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the Race? Psychology’s Lessons from the Cruel Joy with Which Hun dreds of Fashionable Women Witnessed the Last Three Brutal Pugilistic Encounters ( Abroad By Dr. Hans Huldriksen, The Distinguished Swedish-American Psychologist. SPOILED daughters of society, whose tortured and jaded nerves are stimulated hy the sight of two human brutes beating one another black and bloody, you are a menace to our race! Spoiled daughters of society, who combine the cruelty-loving instincts of the savage with an inordinate love of the costliest luxuries and display, you are a peril to our womankind! Three recent prize fights in Europe have been made remarkable by the attendance of a large number of women of the aristocracy, many of them young and attractive, wearing jewels and modish evening dress. They made a coarse and brutal con test the excuse for a brilliant social gathering. The prize fights thus distinguished were those between the negro, Jack Johnson, and Frank Moran, in Paris: between “Freddie” Welsh and “Willie” Ritchey, in London, and be tween “Gunboat” Smith and Georges 'Carpentier, also in London. In this unblushing patronage of a brptal, spectagle,j)y those who should be the most gentle and refined ele ment of society,, we see not merely a display of bad taste, but an unmis takable indication of social corrup tion, a warning that an upheaval is coming in the communities where such degraded taste prevails. When ever in history the women of the up per classes have succumbed to the fascination of cruel and bloodthirsty spectacles, the downfall of a civiliza tion has been surely decreed. Thus it was in ancient Rome, la Babylon, in Carthage, in Egypt, in Greece, in Spain. The psychologist who studies the news about the recent prizefights is forced to conclude that France and England are doomed to pass through an upheaval like those which befell the earlier civilizations. We in America are closely affected by these occurrences, for a consider able number of American women ■were among those who witnessed the prizefights. Moreover, the tendency of our socially conspicuous class to imitate the society of England and France is so strong that there is nec essarily grave danger that the con tagion of such social customs will spread here. Listen to a newspaper report of the fight between the negro Jack Johnson and Frank Moran in Paris: “The singular spectacle was pre sented of several hundred women in beautiful gojvns applauding the two pugilists as they struggled up and down the ring, feinting and dodging and punching each other. “Among the women were those that bore such great names in society as Baroness Henri de Rothschild, the younger Duchess d’Uzcs, the Duchess de Rohan, Countess Mathieu de No ailles, the poetess Princess Morou zietT, and Countess de Proumiers. “Johnson’s white wife occupied a prominent position, wearing many diamonds.” Before the fight, wo are told, the loveliest women of the French aris tocracy bearing names that have been famous since the crusades felt the rippling muscles of the colored gladiator Johnson and thrilled with a brutal joy in the contemplation of his colossal development. In a misplaced enthusiasm for the triumph of the white race, the at tractive Mrs. r '.v", ’-.•'■r -, of New York, richly gowned, planted a kiss full on the Ups of the Pittsburgh pugilist Frank Moran. During the encounter the women became fran tically excited and applauded wildly whenever the fighting seemed vicious. Similar scenes occurred at the fight between Welsh and Ritchey in Lon don. The Earl of Lonsdale, a lead ing English sporting nobleman, was there, and with him was his wife, one of thm handsomest women in so ciety, and many other women of the English aristocracy. Tall, fair-haired maids and matrons, who should have been attending to their dutiqp in the stately homes of England, sat by the ringside and cheered the fighters. A filing them, too,l regret td say, waJ a prominent Anglican clergyman, the Rev. Michael Vernon Baudier, led there by the fallacious idea that the love of fighting would develop man liness in his parishioners. Similar scenes were repeated at the contest in London between the French pugilist Georges Carpentier and the American "Gunboat” Smith. It. was a mitigating circumstance of this affair that reason triumphed over brute force; Carpentier’s course in wresting a victory from his stronger anfi more brutal opponent, “Gunboat” Smith, by taking a tech nical advantage of the rules, was in a degree a triumph for the mind of man. We can best appreciate the ulti mate tendency of these demoralising pugilistic carnivals by referring to the gladiatorial contests of ancient Rome. That power bore a close re semblance