Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1889-10-05
BREAKING RIGHT LEG.

Wrestling in England and the colonies still
retains much of its old-time popularity. In
every place are professionals and amateurs
who keep the sport alive and who enjoy a local
popularity that is hard for us Americans to
understand or appreciate. Every town has its
champion, as has almost every country, On
Sundays and holidays matches are of con-
slant occurrence, and victor and vanquished
are rewarded by unlimited applause and
equally unlimited amounts of ale. wine,
punch and other liquid Injuries. In the
United States wrestling has never been
such popular sport. In almost every
case where man has displayed great skill in
some unfamiliar neighborhood he has been
bounced upon by sporting men or managers
who saw money in his skill and transferred to
the ranks OF the professionals This is the his
tory in nutshell of Owen. Mclaughlin and
McMahon, three of the greatest of American
wrestlers. 1t is especially the case of Owen,
from Vermont when he made his bow before a
Boston audience professional. There is no
use OF complaining about this tendency of
affairs In our own country.
PAYING BUSINESS.
Professional wrestling is good, remunerative
business and pays far better on an average than
the law, pulpit or medicine. OF our great lights
Muldoon enjoys a superb income from his ex-
hibitions, while Prof. Miller. Andre Christol,
Bauer, stranger" Lewis. Greek George. Dun
can G. Ross and that eccentric Japanese ath-
lete, Matsada Sorakichi seldom. if ever make
less than $4,000 a year apiece for their pro-
fessionai work. In fact it may be safely said
that frst-class wrestler is always sure of q
frst-class living.
1t is very hard to define accurately what
wrestling is. In the course of years so
many arbitrary systems have been evolved
that no one definition can cover the lot Of them
1t may be roughly called a sport in which two
men endeavor to throw each other down in
some prescribed way without going down in
the same way themselves. The average reader
will probably have no idea of the vast differ
ences that are covered by SO elastic a defini-
ton.
IN aRKco-RoNAN WRESTLING
both hips and one shoulder or both shoulders
and one hip OF the vanquished party must be
put in contact with the ground at the same
time. In this style OF wrestling the contestants
are allowed to strike with the open hand,
though never with the clenched or the back of
the hand, on any part of the body between the
throat and knee. i have seen such great mas
tiers as Christol, Bauer and Miller make hand
holds SO vigorously that the blood flowed from
the skin OF the man they would grasp. On the
other hand, in collar-and-elbow wrestling no
blows are allowed and the initial hold must not
be broken until the round is determined In
still another system-that of butting-which
prevails in many towns Of England and more
especially in English colonies, the hands and
feet are RELOCATED to an inferior position and
the head becomes
THE CHIEF IMPLEMENT OF oFFKSsE.
In this case men, for the time being, become
goats, and probably the sport should not prop
erly be called wrestling. Most of the systems
OF wrestling can BIO compared to the wrestling
habits OF the lower animals. While Quitting"
may be compared to the habits of the goat.
the "purring" Of Lancashire athletes NAV be
hkened to the methods Of attack employed
by jackasses; "la savate'' of the French is like
the fighting of the ostriches; the GRECO Roman
resembles the struggles of grizzly bears with
one another; catch-as-catch-can is modelled
after the actions Of the ordinary European
bear; the collar -and-elbow is like the fights
between monkeys, and the Cornish and North
cumberland is like battles among elephants.