The New York herald., 1863-12-24
King and Heenan-Our Contests with
England.

King and Heenaa-Our Contests with
England.
Another great contest between England and
the United States has been determined against
us, to the disgust of the "fancy" portion OF our
community, and the intense amazement OF the
American eagle. King and Heenan met on the
10th instant, and after a fight Of thirty-6ve
minutes the latter admitted a defeat and gave
up the battle. Twenty-Five rounds were fought
Heenan endeavored to avail himself OF his
talents as wrestler, which are very great,
and thus to win by the exhaustion of his oppo-
nent. Doubtless this was partly dictated by a
desire to save his hands, which were likely not
80 good as they had been represented to be.
He gave the only knock down blow Of the fight,
and fought gamely to the end.
So ends the last thus far, of our contests
with England About l776 we had our first,
and won, though 1t was hard fight. 1t was
ended BY q Catherine wheeler at Yorktown.
Early in the present century-lsl2-we fought
again; but on this occasion the result was only
a draw, a. the British iion--or the British buii,
whichever it is-or British beast made up
of the contrary qualities of bull and lion, with
tho stupid bovine stubbornness and the feline
treachery-was satisfied to CLOSE that struggle
when it was not more than half fought out In
another contest Of lesser magnitude than these
we fought by champions. England was rep
resented by the immortal Tom Cribb, and the
United States sent one of its instituti0ns-the
nigger, and a good representative specimen
of the race, too, named Molyneux Now. al
though it has been said that the nigger won't
fight, Molyneux--a good specimen OF the Ameri.
can nigger-came within an ace, black ace,
of giving Tom Cribb-a magnificent specimen
of the English white mana severe drubbing;
but England cut the ropes and won. Tom
however, was afterwards taken in hand by the
famous Captain Barclay, and in the next fight
Cribb vanquished Molyneux, and we were
down in turn. Both these contests took place
on British soil Then we had several contests
of another character on yachts, reapers, DC, in
all Of which we were the victors. The America
took the Worlds cup off Cowes, and the English
yachts were nowhere. Next we fought by cham
pions again-Heenan for us, and Sayers for bis
country and the stakes. England was beaten
that time; but she would not admit it, because,
as she said, her champion was only little
fellow after all. But she took away her cham
pion's belt, though she would not give 1t to the
man who had convinced her that her champion
was unworthy to wear it. After that Wall
street broker sent his yacht to England, and
brought on another contest in which we were
beaten. Again we were beaten through one
Of our steam fire engines, and finally we
have been beaten In this last immense
mill between King and Heenan. Here are
only four results against as in all these
struggles, and that ia a state Of the quarrel in
which Wa might gracefully leave It; but We
have not yet heard of any American who Is so
recresnt as to propose that
Beyond all question we take, "a o people,
too deep an interest in this struggle to leave
it yet, especially as the result is against us
Yesterday, so absorbed were all classes in the
expectation Of this news, that no other subject
had any interest. Juvenal said that tho inter-
ruption Of the Roman races caused more sor-
row in Rome than tho loss Of the battle OF
Canine. Here we had the same public condi-
ton repeated, and by comparison with this
fight there was no civil war for day, and
even no nigger. Immediately upon the receipt Of
the Presidents late Message, in which the
country expected plan for the settlement OF
the difficulties with the South, we.published an
extra, and the people absolutely would not buy
It. But our extra with the account Of this fight
sold by thousands. One million dollars also
were bet upon the fight in this city, and at least
three millions altogether IN England, this coun-
try and Canada. Are we in this any worse
than the world at large! No; all vigorous,
healthy and free races, from the Jews down,
have loved a fight Moses was o hard hitter
inasmuch as by a single blow Of his fist he
knocked one of those tough customers, the
Egyptians We can make nothing Of out
of time and into eternity. His descendants
ornament the p. R. to the present day. Ulysses
fought the giant Irus for kids fries, and was
declared the winner on the first round, having
completely demolished the giants snuffbox
and potato trap by single hot one from the
auctioneer. His countrymen had already made
the sport national one, and Greece deiHed
muscle in Hercules. In the days when Venice
was free the prize fight was one Of her national
institutions, even more decidedly than It ia
in England at the present time; but now there
are no prize fights in that enslaved and peace
fnl city.
No institution that hourished in Egypt
Greece and Italy, and that is alive yet, can
easily die. So there will be more fights. But
after this we must have better representative
than Hcenan. No disparagement is meant to
his courage in this; but he certainly lacks the
proper organization for q fighter. He has
bone, muscle, and all that; but yet he is too
delicate in another sense. He is, as the breed
ers would say, too "Gne." His nervous system
is not the right one, and in this particular he
is 10 decided contrast with all the men who
have been his opponents, and we may doubt