The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1894-05-16

leans may possibly find satisfaction in
the reflection that their English cousins
are just at present going into ecstasies
travagant than anything ever perpe-
trated on this size of the Atlantic A
recent issue of the staid old London
Telegraph thus described the reception
rendered to the American champion at
his first performance in London:
No one could have been more aston
ished at this last and most important
chapter in the long story of the noble
art of self-defense than Jem Mace, the
ex-champion Of England, who stood
grinning on the stage tanning the face
Of the handsome young athlete who has
united in his cOmely person the masher
pugilist with the light comedian. We
watched Jem Mace'S face-they called
it "a mug" in the old days of long ago
and wondered what this honest fellow
thought Of the changes of temperament
and sentiment when the Corinthians"
were found sitting IN the stalls of
London theater cheering and applauding
a brother champion who was not show
ing his cups and belts at an obscure
pothouse in the metropolis. but standing
bowling and collecting bouquets and
baskets of flowers, whilst the men roared
themselves hoarse with delight, and the
women, with sparkling eyes, waved
their lace pocket handerchiefs at the
attractive bruiSer-actor. Jem Mace
could have told many a tale of supreme
interest, had he willed it, of days when
Bells Life in London was the prize
fighters oracle. and when its editor,
Frank Bowling, with the decisive man
ner and the familiar eyeglasses went
down to see that all was fair and square
when the ring was pitched near Staple
hurst woods or on the lonely marshes
Of the lower Thames by Purfleet. What
tales he could have told of the days Of
Guild Nat Langham. the only con-
queror Of Tom Sayres. at the Cambrian
stores, the sporting rendezvous which
shared with Owen Swift's in Coven-
try-st. the honor of informing the
corinthians the latest tip about the
mill on the morrow" How he could
have recalled the times of Bob Travers
the black, and Joe Goss and Paddock,
and the pugilistiC heroes of another age,
and enlightened the audience once more
on the memorable and classic contest
English Tom Savers, when II was re-
ported that Lord PalmerSton, the
premier. was present at the fight, and
Sayers was cheered and feted wherever
he appeared. driving or walking, in the
streets of LOndOni Those were the days
when it was as much as your life was
worth to go down to a, prize fight unpro-
tected; when the very railway station
was in charge Of outlaws and robbers
who relieved the visitors of their purses
and their watches as fast as Smelling
peas; and now old Jem Mace stood on
the stage of Drury-lane theater to as
Sist at a mimic combat, and to see the
best boxer in the world as an actor by
no manner of means to be despised when
compared to the light comedians of his
time; and, to crown all, a bruiser and
a fighting man no longer typical of the
bully and brute, but the champion of
honor and right, the defender of women,
the protector of the weak, a kind Greek
hero of Olympian games, who was not
rewarded with a crown of laurel. but
with five-guinea baskets Of the choicest
lilies and eXotics from Covent garden.
American newspapers have afflicted
their readers with a good deal of slush
in regard to Sullivan and Corbett and
Peter Jackson and the rest of the
bruisers, but none of them was ever
guilty of perpetrating anything equal
to that here quoted. Nor did any of
them ever even insinuate that Corbett
was an factor by no means to be de-
spised." And no theater of the stand
ing and history Of Drury-lane could be
secured in which TO exhibit a prize
fighting aggregation. Our more modern
civilization can't begin to compare with
that of England in alteration of the slug