Omaha daily bee., 1883-04-17
OLD TIME SLUCCERS,
How They Fought, Lived and
Died.
Interesting "reminiscences q
Tom Hyer, Yankee sulli-
van, John @. Keenan,
And Other P ugilists Who Lived
Before the Days Of Sullivan
and Knocking Ont.

Chic,go Herald.
"Like everything else prize fighting
Is different now than what 1t was In
my younger days. The system has
entirely changed. The style OF fighting
has altered. Thirty years ago the aim
Of q pugillst In the ring was to infiiot
as much punishment az possible on
his antagonist, and to stand an equal
amount; or, II necessary, even more
than he inflicted. His training made
him able to do 30. Fights we're won
then by endurance, usually. There
was no knocking out In half q dozen
rounds. 1t was give and take for an
hour or two, until the best man won.
Nowadays, 1t seems to me, the science
of boxing Is to avoid punishment and
to dispose Of your opponent with q
single blow.
The speaker might have seen taken
for q retired banker or . grave profes.
sional man. At the casual glance his
venerable but hale c~ountensnoe would
not be associated witha love OF sport
and forty years connection with 1t In
every form. In the oozy orn Of
the down town resort, where every
evening Q little knot of men collected
and listened eagerly as he went on In
this strain:
1.-THE men have changed also. The
pugilist of to day appears to me to be
an altogether different being from his
predecessor of thirty or forty years
back. There's John L. Sullivan. Be.
yond q doubt he's q good man. He
has the qualifications of an almost In.
vincible tighter. Probably any man
who attempted to beat him would find
it Q bad job. Ryan and Mace and
Slade, and even the elder fighters, like
Tom Allen and Joe Coburn, are all oil
them game men. They have plenty
Of muscle and pluck. But to place
them beside Hyer and Yankee Sulli-
van, Heenan, Sayers and Ben Count
well, II the comparison IL not exact
ly unfavorable to the contemporary
millers, there Is q decided difference
In the parallel. The men of o genera
tion sgo were giants. They battlet
In Q way that was simply terrific
and with results that no prize rinl
now Sees"
"Who was the greatest of them2
asked The Herald reporter.
"That's dithoult to say" answered
the speaker. "They were all wonder
fol men. Tom Heyer and Yanke
Sullivan fourished ct about the sam
time. Heenan and Ssyers game later
Tom Hyer was . fine man. He wa
of imposing stature and had q hand
some face. Always dressed In the to-
Of the fashion, his stately figure at
tracted all eyes when he move'
through the streets. His father va
Q ringster and from him Tom derive
much Of his great strength and mus
cular development. The latter "a
marvellous. The layers Of muscle
around his shoulders and chest an
the sinews of his arms were like roper
While In training they were 20 har
and firm that you could scarcely ir
dent his flesh without q ~oonsiderab|
:. pressure. Between Tom and Yanks
Sullivan . great rivalry existet
Yankee was . Troy boy, splendidl
. equipped BY nature as a fighter"
II was preient ct the match Il
J. $40, 900 Q side between these two |
40. 1t was the most celebrated bait
that had ever occurred In Amerio'
= The place originally fixed upon WI
Poole's Island In the Chesapeake, net
Baltimore. When the schooner, ha,
ing on board the principals and . hui
dred more of us, drew near the islant
We found the authorities had q
ahead OF Us. A company Of the Bait
v more light guards and Q swarm Of COL
stables we're drawn up ct the landing
We put about and ran for o neck
70 woods called Stillpond Heights,
,s Kane county, Maryland. We can
ashore and planted the stakes In
farm yard, whose owner, with all h
N men had gone to the Island to see Il
y mill. Probably the good farmer
- wife, II abe Is yet living, remembe
the devastation that the hungry CROW
IF made of her hoecakes. Well, the mt
r. were soon at 1t. II was the shorte
in fight on record up to that time. Elev.
In bloody rounds were fought In elev,
I'd and q half minutes. The hammeril
=. that each principal received was som
4. thing terrible. l was o young fellc
a. at my first fight. The sound Of tho
~mallet.like blows, and the sight of Il
D marks they left was-well, II W
y, ~sickening. In the eleventh roul
Hyer struck Sullivan an upward Q
" square In the chest. Yankee sta
gered back Q dozen feet, then fe
with q blister large as half o mus
melon, and the same color, on |
chest. That round settled the fgl
I don't pretend to know how mu
y, money changed hands ON the resu
- Popular opinion placed II a. high
M 81, 000, 600. / know Q southern plant
who bet fifty nigqers against the sal
4 number on Hysr."
v" odd Hyer ever fight Bill Poole7"
-, eyes, but rot In the ring. Poo
b was Q rough and tumblsr only. ]
"A and Hyer had their grudge out o
~ night on the wharf. It was tho XII
' of On ARRAY that two such glAdiate
would make when their passions VIZ
IL famed by hatred. They punohs
\ bit and kicked, until when they we
separated, they were mutilat
objects. Poole was q great ohavact,
He was q butcher, the pet Of the Bo
cry, and wal Hyer's only contestant
supremacy among the fancy Of N,
York. Bill was q politician ant
fiery leader Of the Know NothinI
whose slogan was America for /
Americana He has an inatitution