The Wairarapa Daily. FRIDAY, JANUARY 29, 1892.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XIII, Issue 4024, 29 January 1892, Page 2

The Wairarapa Daily. FRIDAY, JANUARY 29, 1892.

vt the beginning of the present cenury a country parson, when a couple f men in his parish fell out, would tand by and see fair play while iliey Dught to a finish, The clergyman if to-day ia no longer distinguished ly a weakness for port wine or a dov ight in pugilistic encounters, He nay perhaps have learnt to use the [loves and be all the better physijally for an exercise which wiibin lertain limits is manly, but he no onger believes in disputes being settled by blows. Gradually the >rossness whioh characterised the livea of oven clergymen in bygone generations has passed away, and it is recognised that moral coinage is superior to mere physical prowess, and that the latter oaimot be accepted as the test of right and wrong, In the early part of Her Majesty'f reign there was a marked advanci in the moral tone of the Englis! nation, That great and good mai the Prince Consoit strucli the key note of right living and all the scan dais and horrors which in later year have brought into contempt many c the upper ten thousand of Grea Britain were all but unknown, Th Prince of Wales has been for the pas twenty years the leader of society, ii England and ha, with all his excel lentand popularqualities, isadsgener ate son of his high-minded parents In Prince Albert's time pugilism was relegated by publio opinion to tb back slums of the big towns, and it votaries dare not make an open dis play of their powers, Now-a-clays i has again obtained an ascendency and even in o colony like this to are probably hundreds of persons whi make a living by giving exhibitions o tlfeir skill in public places. In ver; many instates the matches are at ranged to tickle til? appetite of i somewhat disreputable public, am are what may be termed " put u] jobs," Tho number of rounds to b fought and the way the door money i to p distributed are settled before hand. Wp pap, ourselves, recall th sensation created by the grejt Reagan Sayers contest thirty years ago, Thi really was ft fight to a finish, wjjiol excite*" * u ' Biraense mcn,n ' i of i n terest in almost eveTJ English iwasl even though the great Ame'.".? 111 champion was left lying on the battl ground a bruised and battered mas of human pulp. But there is m comparison between events of thi: description, in whioh a marvellom courage and skill almost atoned fo the brutality of the scene, and tin glove contests of to-day on publi platforms, We, ourselves, wouli welcome Mr Thomas Teague, or an; other decent professor of the art o self-defence, if he made it his busi ness to give lessons in the art of box ing to such young people as migh need them, but we do not welcome i number of professional pugilists get ting up boxing entertainments ii public places, and offering as an at traction the prospect of one o other of their number being bruisei or battered or maimed or bled fo the amusement of the public It is, perhaps, human natun to pay half a crown to see a mai blooded in an encounter, or to givi five shillings to view, him knocks out of shape or even ten shillings t witness him,one mass of bruisei flesh, but we ask do such exhibition accomplish any other purposo thai gratifying a morbid and unhealth; craving, do they excite other thai brutal jpstinots? Weholdtba within sertain limits pugilistic exer cipes are |ie.althfi)l and beneficial, bu exhibitions such as are spoken ,o£ I: thjs tpwn .are pile' outside a) such limits, and we yjew wish alaji the growing taste for the unwhole some and sensational amusemen

which they present, Wo also regret to 309 that Masterton i< becoming tho headquarter of a number of professional pugilists. We are assured by a person who was present last even ■ ing that the entertainment given was a brutal one, and we sincerely regret that hundreds of persons in the community should encourage entertainments of this class. Last evening a large- audience watched one man punch and thump his opponent for half an hour who was unatde either to resist a blow or to return it. The bones of the hands of the latter were dislocated, he was smothered 10 blood, and his eyes were swollen up so tliut he was blind. We ask many of our Mends who were present last evening whether this spectacle was brutal and whether they are not ashamed of havingbcen present at such a scene ?