small flags in their buttonholes as symbols of orderly government at war with anarchy. No one can be loyal to the flag who tramples on any of the laws for which it stands. Our W. C. T. U. President will tell another apropos story.

PRESIDENT OF W. C. T. U. A striking lesson in patriotism was given to a community that needed it by Mrs. Hutchison, Woman's Christian Temperance Union President in North Dakota. In defiance of law, a commercialized Sunday ball game had been announced in her town. A little in advance of the time for it to begin, she folded a large national flag and put it in her reticule, and started for the ball park. She went in and walked straight to the place over which every ball pitched must pass. She draped herself with "Old Glory" and stood there like a statue of the Goddess of Liberty. The early boys laughed, and the ball players on their arrival thought it a great joke that a woman thought she could prevent eighteen athletic men from playing ball. At last when the time for the game to begin had come they gathered close about her and scolded and threatened; but she stood "game" and said, "Touch this flag if you dare." They did not dare, and the illegal Sunday game did not come off because one "sovereign citizen" understood and asserted her right to have every law of the State obeyed.

Law-breakers call laws that interfere with greed and lust and appetite, "blue laws," but that brave woman gives us a timely reminder that ALL AMERICAN LAWS ARE RED, WHITE AND BLUE LAWS, AND THOSE WHO DERIDE AND DISOBEY THEM ARE "REDS."

CHAIRMAN. We will close, of course, by singing lustily "The Star Spangled Banner," and of course we all stand always for this national anthem.

SHALL PROGRESS OF THE SPORT OF

BOXING BE REVERTED BY

COMMERCIALISM?1

To Follow Up Chapter X

By various stages of progress, pugilism developed into amateur boxing. It is not only interesting but important to note the steps of this evolution.

The Iliad shows us not only the antiquity of it-it existed in Homer's day-but also the brutality of it. We have a vivid description of the ancient sport and its cruelty. The brutality of ancient pugilism, though not incited by the modern commercialism, found sport in seeing contestants suffer. This is made indisputable by the cesti which the fighters wore, consisting of a wrapping of the fists, wrists and arms with knotted rawhide, often loaded with lead or iron. Furthermore, this sport was often expected to be a battle until death. But even this ancient pugilism was not contaminated by any considerable commercialism. The fighters fought for the sport or honor of it.

The cause of the decay and death of the ancient Olympic Games, which lasted a thousand years in Greece, from 776 B. C. to 394 A. D., was commercialism. The games were at their height during the fourth and fifth centuries before Christ, when the contestants were the best blood of Greece. A change, however, began to take

1 The International Reform Bureau, of Washington, D. C., has the most complete history of boxing and prize fighting, prepared by Chairman of its Directors, Canon Wm. Sheafe Chase, and printed in Auto Herald No. 4 and Porch Messenger No. 2, both numbered but not dated and so never out of date. They contain 24 columns of historic facts, judicial opinions, condemnations of pugilism by Roosevelt and other great men, etc. One copy of this cyclopedia of boxing will be sent to any one, on request with stamp. A large supply for "a fight against fights" may be obtained at rate of $4.00 per 100 for the whole set. The subject is introduced here following the talk of International War, in the belief that pugilism promotes the brutal killing spirit, though prize fighters have not usually rushed to the front when their countries have gone to war.

place as the training became more and more professional, and in Roman times, although the crowds and splendor in the amphitheatre continued, nearly all the contestants were professional athletes, against whose mode of life both the physicians and the moralists protested. At last, in 394 A. D., Emperor Theodosius suppressed it entirely, supposedly because opposed by the Christians.

Commercialism Comes in as a "Spoil-sport"

The Encyclopedia Britannica (1910) says: "Nobody wants to disparage proficiency; but if a game is conducted on business methods the game element tends to be minimized, and if its object is pecuniary, it ceases to be sport in the old sense, and the old idea of the amateurs who indulge in it for love of the mere enjoyment tends to disappear."