to modern England since Rome was merely the metropolis of a vast empire inhabited largely by savage and dependent races. In the later days of the Roman empire, when it was tottering to its fall, the women of the.leading Roman families thronged the Colosseum to witness the great gladiatorial festivals held •*\\\ m ■ \ \\ _ : .m \ \ \ \ \ •/ noman Women Petting the Murderous Victor of a Gladiatorial Contest. A Scene Which Psychologists \ Find Has Its Parallel in the Caresses Women of Fashion Showered Upon the Actors in the Becent Prize Fights Whose Meaning Is Asserted to Be Degeneration, there. There men fought with men and with wild beasts. Hundreds of men were killed In a day, while the Roman beauties applauded with frenzy. When one gladiator had another helpless at his feet, he appealed to :he Roman women in tho front seats to settle the fate of the fallen one. If the loser had not fought with suf ficient savageness, the women turned their thumbs viciously jlown and tbe victor cut the throat of bis fallen op ponent. Just as the French women exam ined the muscles of the prizefighters the other day in Pnrisp the Homan women inspected tbe leading gladi ators before they went to the siaugh tar and examined their physical con dition closely. An ancient Roman writer tells us That however brutal end ugly gladiators were, there were always women ready to adore them and to consider them as beautiful as Adonis. At Pompeii, which wag a Summer resort of the Romans, there Is a scribbling on the wall preserved to day which speaks of one of the glad- «.sSiPHw^^^s^^^Mr V^jSllS^ &}£ S l M tamm 1 7 ' ikow 4xVQ ' )AJ /pM^rv*'? 1 1 l M/yftWwmmK* \ jLJs^Si^&l t ?r \~- x f-"-AW l*^v% iators as “the sigh of the girls” (sus piria puellarum). Evidently an inor dinate and unwholesome interest of the Roman women in gladiators, brutes recruitde from the criminal classes and from the savages of every known country, was an im portant factor in the downfall of Rome. The Roman matron, who was absorbed by the demoralizing joys of the Colosseum, would not take up the arduous duties of raising a fam ily to fight the battles of Rome and to preserve its intellectual suprem acy. Why does the love of brutal spec tacles by women foreshadow the downfall of a society? It Is a re version to savagery without the courage and the impulses that led the original savage to struggle up wards. Savages love exhibitions of brute strength and ferocity, war dances and barbarous display of all kinds, i'nllke the over-civilized men and women who go to prizefights, they are all eager to risk their own lives and bodies In contests of feroc ity and endurance. Civilization Is simply a process of replacing the savage rule of brute force by the rule of reason. Every prizefight is a display of s-avagery worse than any war dance or scalp hunt of the real savages. It is an undoing of the good that has been done. In nearly every human being there is a lingering love of cruelty, or, at leust, cruelty exercises a certain fas cination for him. The suppression of this pr'mal instinct is the great work of civilized morality. Many a man of refinement feels a curiosity to witness a scene of cruelty which he would be ashamed to acknowledge. Copyright, 1314, by, the Star Company. Great Britain night* ReierveO. That he feels such shame proves the force of civilization and morality. The instinct of cruelty is derived from the stage of evolution when man killed and hunted his food with his own hands. When woman be comes dominated by the instinct of cruelty, it shows a far more com plete moral degeneration and rever sal of the processes of civilization than when man exhibits that trait. Havelock Ellis, the foremost Eng lish authority on sex characteristics, tells us that while women aro loss often criminals, their crimes are more often marked by cruelty tliaa those of men. "It must he said," re marks Ellis, “that besides this ele ment of cruelty in women, we have the element of compassion, which Is founded on tho maternal Instinct.” In other words, woman first devel oped her compusslon while discharg ing her most, elementary duty of caring for her young and while con templating its appealing! helpfc»s ness. Tbe sentiment of compassion in women must, therefore, bo as primitivo as the Instinct of cruelty In man. Woman also has cruelty, for men and women were not so greatly differentiated In the first stage of human existence, and she shared his fierce brutal struggles for food, but In the best typo of womai the cruelty Inutinct is more com pletely suppressed than In man. Thus we see that the English or French duchess who applauds a prizefight displays the instincts nt the lowest form of savage life. But for her descendants there will be no struggling