The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1868-08-16
The Prize Ring in Britain.

The active members of the English prize
ring, an institution at one time popular with
all classes of her Majestys subjects, and which
had become almost venerable from it's an
tiquity, are battling bravely against the visible
tendency towards that ''shying off, from
patronage of the ''manly art which has pre-
vailed in the public mind since the fight be-
tween the late Tom Savers and Heenan, and,
as our London mail report, published to-day,
proves, keep their respective districts
healthily agitated by very lively efforts for the
maintenance of the existing order of this
class of outdoor exercise and recreation, and
in opposition to the aggressive advance Of
those modern ideas" which, as they imagine,
will consign the ropes and stakes of the ringed
arena to the same curiosity shop which con-
tains the whip, the ''box coat" and ''ribbons"
of the stage coachman who ''swept along the
Strand In all his pride and glory before civil
zation had acknowledged that there was ''noth-
ing half so quick in life as steam, still steam"
The British prize ring, like the English
Church, is experiencing days of tribulation.
Public opinion tends to the arraignment of
its morale, it's utility its commission and its
results. Its representative champions stand
forth in response in the persons of Goss,
Allen, Hurley, Wren, Andy Valley, Bob
Turner, Barney Mullody, "Yellow," Rodley,
Dawson, ''Posh" and others, to assure public
opinion that fraternity which descends from
the very loins and tilt yards Of the Conqueror
and his brother knights and from the halls
and baronial estates of Irish princes and Celtic
''slashers' cannot be classed as ''public
enemy" and will, in the end, vindicate itself
against the encroachments of the schools
and universities and the effeminacies which
are likely to visit the land from the economies
of the spindle and 'jenny," as observed in
Manchester, Leeds and other centres of manu-
facture, foul air, early marriages and the
walks of the poor house physicians. The
''men of the ring" have had, as duly chronicled
in the HERALD, in England within few days,
arrangements for the championship fight, a
mill" in the London district, fierce fight
between Valley and Bob Turner ''catch
weight" contest between Barney Mullody and
"Yellow," and battle near Leeds, with other
very Interesting ''events" in preparation.
1t may be asked what more can they do?
If their aristocratic patrons chang off" they
cannot help it. Friar Tuck, who recognized
Richard the Lion-hearted, on his return from
captivity in the East, by the force of buffet
straight from the shoulder" of the till then
unknown knight, was himself in bad odor with
his Bishop; and should Mr.. Disraeli, the son of
a race which never shirked the enemy, refuse
to recognize the vitality Of ''Posh, "Yellow"
and the others, it will be accepted merely as
fresh evidence that Britain Is about to adapt
herself to social revolution in which the prize
ring will disappear.
We do not anticipate so complete change in
our day. 1t would be scarcely polite. The Eng
lish Church "shrinks back" on itself at the first
murmur of discomfort against it, 1t deigns no
reply to free thought or humanity, while we
see that the pugiists both of England and
America are in their day of disbursement
quite active in their efforts to perfect an inter-
national interlacement and so bring about an
era Of equality and fraternity, and in the per-
sons of the Honorable John Morrissey, Jem
Ward, Bob Brettle, Bill Tovey, Mike McCoole,
Bill Cleaver, ''Posh" and Mullody undertake
fatiguing journeys from Washington to New
York, from New York to London, from Lon
don to Australia and thence to California and
back again to New York in their efforts to
sustain man pure and simple" and uphold
the regulations won by Brian Bots de Guilbert
Friar Tuck Spring, particularly Donnelly,
Gulley and the other great ones living and
dead. It is pugism against the parsons, and
there is all likelihood that pugilism will carry
the day at the next elections, both in Britain
and the United States.