The Britannica also says, “From the fall of the Roman Empire to the beginning of the 19th Century, pugilism seems to have been unknown among civilized nations with the single exception of the English."

The one who is generally considered to have been the first Champion of England, fighting with bare fists, was James Figg, 1719 to 1730. Later Jack Broughton, who built the amphitheatre near Totterham Court Road, was the undisputed champion in England till 1750. Broughton is credited with being the inventor of boxing gloves, for use in practicing, but in all prize fights bare knuckles were used. Wrestling played an important part in the old prize fight. The fighting was of the roughest description, with low tricks of all kinds, even gouging out one's opponent's eyes being by no means unknown. The fight ended when one of the "bruisers," as they were called, was not able to "come to the scratch.”

In 1860, a prize fight in England between the American,

Heenan, and the English Tom Sayers, lasted two hours and twenty minutes, and was so brutal that the spectators ended the fight, and it was declared a draw. Public opinion was so aroused that all prize fights with naked fists were declared illegal from that time in England.

The Britannica says further: "The sport of modern boxing, as distinguished from pugilism, may be said to date from the year 1866, when the public had become disgusted with the brutality and unfair practice of the professional bruisers, and the laws against prize fighting began to be more rigidly enforced. In that year the Amateur Athletic Club of England was founded, principally through the efforts of John G. Chambers (1843-83), who, in conjunction with the 8th Marquis of Queensberry, drew up a code, known as the Queensberry rules, which governed all glove contests in Great Britain and were also authoritative in America until the adoption of the boxing rules of the Amateur Athletic Union of America.

Chronology of American Prize Fights

The first heavyweight championship fight in America. was in 1816, when Jacob Hyer beat Beasly. In 1841 Tom Hyer beat John McCluster in 101 rounds at Caldwell's Landing, N. Y. In 1852 John Morrissy, who afterwards was a member of the U. S. Congress and a State Senator in Albany, N. Y., defeated George Thompson in California. In 1858, Morrissy defeated Heenan, who fought such a bloody fight in 1860 with the British champion in England that it ended prize fights with naked fists in that country. In 1880, Paddy Ryan beat Joe Goss 87 rounds in West Virginia. In 1882, J. L. Sullivan beat Ryan in nine rounds in Mississippi. In 1889, Sullivan beat Kilrain in 75 rounds in Mississippi. It was the last time that bare knuckles were use in a heavyweight championship fight.

In these times, the laws everywhere were so strict against prize fights that no place could be announced in advance. where a fight could be fought.

No one was then able to fix the Governor, judges, sheriff, and police officials so that an illegal fight could be fought in a public arena.

Some barn or open field was selected in secret. Even the contestants, when they took the train for the contest, did not know where it would be fought. Often the fight was broken up by the police, who might get some clue as to the location. Of course, the number witnessing the fight was small, and commercialism was confined to prize offered and the wagers. In 1892 Corbett whipped Sullivan in 27 rounds in New Orleans. Sullivan used to say it was "John Barleycorn" that knocked him out. In 1894 Corbett beat Mitchell in three rounds. In 1897 Fitzsimmons beat Corbett in 14 rounds. In 1899 because the Horton law in New York permitted prize fights, Jeffries fought with Fitzsimmons at Coney Island and beat him in 11 rounds. In 1905 Jeffries retired unbeaten. In 1908 Jack Johnson (colored) beat Burns in Australia in 20 rounds. Police stopped the fight. In 1910 Jeffries, who re-entered the fight, was beaten by Johnson in 15 rounds at Reno, Nevada. In 1915, on July 4, when Willard fought Johnson, there was no place in the United States where the fight could be legally or illegally held. It occurred in Havana, Cuba, and Willard knocked out the negro in the twenty-sixth round. An attempt was made to bring in motion pictures of this fight, but the Federal law of 1912 prevented it. An appeal from the law was upheld by the U. S. Supreme Court. In 1919 the aftermath of the World War had so affected public sentiment in the country that it was possible, by the refusal of Governor Cox to act, and the connivance of the city officials of Toledo,