The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1868-08-20
The Ring.

exemplary member OF American society, Mr..
Morrissey, we perceive by latest accounts, has
been introducing him to some of the most dis
tipguished Of our Representatives and Sena-
tors. But with every disposition to speak
without the smallest feeling of dsrespsct
towards Mr.. James or "Jem" Ward the ind-
vidual in question, we wish he will fail in his
object. Jem is, in many respects, an estima-
BILE man, and highly honorable one, too.
In the palmy days Of the British Ring he held
his place honorably, and maintained his
ground in the face of the renowned Tom
Spring, and the not less redoubted Jem Crbb
both of these heroes now no more. He, more
over, has earned no small reputation in art;
the walls of the tavern which he long kept
in Leeds, and latterly in London, having
been adorned with many productions of his
brush which really reflected no small distinc-
ton on him, and would not have been deemed
unworthy of higher pretender to art. Jem,
besides, is gentleman in his aspect, and
gentleman in his demeanor. He still retains
high Roman nose, and does not rejoice in one
of those battered organs which distinguish our
own Heenan, and most Of the present members
of the ring. He is in all respects fit to orna
ment the B. B. B. A., or the P. B. A. (Pugil-
lists Benefcent Assocation), into which the
original British Boxers institution has en-
larged itself, with the view of embracing within
its folds all the Clancy" throughout the globe.
but still, We repeat, it is to be hoped that Jem
will fail in his object, if it be to perpetuate or
extend such system amongst us.
The days are gone when the Prince Regent
and the leading mobiles # England used to
patronize the ring. The present prince Of
Wales, "rowdy" as in many ways he is, would
not venture to make his appearance at prize
fight. Such scenes in England are now con-
fined to the vilest OF the rabble, and in Scot
land they never have been encouraged. The
fight between Heenan and the English cham
pion, Tom Sayers, was perhaps the last at
which any men with the slightest claims to
respectability dared to show themselves, and
even then they were limited to juvenile officers
of the Guards and sucking members of the
aristocracy, who were encouraged by the
interest which the late Premier of the country,
Lord Palmerston, to his lasting disgrace, took
in the affair. The guinea which that noble
man sent on the occasion as tribute to the
English champion was not one of the least
disreputaSle acts in his fagitious career; and
though extolled by his toadies as evincing his
sympathy with "pluck," it was viewed with
far different feelings by the better part of the
nation, and wholly failed to assist in restoring
what were termed the lost glories Of the ring.
How the name of "glory" ever came to be
associated with such an institution at all,
strikes us with astonishment. At the best, a
prize fight is but brutal exhibition of two in
dividuals mutilatipg each other. The pretext
that it is manly art, and that it contributes
to self-defense, is altogether false; for if man
familiar with the Science" as it is called
assails another who is ignorant of it, the act is
a cowardly one; and il all are equally trained,
it of course affords no protection. Science"
seems nowadays to have degenerated too;
for while such men as Spring, Cribb, and
others, including our present hero, Jem
Ward, showed themselves to be so far in pos
session of it as to have been able to protect
their faces, almost all the present worthless
| of the ring are conspicuous for their broken
noses. The absence of the prominent facial
organ seems indeed at present to be consid-
cred as an ornament, as every modern cham
| pion has it either battered in or most oomi-
cally knocked on one side; but we hold 1t to
be proof of the decline of "science," as well
as of the increase of brutality, and that the
modern professors are now no longer able to
defend themselves as their predecessors did.
But it is on account OF the enormous mass
of thieves and vilest members of every de-
scription in the community whom a prize
fight invariably assemblies, that we chiefly
object to the obnoxious institution. 1t is no
longer pretended that these are confined
mainly to England for any one who saw the
horrid assemblage who quilted New York to
witness the late anticipated great fight in the
West cannot doubt that We are fully match in
respect for our Transatlantic rivals. Such a
hideous mass of villainy perhaps never before
fell under mortal eye. Not vestige of re-
spectability or "fashion" was present in it.
1t is a proud boast, we think, for America,
that a courageous Western magistrate, by
arresting the combatants in advance, and
sending them for forty days to jail for contem
plating a breach of the peace, effectually
stopped the recently designed great prize-fght
and if our other Justices will initiate the ex
ample of the California Sheriff, who has an,
nounced his resol alton in the future to institute
proceedings not only against the princip ais,
but all who are present at such scenes, includ