New Britain herald., 1915-04-02
Sp0rtOgrabhr
OPPONENTS OF BOXING HAVE BEEN. KNOCKING" I03 YEARS
BY "GRAVY,"


 Throughout the English-speaking world the opponents of boxing have been busy knocking" the game for nearly two centuries, or ever since James Figg introduced the sport in England. Scarcely a year passes without some crusade against the manly art" in some part of the world, and when legislatures and parliamentp> and uplift organizations have nothing else to do they get out their little hammers and take a whack at pugil- ism
 The boxing game is usually said toF have had its beginning in America with the ring battle between Jacob Hyer and Thomas Beasley in 1S1G, so that next year will mark the cen tenary of the American ring. Long before that memorable contest, how ever, a crude form of boxing had been practiced on this side of the Atlantic Negro slaves were often trained to fight, and one of them, Tom Mol ineaux, went to England and whipped Tom Cribb, the English champion, in 1910. The black was robbed of his victory, but he was in fact, although not in name, the first worlds cham- pion.
 For years before the American rev- oIution there were fights and fighters on this side of the Atlantic. but the colonial bruisers were unacquainted with even the crude rules which then. governed the game in England. Bit ing, gouging, kicking and hitting be- low the belt were tolerated, and the bouts were as much wrestling matches as boxing contests.
 So far as the writer can discover. after a long search of musty tonnes, the first attempt to abolish pugilisnf' in America was made in North Caro- lima 163 years ago today, April 2i 1752, when the colonial governor in his message to the assembly deliN- cred himself of the following:
 "Gentlemen l must recommend to you in particular to take the most effectual measures for promoting req ligion and virtue and suppressing vice and immortality. which are come to such dreadful height in this province. I desire you fn a special manner to take into your consideras ton the barbarous and inhuman man. ner of boxing, which so much prevails among the lower sort of people. The practice is attended with circum- stances of cruelty and horror, and Is really shocking to human nature, and I have been informed of no less than four persons who, within these two years. have come to Il violent death by this atrocious custom"
 1t seems that the fighting game flourished in spite of official prohibi- tions. and about a century ago Dr.e Jeremiah Battle wrote. in a history of Edgecombe county, North Carolina. of the many fights that took place between men who had no enmity to- ward each other" He added: Some champions would travel many miles to meet with combatant who had been celebrated as a. fighter"
 In 1877 a traveller in Lower Canada and the northern states wrote that prize boxing is unknown in Amer ica," but in this he was mistaken, for the British prize ring and its rules had been introduced into New York by the Irish several years before. In the west, and especially in Kentucky, the old "slaughter-house" rules pre-. vailed for many years, and in their fist and skull' warfare the combatants take advantage. pull, bite, and kick. and with hellish ferocity strive to to gouge or turn each others eyes out of their sockets" according to a com temporary writer of that period.