli." rest Ministers of the frown? Thev pos- ] sess the British virtues, do they iiotV
Public glove lighting anywhere ami under any circumstances is sordid, degrading and brutal. It attracts only those men who have no other virtue than a big thump. The professional puncher is led to the ring and kept there by avarice and not sport. Because these avaricious persons earn money in a brutal fashion the wires ring with their doings and people in New Zealand eagerly drink in"oven the written details of the organised brawl. Two men with a real difference must not fight in the street. The police have orders about that. A man who sleeps under the sky in lt town is a vagrant—and vagrancy is a crime. The vagvart must go to gaol. Th" man who lias no visible means of support is gaoled. Why doesn't be become respectable and learn to be a pin-headed prize-lighter'/ Are not we Britishers absurd? It is not so long ago that we hanged a man for stealing a shoe]) and honorably acquitted a prize-fighter who had thumped his opponent to death. And we still send (lowers and fruit to Lionel Terry for killing a Chinaman.
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Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 312, 31 December 1908, Page 2
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1,266UNKNOWN Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 312, 31 December 1908, Page 2
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