Omaha daily bee., 1896-07-05

lEh NNll'-NDulluutu
The ominous figure galloped up once more
alongside of our curricle, but this time his
mission was a more amiable one.
my Jurisdiction ends at that ditch, SIR
said he. 81 should fancy that you could
hardly wish a better place for a mill than
the sloping field beyond. | am quite sure
that no one will interfere with you there
His anxiety that the fight should be
brought off was in such contrast to the zeal
with which he had chased us from his county
that my uncle could not help remarking
upon It.
at is not for a magistrate to wink at the
breaking of the law, sir, he answered, but
II my colleague of Hampshire has no scru-
pies about its being brought off within his
jurisdiction, I should very much like to see
the fight" with which he spurred his horse
up an adjacent knoll from which he thought
that he might gain the best view of the pro
ceedings.
And now | had a view OF all those points
OF etiquette and curious survivals of custom
which are so recent that we have net yet
appreciated that they may some day be as
interesting to the social historian as they
then were to the sportsman. A dignity was
given to the contest by a rigid code of cere-
mony, Just as the clash of mail-clad knights
was p~refaced and adorned by the calling of
the heralds and the showing of the blazoned
shields. To many in those ancient days the
tourney may have seemed a bloody and
brutal ordeal. but we who look at it with
ample perspective see that 1t was a rude
but gallant preparation for the conditions OF
life In an iron age. And so also when the
ring has become as extinct as the lists we
may understand that a broader philosophy
would show that all things which spring up
so naturally and spontaneously have a func-
ton to fulfil. and 1t is a less evil that two
men should, of their own free VIII, fght
until they can fight no more, than that the
standard of hardihood and endurance should
run the slightest risk of being lowered In
a nation which depends so largely upon the
individual qualities of her citizens for her
defense. De away with war, II the ac-
cursed thing can, by any wit of man, be
avoided, but until you see your way to that,
have a care in meddling with those primitive
qualities to which at any moment you may
have to appeal for your own protection.
Tom owen and his singular assistant,
Togo. who combined the functions of prize
fighter and of poet, though, fortunately for
himself, he could use his fists better than
his pen, soon had the ring arranged accord
ing to the rules then in vogue. The white
wooden posts, each with the p. C.. of the
Pugilistic club printed on it. were so fixed
as to leave a square Of twenty-four feet
within the roped enclosure. Outside this
ring an outer one was pitched, eight feet
separating the two. The inner was for the
combatants and for their seconds, while in
the outer there were places for the referee,
the timekeeper. the hackers, and a few Sc
lect and fortunate individuals. OF whom,
through being in my uncle's company. | was
one. Some twenty we'll known prize fighters,
Including my friend Bill War;, Black Rich
mond. Maddox, the Pride OF Westminster,
Tom Belcher, Paddington Jones, Tough Tom
Blake, Symonds the Rufian. Tyne the Tailor,
and others were stationed in the outer ring
as beaters-out.
These fellows all wore the high white
hats which were at that time much affected
by the fancy, and they were armed with
horse whips, silver mounted and each bear
ing the p. C. monogram. Did any one, be
1t east end rough or west end patrtcian, in
trude within the outer ropes this corps of
guardians neither argued nor expostulated,
but they fell upon the offender and laced
him with their whips until he escaped back
out Of the forbidden ground. Even with SO
formidable a guard and such fierce meas
ures the beaters-out who had to check the
forward heaves of a maddened, straining
crowd were often as exhausted at the end
of a fight as the principals themselves. In
the meantime they formed up in a line of
sentinels. presenting under their row of
white hats every type of fighting face, from
the fresh boyish countenances of Tom Bel
to the SCARED and mutilated visages of the
veteran bruisers.
While the business of the fixing of the
stakes and the fastening of the ropes was
going forward, | from my place of vantage
could hear the talk of the crowd behind