, 1859-08-13
TIE LAST PRIZE FlCHk


A"gcnt1emnn' who went up on tic steamer,
little way abort Alton, 10 witue.s the pfire
eight between Byrnes and Connors, sends the
following to the Missouri Democrat:
Counors would hit Byrues. and then throw
himself down at end the round: and several
times, Byrnes almost felt over Eifa til tttihs to
stop himself from biting him. hut on the lat
round he was not 80 fortunate. Dyrnes struck
ont ut Connors. simultaneously will, Eonn6rs
throwing himself on his knees, directly in front
Of Byrnes- Dsrnes could not stup lis blow en-
tircly, consequently he hit Cuuuurs on the left
cheek. As he hit him, he laid his hand on lis
head aud smiled, as if 70 assure Coanors that he
did rot mean aosthiniE - feuls", ConpoEs'
eide in connors' favor, which he did: Byrnes;
seeing how things were going, rushed up 10 the
Iriinedialely i crowd surrounded tic referee,
and Connors went on board the Henrietta
The referee reconsidered his decision, but
Connors had gone. 4 tremendous row cnsucd.
l saw the refcree, all bloody, as Byrnes had lin,
by the neck. Another man bad the back Of his
bead caEed in: b{rnes rushed down to the
Henrietta, and called on Cqnnors 20 come ashore
aud finish the fight, but Connors very respect
fully declined. Byrnes then went on board the
Elyira, and We showed out about o5 feet Just
then. one of our men, fearing to be left, jumped
On board Of the Henrietta; one OF Connors'
seconds beat him and threw him ashore. lie
being small man started to run fot the Elyirn-
john Monaghan followed Lin, md oscsiakins
him WHEN about half wsr, drew long revolver
and shot lli1n in the back Of the neck, the ball
coming out Of the cheek urar. the ere, gouE
straiElt through his head. The unfortunate
man fell; bathcd in blood; while Monaghan stood
oscr him ana pounded hln, on the head with the
heavy barrel Of bis pistol till the blood covered
hi& rrEifo rfa 1sEr ~.
face, with his hands crossed oEor the back Of
bis bcad to protect himself. Leaving him for
dead, Moutghan fred at mans head in The
river, fortunately missing him. 4 man named
Als. Kinney BY this time bad appeared from the
Henrietta: and began firing ut The croud. About
directions over the island, hiding in the grass.
while some got on tue boat which had showed
Of:
The man whom Monaghan shot raised him.
self on his feet and started to run, when he FELL
Raising again, he Started to r,,u, when Mona-
CHAN Tired, and The ball struck him on the FORE
head, Just between abe eyes, luckily glancing
bringing him 10 the ground. Another person
then beat hini oyer the head with a soda bottle
till he broke it, By the greatest good fortune
There were no 5topes Up the island, or the con-
sequences would hare been terrible. Tic poor
nan, incredible it seems, raised himself again
and fell. ret after repeated Efforts managed to
get into skiff, aud crawl into the stern: Fu-
fioas Ut seciu;, him alive. Lis enea,ies again
started for him. The crowd on the Elvira shout
ed to the farmer, in whose boat he was, 10
shove ol.' but the man would not, and np-
peared to be almost frightened to death. How
oref, just before The fillians reached him, he
threw hi.nselfinto TIC n5er, and hasing strength
board. Jack LooneJ, Byrnes' second, had to
jump into the river aud swim of to saye his
life While he was going on the crowd on tue
Evirn were standing on the bow Of the boat.
posyerless to MD, as the Connor', men had
all The firearms, One man jumped in the w.
ter to escape the balls, which we're being shot ut
tho crowd. and went under, JACK Montgomery,
the only man who shawed any compassion In
tl.a whole crowd, Jumped overheard to save
lin, when the drowning man graspcd him by
t!lc arms und both we're under. 4 third man
jumped in to their ud. and all three went under,
dnd we're being s*eptaway by the current when
2 fourth nian got rope, and fastening it around
were got on board apparently dead. One man
was quietly drowning little further down, and
l saw no one rescue him. As we showed of, one
man lay wounded ftom pistol shot, under
tree; aud forty or fly Of the crowd were lett
behind. Is thu Capttins dared not bring their
boals together. The Elsira ieR first. Just Is
She backed out Monaghan came down the bank
aud fired directly INTO the crowd on the front
part Of the hurrIcan. oeck. The balls whis,led
through crowd Of two hundred peraous with
out doing any damage, except shooting man
through the arm, asthe crowd raa aft. One ball
struck the bell, anodcr struck close by the Cap
ta'ns head, which caused that functionary to
hurry up his boat Our crowd kept midd[ing
quiet till we reached Alton, wheEe We stopped q
few minutes. Here some of the timid left.
Here also the fighting began again. One rniian
got another in big tin boiler. and pounded the
unfortunate creatures face oil to q jcl|y-pone
Interfering. The man made 10 resistance, and |
tue other enraged 4 his passiyeness, seized him |
By the hair, aid Kidding his head orcr, kicked
bis face till it rrsemb!ed piece Of raw becfno
ono caring TO stop him
The lighting continued till re reached St. |
Louis. The whole crowd left the Elsir4 at the |
uprcr part Of the city, except the wounded.
The scenes On tho Henrietta wcrc much worse |
Monaghan again shooting some one, and af- |
[erwards threw himself into the river, und |
struck out fot tho Illinois shorr. The Captain |
If tho Ely1ra sw1n dcrously, that it he ever
reached St. Louis, this should end his rartcipa-
lion IN such company; a1d certainly be felt re-
cyed, il be felt half the sensation We did 10 see
hem leave. Our curiosity was satisfied aud our
romantic opinion of the fancy" has fallen for
:ver, hy Witnessing this, our first and last "prize
1Eht"
II ruin the ss- Louis Republican,
From party present ne gather the follow