The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Stroudsburg, Pa.) 1853-1911, 1860-05-03
The Eight.

patronized by the upper classes OF society,
was less brutal, less rufianly, and less
unfair than it is in this country. the sc
counts received BY the Vanderbilt of the
late battle between Heenan and Sayers
will tend, we should suppose, to effaee
that impression. A more glaring instance
of thorough brutality, and a more palpa'
BILE deter mination to give victory to one
of the combatants, regardless OF the true
result, never disgraced the ring IN TINS
country or elsewhere. 10 prove these
assertions it is only necessary to read the
accounts of the fight, as related in WsIse S
Sptrt Of the Times and Bets Life IN Lo''-
don. The former, as cur readers know,
is an American paper, but Published. up
on this occasion, in London Immediately
after the 6gbt. for distribution here upon
the arrival of the steamer, its editor hav-
ing gone broad for that purpose The lat
tersis, and for many years has been, the
standard sporting paper of Great Britain,
and the great authority upon all subjects
ap pertaining to the ring, the turf. or the
buudred other amusements, which, IL
ENGLAND, are as much matters OF business
as of pastime.
Heenan went to England a worse than
untried man. He had fought but one
battle, and in that beon conquered, al
though his adversary was third-rate
N an, his inferior in size and weight, and
much his senior. Sayers on the contra
ry, stood the acknowledged champion Of
England, the successor Of Figg, Belcher
Ward and others, and, as was generally
admitted, the superior of all of them with
perhaps, the exception OF Beleher. He
had been successful in every combat
in which he had been engaged with
but one exception, and then it was
the result of accident, and By no
means changed public opinion as to the
relative merit of the men. No wonder
then that, from the time the match was
made between Sayers and the American,
heavy odds were laid in England upon
the former. Commencing at FIVE to four
and gradually increasing, until before the
battle instances were known of as much
as two to one being staked upon the sue
cess of the champion. The takers Of
these odds were. generally speaking, the
comparatively few Americans in England,
and those of the British pugilists and
their patrons who had seen Heeuan, and
conceived favorable opinion Of bis pow
er, skill and courage. Let Us see il this
state of things did not have its effect up
on affairs, as they transpired, and wheth-
er the much vaunted fair-plsy of English
pugilism is not myth, which vanishes
when it is the interest of the u majority to
make the upshot of a fight different from
that which the rules of the ring dictate.
Ffon either OF the accounts to which
we have referred, it will be seen that when
the men met on the 18th, Heenan soon
showed himself the equal of Sayers in skill
and what is called, in the slang ofthe ring
generalship, and his superior in everything
else. Every time that he struck the
champion with his left hand, which ap,
pears to be bis fayorite weapon, be knock
ed him completely off of his feet. Thir-
teen knock down blows did Heenan ad-
minister to him, thing unprecedented in
the whole history of prize lighting from
the days of Figg to those of. .Sayers. In
wrestling the same superiority on Heen-
ans part was manifest throughout.
Esery time they closed the result was
the same, heavy fall for Sayers until on
the 35th round. in the language of one of
the HOmers of these Agamemnons, "Hee-
nan seized Sayers in bis arms and threw
him clean from him as if be were a frog :"
But when it was discovered that by 10 pos
sible chance could Ssyers win the fight
those msnoevres commenced whieh must
have been previously arranged, to prevent
Heenan being declared the victor, and
the belt being taken at once from Sayers
and from England. A cry of police was
raised, in order to alarm Heenan, and
cause him to run from the ring to avoid
arrest. Being forewarned of this, it did
not have the desired effect. Next, the
policemen (real or fcticious) began to
crowd upon the ring, giving the referee a
chance to run away, without giving his
decision, aud the rabble to break in the
ring aud annoy Heenan. The ring We
are told, was half full of people, aud bel o
the American rufian had the English one
in that extremely disadvantageous posi-,
ton, known to the initiated as Chancery,
they rushed to his rescue and took him
from that grasp of HeeDan, from which
otherwise he never would have been re-
leased, except as a conquered man.--
When every bystander was morally Ger.
tain that whatever the technical decision
might bo, Heenan was really the winner
of the fight, the American IeOped from the
ring, aud ran like q deer, while his van
quished adversary, weak from severe pun
ishment, and paralyzed as to tn, muscles
of bis right arm, from stopping Heenan' :
blows. was assisted slowly and painfully
to his quarters.
There is nothing SO bad 10 this world
but some good can be extracted from it;
and SO with the great international con-
test. If this brutal and disgusting exhi-
bition served no other good purpuse, it.
at least, did this: it exploded, for once
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