upwards towards the heights of humanity and civilization. Biology proves that when a species reverts to an earlier and lower form il will become extinct. A degenerate is worthless. The danger of the race from the llght-loviug duchesses is that many women will follow their example. Our hope is that their kind will dis appear and that the compassionate refined, broad-minded women will be the mothers of the future. \ vraß , - \ \\W&V * \* ‘ \ \®?Br \ \Y AXji \v I The Beautiful Duchess de Bo han Who Ap plauded the Fight Between Jack Johnson and Frank Moran. ■ ■- V r Exclusive Society of Traitors * Descendants THE only known society In the world of descendants of traitors is In process of for mation in Philadelphia, the Cradle of Liberty. Prominent people of Colonial llncago, whose ancestors were Tories or sympathizers with King George during the Revolution ary War, are being urged to Join an organization, ns yet unnamed, which will have for its object the glorifica tion of so-called loyalists who were found guilty of high treason against the infant American Republic. The fact that their ancestors mixed ground glass in flour sold to Wash ington's army at Germantown or re fused to send provisions to Ills starv ing and freezing army at Vnlley Forge does not detract from the en thusiasm evinced by the organizers. Tire idea of the formation of the society originated wllli the recent discovery of an ancient document w/i after thp war. This list contains the names of many prominent men In the affairs of Penn sylvania In those days —men who frowned up on the Continental Con. V grosß, who entertained IIJ tho British during their 7/ occupation of Philadelphia, y and who openly scoffed at / the Declaration of Indepen < dence. A movement wus start ed after tho war to prosecute them for treason, but It never re sulted in aotlon. Although the sent, of the patrlo, Government and the Cradle of Lib erty, Philadelphia in Revolutionary times was still the hotbed of loyal ism. The Quaker element, opposed to war and violence, passiv*dy sup ported the British erown und refused aid to the slrnggllng Continentals The fashionable element of what was then the leading city in the Colonies, likewise was Totry. N'o season wa* ever so brilliant ns that of the Win ter of 1777-78, when the British army occupied tin; city, while Wash legion's tattered forces froze and starved nt Valley Forge, a few milee away. The families whose descend ants are still among tho leaders oi fashion in the city, royally enter tained the redcoat, invaders. It is among these social leaden that the society is being formed They are taking it seriously, too. They see rwi Joke In the fact that (heir organisation will he bnsed on « list of men who were once threatened with prosecution for a grave crime. Eligibility to membership in the so ciety, in fact, will be determined by the blacklist, issued by the Attorney- General. A self-appointed committee of these descendants Is now engaged in :t canvass for olher members, and in (he near future a meeting will be held for tl*o purpose of effecting a permanent, organization. This will doubtless tie accomplished in one Wf flu: Quaker me*-ting houses, the con gregations of which contain many descendants of men who are admitted to have hindered the cause of in dependence by their loyalty to the English King. Their object, they declare, is to preserve records of these men, their ancestors, who were maligned by the Continentals, and whom many per sons despise to this day, and to per petuate tiie Interests in nonuno.i formed by their ancestors under try ing conditions when they believed they were doing their duty by God and man In supporting tlielr sovereign. King George of England, and opposing war and bloodshed with all Us horrors. The present genera tion of Americans in this age of |>ro gresslveiiess, they declare, are mote apt to recognize the Justice of this. The committee is now delvlug into genealogical lore to ascertain, If pos sible, Just who the descendants of these loyalists are. They also will advertise througli historical societies and magaslMs for persons eligible for membership. There will be no attempt, however, to secure a great number of members, as the society will retain a certain exclusiveness in order to afford proper prestige and standing among other hereditary or ganizations. Not much is expected to be accomplished during the Sum mer months, but with the advent of I 4 hII th«» plana of the organization will take definite shape. f known nsth* f Tory Black list, publish ed by the At torney General of Pennsylvania *' Both Members ~of This Club”—The Fa mous Fainting by George Bellows Re vised in the Light of the Increasing At tendance of French and English Women at Prize Fights.