Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1895-07-06
ART OF COCK FIGHTING.
1t Was "a Favorite Sport in the Last
Century.


From the Realm.
In the middle of the eighteenth century
Bourne called out against cock fighting
as "a heathenish mode of diversion, which
ought certainly to be confined to barbar-
Gus nations. BY that time il had grown
10 De hideous performance, such as we
sun see 1t practiced in the sporting pic
lures" of a hundred years ago. where the
pHus' provided with long steel spurs stall,
one another to death in a pit surrounded
by ring OF leering old gentlemen in boots
ana bIeeches. But, difficult as it NAV he
10 lealize the fact, in earlier times this was
= pilstfne which shocked nobody, and real
~ was much less horrible than the Geor-
gan tradition presupposes.
lAtFeIhe care was taken from the mo-
ihent mat the egg was laid to insure the
health of what might turn out 10 he a
| valuable fighter At a month old The
young birds were censed every morning
| WIN burning rosemary or pennyroyal and
zen taken Tor a constitutional on a grass
pot Directly the comb appeared II was
cut away and the scar constantly rubbed
with butter. If the chicken crowed TOO
scch ne was cast out, for. a good fighter
| never raised his voice till late in life When
| promising bird had been selected no
| pans were spared with him; he was given
| strange and elaborate foods-cheese mar
II IS; chopped leeks. toast sopped in wine.
IN snort, no racer Of our day is nourished
anu guarded more delicately by his for
| turate owner.
The bird was taken out Of his pen after
| fls morning meal and a pair of "hotsU
soit padded rolls of leather were care
| luIiy fastened over the spurs Another
COCK similarly protected was brought out.
ana the two birds, being set on a lawn
| OF me turf, were encouraged to fight and
| bt net one another until the prize cock
| showed signs of WEAKNESS He was then
taken up, deprived OF his "hots'' and buried
| IN basket OF sweet straw, packed around
MN IN such way that he could scarcely
sur ana SO shall he stew and sweat until
the evening" This basket was called the
| stove and before the cock was nut into
1t he was made to swallow a lump Of
| chopped rosemary and pounded barley
sugar mixed in butter.
some amateurs liked to put their fighting
| COCKS INFO cock bag, but this was not
| held to be so efficacious as stove" be-
cause the air could not pass so freely
through it.. All the next day the cock
| rested, ard on the following morning
the cock master took him into green
| lnclosure. Then, putting him down on the
TURF. and holding some ordinary dung
nlii cock in his arms, the master showed
II to him. ran from him. enticed him to
follow, and occasionally allowed him to
get stroke at the dunghill bird When
thoroughly heated with this pastime the
| fighter was once more stuffed with butter
of rosemary and then slowed in the basket
or straw till the evening. This kind Of
| training went on for six weeks, which was
considered the proper time for training a
Geek, the last three days being spent in
| absolute Test and fasting, SO that it was
fresh and hungry bird that was brought
out at length into the pit. Now came the
| exercise of the real art of cock fighting
the proper relation of the fighters.
None of the incidental refnements which
| made eighteenth century cock fighting so
cruel had occurred to the simplicity of
! the seventeenth. No additions were made
to the armor Of the birds-no metal spurs
or needles fixed to their vigorous legs.
All that was done was to clear decks for
fighting-to cut off the long feathers of
| he
smooth and sharpen the beak and heels
with a krife 1t was important to leave
no feathers on the crown of the head for
the foe to take hold Of and then, after
a final ceremony, when the cock master
had licked the head and eyes of the cham
picn all over with his tongue the bird was
TUNED into the pit to try his fortune.
After the battle was over each combatant
vas tenierly taken up and his wounds
were secured He was then Put into his
basket to recover, wrapped in fam ell
and pressed down with straw that he could
scarcely breathe and thus left mo:ionlcss
for the night.