Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1899-08-13


swered the earnest man in clerical
garb, his strong face tinted with the
reflection of the stained-glass windows
above us and his gaze resting on a
religious picture on the wall. yes,
sometimes the bouts for points, but
when a man goes down and stays ten
seconds, why, then the referee counts
him out"
1t was a paradox, worth the ride ON
a jolting London omnibus, to see and
hear the Rev. A. Osborne Jay, vicar OF
Holy Trinity Church, Shoreditch, be-
Meath whose altar rail is a long room,
containing a t~welve-foot ring, where
boxing matches are held almost night
ly, where knockouts are frequent, and
where a professional referee is master
of ceremonies.
Hot weather being over, 1T Will be
only a few days now when this room
will again be filled with a crowd OF
eager men, all smoking vigorously and
cheering on their favorite of two lusty
young fellows, each stripped to the
waist and pummeling his opponent
with as much vigor, if not as much
science, as is shown by men battling
for the worlds championship, while
not far from the ringside sits a COM
monplace looking mar in clerical dress,
who has witnessed this sort of thing
several nights in a week for the six
teen years that have gone since he y
augurated the bouts, and whose exam
pie in starting them several American
clergymen are reported to be preparing
to follow.
Stockily built, with hair cut short,
intelligent eyes, deep sunken in heavy
cheeks, clean-shaven and of massive
Jaw, arms and legs SO large in mold as
almost to preclude the idea of energy
and activity, this is the rather dlsap-
pointing appearance of the remarkable
man who has made one of the most
criminal sections of London into one
of the most orderly merely by giving
its inhabitants a place In which to hold
ring matches. At least, that was the
beginning, and it is a pertinent fact
that when the Rev. Mr.. Jay drew the
plans for the new building in Old
Nichol street, upon which $150,00O has
been already expended, he made ar
engagements for two distinct depart
ments-the sanctuary and the boxing
hall.
A ROOMFUL OF PARADOXES.
Sitting with him in his quiet study,
it's table piled with religious books and
papers, while over the mantel hung a
s~tatuette of the Savior on the cross, I
told Mr.. Jay that in n of the United
States of America a clergyman had
shocked a lot of people by forming a
social club among the young men OF his
parish and engaging a past master OF
boxing to teach them the gentle art OF
"hooks and uppercuts' and asked him,
as the pioneer of that sort of thing, if
it was likely to be successful.
He sat up quickly, his eyes showed
keen interest, and energy came into
his face as he replied: Il don't know"
he said, eff it will succeed in America;
it will depend largely upon the kind of
young men who compose the clergy
mans parish. I started my club in a
room over a stable with sixty horses
underneath us. Now we have this
building, and if you like I'll show it to
you" He rose and, putting on a
equare black cap such as college men
led the way through a door and
down a circular stairway. We were in
a large room that was as much a par
adox as this clergyman's description of
sparring bouts, given in his study, had
been.
1t looked as if a sporting club had
taken possession of a Sunday school
room the day before without troubling
to take down its religious adornments
before arranging it to suit their tastes.
Sandwiched in between a picture of Mr..
Jay in his vestments and one of an old
chapel at Cambridge were portraits of
several hard-faced young men in full
ring costume; mex came a set of en-
crossed resolutions to somebody or
other. cheek by jowl with a copy of the
"rules of the ring" followed closely by
a brightly tinted picture of Moses
Shifting the Rock" flanked by a full
length" of a tall fellow not unlike
Young Critic, apparently in the act of
shifting some other aspirant for fstic
Inonors. So all around the walls of this
remarkable room the spiritual and the
pugilistic went hand in hand.
FOR BENEFIT NIGHTS.
Standing at one side of the room
were six posts connected with ropes,
and I noticed in the stage elevated at
the other end of the room there were
holes to receive them. At the reverse
end of the room was a palpable bar"
not one with a rail and a glittering