Cleveland morning leader. [volume] (Cleveland [Ohio]) 1854-1865, 1859-08-16

witness gives the following account Of the DIS
graceful carnival Of the Fancy" in the Sc.
Louis Democrat It shows something Of the
character Of those who attend the "sports o
the ring, and the natural tendency Of sucl
contests. Readers we think will agree that th,
world would have suffered no great. loss i the
boilers of both boats had exploded The ac
count says:
We left St Louis on Tuesday, at s A. N, OF
the Elvira. The crowd numbered about sil
hundred They kept very quiettill we reached
Alton-doing nothing but gambling and drink
ing At Alton we waited an hour for the Hen
rietta. A great many, especially those with
the most yillainous sphysiognomies, went ashore
and literally took the town soaring that little
place out Of its wits at such an irrupton Of
barbarans. The Henrietta now hove in sight,
and landed a few rods below-we then started
up together, the Henrietta taking the lead, and
selecting the ground
! Il took long time to clear a place large
enough to fight in, as every man in that large
crowd wanted to be in 'front.' but at four o'clock
the ball was opened by Byrnes throwing his
cap into the ring. Connors pitched his cap IN
after that Of his antagonist, but the wind blew
it clear to one side and it struck in the crowd,
whe eat Byrans' friend greatly rejoiced--ac
cepting it as a good omen for them.
During the fight the utmost disorder prevail
ed. The crowd were all showing and crashing,
and though the man WHO called time sang out
at the very top Of his voice, could not hear the
] first sound
Connors would hit Byrnes, then throw him.
self down to end the round; and several times,
| Byrnes almost fell over him in trying to stop
| himself from hitting him But on the last
round. he was not so fortunate. Byrnes struck
out at Connors, simultaneously with CunnOrs
throwing himself on his knees, directly in front
of Byrnes. Byrnes could not stop his blow
entirely, consequently he hit Uonnors on the
| left cheek. As he hit him, he laid his hand on
| his head and smiled, as if to assure Connors
| that he did not mean anything "iOul Con
nors' second, however, immediately called ON
| the referee to decide in Connors' favor, which
he did. Byrnes, seeing how things were going,
rushed up to the referee to explain.
Immediately crowd surrounded the referee,
and Coppors went on board the Henrietta.
The referee reconsidered his decision, but
! Connors had gone A tremendous row ensued.
| I saw the reteree, all bloody, as Byrnes had
! him by the reck Another man had the back
Of his head caved in. Byrnes rushed down to
! the Henrietta called on ConnOrs to come ashore
/ and finish the fight, but COnnors very respect
| fully declined; Byrnes then went on board the
| Elvira, and we showed out about 20 feet Just
| them one of our men fearing to be left jumped
on board of the Henrietta, one OF Connors Sc
cnnds beat him and threw him ashore. lie
| being a small man, started to run for the Eivra
John Monaghan followed him, and oyertaking
/ b,1f
and shot him in the back of the neck, the ball
coming out of the cheek near the eye, going
straight through his head. The unfortunate
| man fell, bathed in blood, while Monaghan stood
over him and pounded him on the head with
the heavy barrel Of his pistol till the blood GOV.
| cred his victims white clothes The man lay
on his face, with his hands crossed over the
back of his head, to protect himself Leaving
him for dead, Monaghan fired at mans head
in the river fortunately missing him. man
named Alv Kinney by this time had appeared
from the Henrietta, and began firing at the
crowd About forty of them separa ed, running
in different directions over the island, hiding
in the grass, while some got on the boat, which
had showed off E...
The man whom Monaghan shot raised him
self on his feet and started to run, " hen he
fell Raising again, he started to run, when
Monaghan fred, and the ball struck him on the
forehead, Just between the eyes, luckily glanc
ing off without injuring him severely, but
again bringing him to the ground. Another
person then beat him over the head with a soda
bottle, till he broke it. By the greatest good
fortune there were no stones on the island, OF
the consequences would have been terrible -
The poor man, incredible as 1t seems, raised
himself again and fell, yet after repeated efforts
managed TO get into a skitf, and crawl into the
Lotto I'm q NJ m o o.
mics again started for him. The crowd on the
Eyira shouted to the farmer, in whose boat he
was, to "shove Off" but the man would not,
and appeared almost frightened to death. How
ever Just before the villains reached him, he
threw himself into the river, and having
strength enough left, grasped plank and was
drawn on board Jack Looney, Byrnes second,
had TO jump into the river and swim of to save
his life While this was going on the crowd
ON the Elvira were standing on the bow OF the
boat, powerless to aid, as the Oonnors men had
all the firearms. One man Jumped IN the
water to escape the balls which were being
shot at the crowd, and went under. Jack Mont
| gomery, the only man who shovel any com
passion in the whole crowd, jumped overheard
to save him, when the drowning man grasped
| him by the arms and both went under. A third
man jumped in to their aid, and all three went
under, and were being swept away by the cur
rent when fourth man got a rope, and fast, n
ing it around himself, succeeded in rescuing all
of them. They were got on board apparently
dead One man was quietly drowning little
| further down and / saw no more Of him. As
we showed off, one man lay wounded from a
pistol shot, under tree, and forty or fifty of
the crowd were left behind, as the captains
dared not bring their boats together. The FL.
vira left first. Just as she backed cut Mona.
CHAN came down the bank and fred directly
iuto the crowd on the front part of the hurr,
cane deck The balls whistled through a crowd
of two hundred persons without doing any
damage, except shooting a man through the
arm, as the crowd ran aft One ball struck
the bell, another struck close by the Captain =
head, which caused that functionary to hurry
up his boat. The crowd kept middling quiet
til we reached Alton, where we stopped a few
minutes. Here some OF the tlmid left Here
also the fighting began again. One rutlian got
another in a big tin boiler and pounded the
unfortunate creatures face all to a jelly-nOne
interfering. The man made no resistance, and
the other enraged at his passiyeness, seized him
by the hair, and holding his head over, kicked
his face till it resembled piece Of raw beef
no one daring to stop him.
The fighting continued till we reached st
Louis The whole crowd lef tie Elyira at
the upper part of the city, except the wounded.
The scenes on the Henrietta were much
Monaghan again shooting some one,
and afterwards threw himself into the river,
ant struck out for the Illinois shore. The
Captain of the Elyira swore devouty that if he
ever reached st. Louis, is should end his
participation in such companyi and certainly
he felt relieved, if he felt the sensation we
did, to see them leave. Our curiosity was sat.
isfed and our romantic opinion Of the fancy"
has faIIen forever, BY witnessing this, our fret