lves.

It may be the leaven of Christianity, or the development of man, or the
racial predominance of the sympathetic Northern European, but it is
none the less a remarkable fact that cruelty which was once public meat
and drink for every one is now a hidden thing, lurking only in the
secrets of prison-life or in places like those parts of the New World
where the mob still burns its negroes alive and takes pleasure in the
sight.

Joy in sheer cruelty has, however, been supplanted by brutal sport.
The bull-fights of Spain are true Colosseum spectacles, and whilst the
danger-thrills which throb through a human concourse at the assaults of
an infuriated bull may not be as degrading as mere gloating over pain,
what can we say of the disembowelling of the horses which is such a
feature of that sport. And the modern prize fight and boxing
championship has something of the gladiatorial spirit. The enormous
interest in the Dempsey-Carpentier contest is evidence of the
increasingly debauched taste of the world's democracies. The Olympic
Games have much more to be said in their favour. But whilst they
encourage professional athleticism it can hardly be said that they
encourage Europe to be more athletic. The Sokol movement in
Czecho-slovakia and the Boy Scout movement are much more promising.
The more you look on at games the less you play them, and the more you
play them the less are you content to look on. The scene of our modern
Olympic Games goes from capital to capital in Europe, and thanks to
public spirit and the subscriptions of industrial magnates, great
stadiums such as that which we have now at Athens, have come into
being. Perhaps when our old world has become the ancient world, and
living civilization has fled across the oceans, the most remarkable of
our ruins and remains of the past may be our Stadiums and Colosseums
and arenas designed for international games and prize fights. Ancient
Rome and its fate is our great unheeded warning.

[1] W A popular hieroglyphic for Viva.

LETTERS OF TRAVEL

XV. FROM MONTE CARLO

The voice of a man in the Riviera express: "I am absolutely broke. I'm
up against it, up against the great It, and it's neck or nothing for
me, my boy--so I'm off for Monte Carlo. I'm going to leave it to
Chance, and Chance is the best counsellor after all. What's human
wisdom by the side of Chance? Just a turn of the wheel, and all my
troubles are solved."

"God d---n it,