Jasper County Democrat, Volume 15, Number 65, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 November 1912 — 1912 Years of Christianity—And This [ARTICLE]

1912 Years of Christianity—And This

For a long time the attention of this country has been concentrated upon Johnson, the negro prize fight- ! er "champion of the world.*' ' j At almost any moment during past years, if in a crowd, you had pointed ' to the North and said, “There is j the president of the greatest university in the United States,” and had then pointed to the South and said. "There is Johnson, the negro champion, ninety out of a hundred in the crowd would have looked toward tfie south and toward the ne-! gro fighter. Johnson was followed, admired and praised as the conqueror of Jeffries, the greatest white fighter and the conqueror of every other man that came before him. His powerful automobiles, his expensive clothing, the hundreds of thousands of dollars paid to him by brutal crowds —all were exploited for years. Then came another phase of "Jack Johnson’s career. During the last few weeks the public has heard how or.e white woman whom Johnson had married shot herself in shame and despair in the apartment which she occupied with the prize fighter. The public has read since that sujcide of the legal proceedings in tho federal courts of a mother going to law to get back her daughter, a young whlte^ girl living under JolinsoTfs control in the rooms above his saloon.

1 ne sickening revelations of Johnson's private life have turned against him that stupid tide of public admiration that followed him as a prize fighter. The dull minded lovers of brutality that cheered him and followed him because he lived by knocking men senseless now denounce him because of the • revelations concerning his private conduct and personal immorality. \ There is no more reason for denouncing Johnson today than at any other time. There is just as much reason for denouncing Johnson as for denouncing anybody else connected with the brutal, degraded, immoral and unlawful prize fighting “profession.” Johnson’s life and conduct are typical of prize fighters as a whole, typical of the physical brutes that do the fighting, typical of the mental brutes that “manage” the fighters, typical of the degraded crowds eager for bloodshed and the sight of pain that Vsit at the ringside.” The revelations connected with the life of Johnson ought not merely to 1

result in driving one individual negro out of the prize fight ring and from

the country. T here should be in the nation enough seli-respect and indignation to end at once and for all the prize fighting brutality front top to bottom.

The hypocritical laws that j?ermit boxing, so-called, in order that politicians, commissioners" and others may get rich hy violating the fundamental law of the land sheuid be wiped from the statute books Every Governor of a state knows that prize fighting, however named or disguised, is brutal,, illegal and degrading. The j»rize fighter lives a; a criminal, a life of desperation vice and violence. And those "that live upon him ar.d those that support him share his viciousness and his crime.

An ignorant, brutal negro such as this Johnson is hot so much to be blamed as the white men that have given their thousands to watch him at his brutal game. He is less worthy of blame than the negligent ard criminal public officials that have allowed him to degrade the public mind. For two thousand years the teachings of Christianity have been known to this world. Still we have, as the greatest public amusement, exhibitions of brutal violence, and "we have as national heroes such brutes as this Johnson and the men he encounters. And we have in Xew Y’ork state the greatest in the Union, an 1 in many other states thousands of the prize fighting exhibitions yearly, at

j scores of so-called clubs where bur- ( Slars, thieves, murderers and criminals of all kinds gather, and wher* the ’vantig men and boys are filled with the idea that brutal power and I cruel punishment are admirable. | W herever a prize fight occurs in 1 a state the Governor of the state is disgraced. For he has the power to stop it if he will! The prize fighter i and hist manager both know well that they are criminals and ouv«ide the law. and will nofdare to oppose I action that any honest official may take against them. Johnson, with one "white wife a suicide and a white girl held as a prisoner, half of the country inflamed against him, is no better and no worse than the rest of the prize fighting gang permitted to disgrace the country. ' He is on a par with all of those connected with the profit making side of prjze fjghting and in some ' w a> r s he is the superior of those who gather to glut their love of brutality by watching him fight. ] A't least he is IX the fight, and in one way is better than those at the ( ringside, just as the gladiator dying in the arena two thousand years ago was better than the effeminate, perfumed, cowardly dandy that watched him die.

Not Johnson alone, but prize fighting and the whole prize fighting crew should bb driven, out as a result of Johnson’s emphatic revelation of the real character of the class to which h®* J^ on £ s —drunken, diseased, vicio^^ißhoilest and Immoral. The degraded remnant of the class that fought for the public amusement in

tbe old days should be wiped out and forgotten.—Chicago Examiner. Hashing Bee Was a "Smacking” Suo OwecsTille, Ind., November 9. — A husking bee, held in Wabash township a few nights ago resulted in an over-supply of kisses. In fact, the affair turned out to be a real old-fashioned oscillatory contest of the free-for-all variety. A prank on the part of one of the beys, who assisted in gathering the corn used at the bee, started the trouble—or rather, the pleasure. Before the guests arrived this man succeeded in hiding almost thirty ears of red corn under the big pile of corn that had been gathered for the occasion. Kisses were few and far between at the beginning of the bee, but as the evening rolled op the highly prized kiss became tan»,|>rotfiO Red ears of corn entitiirg the finder to kiss some favorite member of the opposite sex, made their appearance in rapid succession.

As long as red ears were in evidence the give-and-take game of kissing continued amid roars of laughter. Some of the girls were kissed as many as ten times, which, in the parlance of husking bees, is regarded as some "kisses.” If any of the guests failed to get from five to six kisses it was not due to the scarcity of red ears The husking bee was unaninmously voted a ' smacking'' sucess.