ze-fighters. Can they? Then why does not the
Italian, or Spaniard, or Affghan use his fists when insulted or outraged,
instead of having recourse to the weapons which he has recourse to?
Nobody can use his fists without being taught the use of them by those
who have themselves been taught, no more than any one can "whiffle"
without being taught by a master of the art. Now let any man of the
present day try to whiffle. Would not any one who wished to whiffle have
to go to a master of the art? Assuredly! but where would he find one at
the present day? The last of the whifflers hanged himself about a
fortnight ago on a bell-rope in a church steeple of "the old town," from
pure grief that there was no further demand for the exhibition of his
art, there being no demand for whiffling since the discontinuation of
Guildhall banquets. Whiffling is lost. The old chap left his sword
behind him; let any one take up the old chap's sword and try to whiffle.
Now much the same hand as he would make who should take up the whiffler's
sword and try to whiffle, would he who should try to use his fists who
had never had the advantage of a master. Let no one think that men use
their fists naturally in their own disputes--men have naturally recourse
to any other thing to defend themselves or to offend others; they fly to
the stick, to the stone, to the murderous and cowardly knife, or to abuse
as cowardly as the knife, and occasionally more murderous. Now which is
best when you hate a person, or have a pique against a person, to clench
your fist and say "Come on," or to have recourse to the stone, the
knife,--or murderous calumny? The use of the fist is almost lost in
England. Yet are the people better than they were when they knew how to
use their fists? The writer believes not. A fisty combat is at present
a great rarity, but the use of the knife, the noose, and of poison, to
say nothing of calumny, are of more frequent occurrence in England than
perhaps in any country in Europe. Is polite taste better than when it
could bear the details of a fight? The writer believes not. Two men
cannot meet in a ring to settle a dispute in a manly manner without some
trumpery local newspaper letting loose a volley of abuse against "the
disgraceful exhibition," in which abuse it is sure to be sanctioned by
its dainty readers; whereas some murderous horror, the discovery for
example of the mangled remains of a woman in some obscure den, is
g