Little Falls transcript. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1876-1894, 1886-06-25
A Renaissance of Fighters.

see what fun there is in standing in
front Of another man to pound and
be pounded with the fist ofwickedness
done up in a slightly padded kid glove.
The unhappy stranger to the joys OF
boxing sees only two men, whom he
believes to be crazy but dosn't dare to
say so, hopping around with the en-
thusiasm of young and misguided
samecocks, gathering each others
faces out of shape and indulging in
variagated assault and battery. But
the boxer, especially the amateur box
er, is in q state OF rapture as long as
the gloves are on his fists, modified
only when a hot cross-counter under
the ear OF an upper cut full Of sweet
ness and light that lifts his nose far
toward heaven reminds him that he is
only mortal after all.
Yet every man VINO learns the art of
using his fists instead OF the sword and
shield soon finds out that the punish
ment is not so hald to take after ALL
Hundreds of young men who shine in
New York society have developed a
strong liking for the fstic science of
late years, and the fever Of punching
heads with a care is rapidly growing.
Very few men who looked on the old
time prize fights ever cared to try their
own hands at that sort ofthing. The
spectacle OF a broken-ja wed giant stag
gered to his corner with his shapeless
face dripping blood was not calculated
to attract a man toward learning how
to get himself in the same fix. But in
1878 arose Prof. c. Mcclellan, a. good
man, and true, Of middle weight, with
a great and level head. Thenoble and
truly good Marquis Of Queensburv
had formulated code of benehcenr
rules for head and rib banging a few
years before this, in which he sternly
forbade back-heeling, whereby the sim
pie minded sIugger is easily made to
stand on his head in the midst of a
round, or any sort OF wrestling,
which always gave the heavy
man the advantage. 1t struck Prof
Mcclellan that it would be a beauti-
full thing to see a pair of evenly match
ed boxers pound each other with thin
ly stuffed boxing gloves on the Queens
berrlan plan. He believed that people
would come miles to see such a set-to,
so he matched himself against hand.
some Michael Donovan, and gave the
tip to scores OF young men about
town. They paid fabulous sums of
money for ticketsito witness the scrim-
mage, and they were happy when they
saw a beautiful fight, with lots OF
science in it and no raw and bleeding
faces. The professor knew more
about the Marquis than MI. Dono van
did, and he got the best OF him; but
handsome Mike went home aud stud
led up. Before the end of the year
the pair came together again in the
presence OF 100 wealthy young men
and Donovan had the pleasure ofscien-
tifcally pounding the professor twice
as hard as the professor pounded him.
ALI this was done in the most grace
full and pleasing way, and the young
men said to themselves that it must
be fine fun, and that boxing was not
such q deadly thing after ali: So they
began taking lessons from both OF
the fighters, and thus came about tht
renaissance of fsticuff in New York.
The more the young men knew about
spnrrlng, the more they wanted to
see glove fights. Therefore, it was
that they tiocked by thousands to
Madison Square garden TO watch the
immortalJohn OF Boston, dapper
Charles Mitchell of England and
youthful Dominick Mccartney Of
Pitrsburg watt one another about a
high platform with beautiful, pillow
like, white kid gloves. Thus the ex-
hibitions and the progress OF the fis-
tic science hourished together, until
now New York society is dotted with
sturdy, graceful boxers as the plains
OF Lombardy are studded with pop
lars and Parkrow with peanut
stands.
Stand on upper Fifth avenue any
tine Sunday afternoon. You will see
scores of clear-skinned, quiet young
fellows in the promenading throng,
faltlessly dressed and almost as list
less as the dudes whose elbows rub
theirs. You would not at the first
glance think there was good fight in
a dozen of them. but drop in at New
York athletic club twenty-four hours
later and will see how they can spar.
Donovan their veteran teacher, says
that four three-minute rounds apiece
with two or three of them, send him
home fit to sleep for a week. And yet
he is O. strong game fighter, and has
batt]ed with his own bare knucks in
the prize ring for hours at a time, and
beaten men whose names are honored
i'll the world of sport.
'There are no quicker, stronger or
cleverer sparring men in the world
than New Workers." said retired
fighter, land can't understand how
they have all sprung up so quickly.
When I.began to fight for a living,
fifteen years ago, you could count on
one hand all the amateurs in this city
who were worth naming; now you
can't throw stone on Fifth avenue
without hitting first class heavy,
middle or light weight. I'm teaching
them by the dozen, and only wish
there were twice as many hours in the
day so that l could handle more of
EN-"
Glow do you train them? Well,
that's hard question. No two are
worked alike, and a course OF sprouts
that would just take the surplus
flesh off a burly, heavy fellow, would
half kill weaker man. It's hard to
keep young and enthusiastic men
from OVERRIDING their training.
know very promising young amateur
who was putting himself in fettle a
weeks ago to contest the biggest event
of his life. He ran ten miles day
as hard as he could go, punched the
bag and put up dumbbells. He filled
in the spare time on pulley weights.
What was the result? He came up