topic of moral, political or social interest, might kill one another outright, so that this country might be rid of them forever and possibly of the detestable exhibitions in which they are the foremost experts. Failing that, we hoped that the Englishman might whip, so that the sacred name and cause of patriotism might not be stained by the loaferish glorification sure to follow the success of the other brute. Disap pointed in all these hopes we can only relieve our feelings by expressing the hope that the two tramps who have turned our country upside down for months, demoralized all the young boys, and made fools of too many of the mature men, might be set at good, honest, hard work for the State, say in building good roads which Florida so much needs, or in killmg alligators, or some other useful office. The affair is a disgrace to civilization and a stigma on good sense. The adherents of this barbarous sport laud it as tending to enable a small man to defend himself against a big one, and to cultivate the spirit of fair play; and yet the country has gone wild and mad over the inevitable victory of the giant over the pigmy, just as it rejoiced in the less decisive triumph of the huge Heenan over the little Sayers, and that of the hulking Hyer over the small Sullivan; and the amount of fair play deducible may be estimated by consideration of the fact that the vindictive Goliah in this instance would inevitably have thrown away the battle if he had not been forcibly restrained by his seconds and the referee, by interference in contraven tion of the explicit rules of the ring. The only party to the affair entitled to the smallest degree of consid eration for courage and pluck is the loser, who now for a second time has stood up against his superior in size and strength. Now, we suppose, the cities are to be excited by hippodrome contests between these two fellows, one of whom is fresh from prison for a cowardly assault on an old man, and the other is a violent and offensive braggart, who observes the rules of temperance and virtue only because they enable him to preserve his muscular supremacy, and who, not having earned an honest or laudable dollar in years, is just now enabled to reap as much for a brutal and bloody exhibition of ten minutes as the Chief Justice of the United States receives in two years and a half. And this creature is the only human being in the United States who arrogates to himself and is accorded the distinctive appellation of "gentleman"! We are not in favor of restoring flogging as a criminal punishment, but the least harmful and shocking exercise of it, in our judg ment, would be the wallopping of these two danger ous and disgusting reprobates at the tail of a cart. We greatly fear that there were some lawyers among the crowd of rogues who witnessed that wretched contest. It is a great pity. For such sports as
base-ball, yachting, rowing, horse-racing, one may reasonably have more or less admiration, but a relish for prize-fighting argues the survival of the tiger in mankind. It is worse than bull-fighting. And now there is only one thing left for such as ourself to pray for in this regard, and that is that the " nigger" may whip this boastful Dares. It would be a good end ing to this sport if the white man should prove in ferior in it to the despised African, as he already has proved in this country in one class of smaller com batants.
The Laws of Health and Wealth. — Mr. Philip D. Armour of Chicago, who has made an immense fortune by the pursuit of the beef and pork trade, has been unbosoming himself to some reporter on the subject of his personal habits. He seems to attribute his success to going to bed early and getting up early, "retiring" at 9 o'clock, breakfasting at 5.30 or 6, and arriving at the office at 7 o'clock, the year around. He evidently is a believer in the old adage: "Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy and wealthy and wise." (We despise this so much that we will not print it in metrical form.) That is a very misleading maxim, for there have been very few men who were all these, no matter how early they lay down and got up. Mr. Armour may be healthy — provided he eschews one of the staples of his trade in his own domestic use — and there is no doubt that he is wealthy, but that he is wise is quite disputable. We have never heard him called a wise man, and we do not see how he can be, having up to the age of sixty-one spent all his time and talents in the promotion of his peculiar articles of commerce and according to his own show ing never having had an evening's rational enjoyment. We should even prefer Edward Everett Hale's recipe for the attainment of wisdom and health, if not for riches, which as illustrated in his own person, if we recollect right, chiefly consists in sleeping ten hours. Mr. Armour, as we understand, is a liberal and pub lic spirited citizen, who does not meanly hoard and cling to his gains made in the advancement of beef and bacon; but as between him and Mr. Hale, we would prefer to have wielded the pen that wrote "The Man without a Country," than to have owned or controlled all Mr. Armour's favorite pens. Prob ably Mr. Hale has not gone to bed at nine nor risen at five in fifty years, and probably he is not exceeding rich, but he is wise and looks healthy. After all, as a writer in the " Buffalo Courier" very aptly asks, " Is a man a rooster," that he should do this thing? There is just one concession of weakness in Mr. Armour's argument — he admits that he takes a nap after his lunch of bread and milk. He really ought to have
