ARE WE CIVILIZED? by Mrs. E. P. Naylor

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Jun 8, 1904

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 30, No. 23.

ARE WE CIVILIZED?

By Mrs. E. P. Naylor

BY MRS. E. P. NAYLOR.

On the 11th of May there was held in the city of Fresno, Cal., one of those brutalizing exhibitions known as a prize-fight. A white boy of nineteen was matched with a colored man, and an audience of about five hundred was on hand to see the latter beat the former to death. Had the exhibition taken place on the open street, or even in a barroom, it is probable that there would not have been wanting several score of persons who would have rushed in, and put a stop to the murderous beating which the boy was receiving. But this was a prize-fight, and the persons in the seats were witnessing an exhibition that was permitted by law, and had paid their money for the privilege.

In this blood-hungry audience there were present two deputy sheriffs, one constable, two policemen, several other officers of the law, a few doctors, and the remainder representing nearly all classes of society. Among the backers was at least one of the leading public men of the city, who, after his man had been pounded to death, admitted that he “was backing him; that he enjoyed good sport, but would not wish ever to see such a thing again.” But this man’s influence alone was sufficient to have stopped the fight before a most brutal murder had been committed. However, neither he nor any officer of the peace interfered, and not one of the physicians present warned the promoters to call it off. The seconds of the boy who was being murdered before their eyes helped the boy to his feet when he was no longer able to rise, helped him to balance himself to receive another blow, and encouraged him to “be game and fight to a finish.”

The boy was so exhausted that he made no effort to fight, and the negro dealt him a blow which sent him heavily to the floor. Had there been the slightest excuse for sending him into this round, there was none for keeping him there after that blow; but he was helped to his feet again and encouraged by his seconds, and the blood-mad mob at the ringside. The boy put his hand over his face to signify that he was no longer able to play his part, but he was knocked down five times after that. The whole crowd, including seconds, referee, peace officers, doctors, and leading citizens were waiting, waiting—for what?—To see with their eyes, and to feel with their hearts the ecstatic bliss occasioned by seeing, a knock-out from which the vanquished could not rise within a given number of seconds! Had they not paid their good money for “a little sport”? and they proposed to get it even tho it came through seeing the life beaten out of a boy. They got it, the boy not even regaining consciousness after the last sickening fall.

The white boy would have stopped long before, but the “honorable gentlemen” and seconds urged him to go on. The referee and promoters did not object, and the negro could not stop according to the rules regulating these “manly sports,” until commanded by his superiors. The referee said in self-defense that he could not have stopped the fight and have pleased the gentlemen present, because they expected all the fight there was in a man (boy), and as long as his seconds were willing to let it go on, he did not believe that he should stop it, thereby implying that he knew the boy was being injured beyond the point allowed by law in such cases.

The physicians had him carried into the air, and worked over him, but it was soon apparent that he could not live. During this time the majority of the crowd were stamping their feet, and calling for the next similar performance. A jury announced that the boy “came to his death from a hemorrhage of the brain caused by a fall in a boxing contest.” No mention of what produced the fall that occasioned the hemorrhage. Since then the respectable element of the city has been stirring the matter up, and has caused some arrests to be made, and the blame will probably be placed—somewhere.

Now, the question is, Do these things prove, as some stoutly maintain, that the world is growing better? Do they show that the much-vaunted civilization of the twentieth century is really civilizing the mass, and its peace officers? A paper published in the city above named asks the question, “Are we civilized and Christianized?” After reading of the affair above outlined, whose sickening details have not been given, let the reader ask himself the question. This age has not only become an age of lovers of pleasure, but lovers of the most debasing kinds of pleasure, and a great many of these lovers of brutal pleasures are moving in what is known as the “best society.” And all this under a glare of light which the heathen world did not begin to have. It is a certain indication of the ripening of the world for its end.