of Christendom rejoice over the "good riddance of bad rubbish "?

Every day men beat each other to a pulp with brassknuckles, bowie-knife their brethren or shoot respectable citizens. Every day we hang or electrocute or lynch somebody-and civilization goes marching on; yet we are expected to believe that if one skilled athlete keeps another on the floor for ten consecutive seconds, our Car of Progress will stick in the mud and the Christian world be relegated back to barbarism! To prevent this awful catastrophe Culberson called a special session of the legislature and massed the rangers on the Rio Grande. To prevent it Cleveland deprived himself of a duck hunt and remained reasonably sober an entire day. No wonder the chief magistrate of New Mexico sweat blood at this awful crisis, while the world resounded with the grandiloquence of the head greaser of a Mexican province known to the world only because of the brutality of its bullfights and its peculiar breed of fices. And Congress-praise Heaven!rose equal to the emergency. After having tried-without the shadow of an excuse-to hurry this nation into a war that would have cost a million lives and filled the land with widows' moans and orphans' tears, it dropped the currency question, leaving the business interests of the world to wait, and spent days patching up a law, making it a penal offense for one pug to smack another with a windblown bladder in any of the territories of these United States!

But the Fool-killer is dead.

Public sentiment favored a war with England, with or without valid excuse; ergo, the politicians were for it. Public sentiment is supposed to be "agin" prize fights; ergo, the politicians oppose it. They are trying to ride the popular wave-that's what they are here for; but the first

thing they know some of 'em will hit the beach with the bust of their panties with the solid impact of a ton of lead toying with a stone wall. "You can't sometimes most always tell" about this thing we call public sentiment. If Corbett and Fitzsimmons were to fight in Dallas to-daywithout admission fee-Waco, the religious hub of the world, would be depopulated. Half the preachers of Texas would go early to secure front seats.

As evidence that the politicians and preachers don't care a coffer-dam about the public further than it can be "worked " for their personal profit, I would call attention to the fact that cock-fighting—the most brutal and debasing of all so-called sports-is still permitted in Texas, is liberally patronized by legislators who have made prize fighting a felony, and seldom calls forth a protest from the preachers. These "guardians of the public morals " are too cussed good to permit trained pugilists to box each other with soft gloves until one wears out his "wind "; yet in proximity to our schools and churches innocent birds are armed with steel gaffles and incited to butcher each other to make a hoodlum holiday, while half-grown boys elbow old "sports" for a better view of the pit and gamble their nickels on the result. "Interstate cocking mains are reported at length by canting newspapers in the self-same issues with fierce denunciations of prize fighting-ofttimes in the same column with the reports of revival meetings or pretentious sermons. The man who swallows the cock-pit and gags on " physical culture contests " is a large piebald ass, with ears so long that he needs no tail to keep the gad-flies off his heels.

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The idea of Mexico "beefing " about "the brutality of the prize ring," while torturing bulls and disemboweling hack-horses in the name of "sport"-going mad with joy when, by God's favor, Taurus gets a matador on his horns

or tramples him beneath his hoofs! Mexico turning up her yaller snout at games that have been immortalized by the harp of Homer; that served to mark time for Greece when in the hey-dey of that intellectual glory to which we bend the knee as to the immortal gods; that were the pride of Rome when the Imperial City "sat upon her seven hills and from her throne of beauty ruled the world!" Mexico is afraid that a brace of pugilists would put a crimp in her "civilization"! Mexico is simply an aggregation of those tribes of Indians who were too cowardly to fight and too lazy to run away. When one of them learns that the occasional use of a fine-tooth comb will save him the labor of scratching, he is considered civilized. Mexico, like Texas, is a great cock-fighting country—is addicted to the torture of beasts and birds in the name of "sport,” but entirely too" civilized" to tolerate the squared circle!

For shame! When I have to see blood spilled in order to corral an appetite, I want it to be the blood of men who do battle of their own accord, not that of innocent beasts and birds that have no option but to work the will of their subter-brutish masters.

Scientific pugilism is no more brutal than many sports having the sanction of society. It is of precious little importance whether it be encouraged or repressed. In some way man will continue to exhibit his personal prowess, for now, as in the days of David," The glory of the young man is in his strength." Did this blatant opposition to prize fighting bear the imprint of honest idiocy I could respect it; but it is too evidently policy playing seasoned with canting hypocrisy. Corbett and Fitzsimmons were to fight at Hot Springs; but Gov. Clark made a roar that rocked the state of Arkansaw to its foundation stone, and the project had to be abandoned. Yet in less than two months a fight far more brutal than the big " mill 99

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likely to be, was pulled off at Hot Springs in a public hall, and "well attended." The explanation is easy. The eyes of the world were on the "big 'uns," while the "little 'uns " were almost entirely overlooked. By interfering with the first, Gov. Clark was able to attract public attention; meddling with the second would have awakened no enthusiasm among the professional godly, but would have “ queered " him politically with Arkansaw's sporting element. Neither the sporty governor of Texas nor the immaculate ass who officiates as chief magistrate of New Mexico, ever thought of interfering with prize fighting until a match was made between two men of international reputation, and the politicians thereby accorded an opportunity to make a grandstand demonstration. Prize fights can be pulled off to-day in perfect safety in either Arkansaw or Texas, and with never a "cheep" from the politicians and preachers, if the contestants be not sufficiently prominent in the world of pugilism to attract general attention. Cock fighting may be all right so long as the roosters do not acquire too much reputation. But should Great Britain produce a fifteenpound cock that could whip a wildcat, and America one that could see the foreign bird and go him one better; and should it be proposed to bring them together in Dallas, Hot Springs or El Paso for a large purse; should steel gaffles be barred, their natural spurs sawed off and capped with medicated cotton, Dr. Seasholes would rear up on his hind legs and bray like a two-year-old. Ministerial associations would whereas and resolute; politicians would perorate and legislate; governors would call special sessions and mobilize the militia, and we'd have the same ridiculous to do about nothing that for six months past has made me well-nigh ashamed that I was born an American sovereign.

SHERMAN AND CLEVELAND.

For more than a third of a century John Sherman has been regarded by politicians of all parties as authority par excellence on matters monetary. His motives have often been called in question, but his ability never impugned. He is regarded by the "gold-bugs" as a god, by the "cheap money men as a veritable Mephistopheles. He was the heavy villain of " the crime of "73," and brought about the resumption of specie payments in "79. He is largely responsible for the redemption of the greenback bonds in gold. He has never been suspected by Wall Street of being “tainted with financial heresy." Sherman and Cleveland belong to the same monetary school, occupying the respective positions of preceptor and pupil. They have ever worked for the attainment of the same end-the appreciation of the purchasing power of the dollar for the special behoof of the creditor class; but the latter has evidently not thoroughly mastered the lessons laid out for him with such care by "Sly Old John." Or, perhaps, it were more correct to say that the pupil has become ambitious, aspires to out-Herod Herod in the slaughter of the debtor innocents. Sherman has never forgotten that he has at stake the reputation of a financier. He has served his masters with a strong side-glance at self. Cleveland has all to gain and nothing to lose by becoming the humble servant of the great capitalists, and he has gone to lengths which Sherman solemnly warned him were suicidal. To please the bond-clippers he has run Uncle Sam's nose in the sand to the tune of $262,000,000 on the shallow pretense of attempting what his master protested was impossible. The following excerpt from a speech delivered by Mr. Sherman in the U. S. Senate January 16, 1874, is at this time particularly significant, and well worth perusal by those good