The morning journal-courier., 1908-01-07
MINI TIERS SET
 AGAINST BOXING Full Report of the Committee Appointed to Investigate Conduct of Bouts in
 This City.
LAW TO PROVE CASE
If the Scheduled Edgewood Club Ex- hibitiOn is Allowed it Will Certainly be the
 Last.

From the action taken by the inter- denominational committee of the city morning at its meeting fol- lowing the Chapman conference of ministers of the city, it is about cer- tain that after the Lewis -Mantell bout to be held in this city January 23, there will be no further boxing exhibitions in New Haven
 The report of the committee of min isters, Rev. Francis T. Brown, Rev. E. c. Carpenter and Rev. w. W. w. Will son was opposed to any further boxing matches in the future. The report also scored the exaggerated ac- counts of boxing printed in another pa- per.
 The Edgewood club announces that it will retire from promoting any fur ther matches. If has also agreed that the bouts January 23 shall be strictly within the statute, and relying on this the ministers will make no official pro test, it is said.
 The report lof the committee of inves- tlgation says that the bouts given by the Pastlme club were fakes, and so the promoters should not be allowed to swindle those who attend. It calls the bouts given by the Nutmeg club against the statutes of Connecticut.
 Full Report of Committee.
 The report of the ministers commit tee follows in full:
 Your committee appointed at the De- cember meeting, In answer to- com plaints received from other parts of the state, and instructed to ascer a n whether prize fighting was being car ried on in New Haven under the guise of boxing exhibitions, begs to report as follows:
 Since the year 1Si7, the statutes of the state of Connecticut have con- tained enactments against prize fight ing and against witnessing or aiding prize fights These enactments as re- vised in 1888 constitute Sections 12S2 and 12SS of the general statutes and read as follows:
 l2s2. Prize Fighting. Every person. principal and second in any prize fight in this state shall be imprisoned not more than five years
 l2SS. Witnessing or Aiding Prize Fights. Evyry person being present a, a prize fight to aid, abet or assist oi give countenance thereto, or who shall aid or encourage such fight in ths state without being present thereat, shall be imprisoned not more than two years or fined not more than $500, oi both.
 In the year 1903, to remove any tn. certainty as to the intention of the above statutes, further Act concern. ing Prize Fighting was made law by the senate and house of rep es ma lives, setting forth the staie's d nni- ton of prize fighting. This definition is found in Chapter l57 of he public acts issued by the general ass mbly oi this state in the year 1903, and reads as follows:
 Definition of Prize Eighth 4 contest in which blows are struck which are intend or cal-u ated tC stun, disable or knock out ether ol the contestants or in which ei her oi the contestants is counted out or oth- erw.se declared defeated because of failure to resume the contest wl.nin 8 certain time, shall be deemed a prize fight within the meaning of Section 12S2 of the general statutes"
 In recent letter to the chairman of your committee the gentleman wht framed this definition, Mir. H. II Spooner, writes of it: Ut is as cleai as 1 could make it in consultation with Herbert Knox Smith. who wa, the man who put it through. w, worked it over a good many times and several other states have consid cred it good enough to copy. A box ing match in which blows are so ligh as not to come under that definition is of necessity such a fake that nc one would go across the street to SC, it."
 Two of these boxing affairs hay, occurred since your committee w.u appointed, one promoted by a Hart ford man who had to come to Neu Haven to pull off matches disallow, by the Hartford authorities; the othe, promoted by New Haven bartender Your committee, as in duty bound, i in a position to report intelligent, upon both. The first. held in Must, hall December 2, was a swindle ai. the money taken from the public O, that occasion was obtained under fals, pretenses. The second, held in tn, New Haven theater December 19, w., a distinct violation of the law. Az, cording to local paper. in the cours of this second affair a Bridgeport pu gilist used blows evidently calculate, to knock out" his opponent, who wa in a weak" bleeding" and "groggv' condition, with Hip cut in severa places and face swelled up like ! pumpkin" the referee saved hin from knockout, but he was all in il the ninth and tenth rounds, and jus barely kept his feet till the gong sound ed Another pugilist from cut tn state, according to the same report, il the first round knocked down and i, the second knocked out his opponent who went down "all in a heap am was counted out" A third pugilist vulgarly lionized as the Pride of Ney Haven" Init his man hard and oftel in the first round" and in the secon,
 decided he had fought long enougl and simply passed him one tha knocked the Waterbury man down an out;' the latter took the count an