New Britain herald., 1915-04-17
4R0hANCES OF THE 1; SQUARED CIRCLE"
Jack Gully Showed Form S a PuQlIiSt While in Prison.

IOIlIOTrOW,
 The speaker was a man of medium Bhe1ght, but with magnificent deVel- opment of shoulders and chest. He was clothed in the height of fashion. and little beyond it, and his sartor- bal embellishments bespoke the sport Rng man, while his grace and ease of carriage and his wolf-built physique proclaimed the athlete.
 He addressed youngster of about Twenty, six feet in height and weigh ing about 200 pounds The boys shirt sleeves were rolled up, disclos- ing muscular arms, and as he walked about, talking with his companion, the observer could see that he, too, was a man of physical prowess.
 A~ Just now there were tears in the eyess of the boy, and as his friend shook his hand and said "Goodby, ad," a flood of gratitude welled up in his heart. FTt heart a gate clang and turned away to seat himself upon a bench, where he sat with his face buricd in his hands, breeding over the Rpast.
 The scene of this meeting was tho racquet court of Kings Bench Prison, popalarly called Mahshalsea, and to he prisoners known as "Tenterden." rhe boy was one of the inmates of hat prison, famed in the early days f the nineteenth century. of which Fe write. as a place of confinement or debtors. Jack Gully had been Convicted of owing a small sum, and. being unable to pay. had been thrown nt6 that place where, as Dickens Hrote, the inmates suffer with dry rot." Young Gully had not yet Feached that stage. for he had known he interior of Kings Bench but a Few months, and his carefree youth So far had triumphed over the ener- Eating idleness and a squalor of the 6ail. He played racquets with other youngsters, like himself the victims of the heartless system which made lebt a crime, and so kept in good phy fsical condition. There were times, however, when the youthful giant, looking about him bt the aged and sodden victims of hu- nan greed, was plunged into the lepths of despondency. He saw him Jeff gradually yeilding to the in &duous influences of the prisons : $rowing old before his time, and @owly but surely tottering toward p6upers grave. It was not pleas | Int prospect, and it was small wonder I khat tears rolled down his checks 1 Then Hen Pearce visited him in the l ! Sison yard and held forth the pro- l fse of release from the confining ] a Ills of Marschalsea. | &searce Bristolian who, like young l Fully, had been a butcher, was now 1 zne G the greatest pugilists of the 1 Ry. He had known Gully's father, | ne'erdowell who had ran a pub" l n Bristol, and had been befriended Sy the elder Gully, now long since cad. When he heard of the inn 5risonment of the son of his benefac- For, Pearce, the generouds and warm hearted Game Chicken" of the ring, ost no time in getting to Kings 2ench Pearce saw in the imprisoned youth he raw material of a great pugilist, l md his Judgment was Justified when Be put on the gloves with Gully. The Id had had no professional experience k5 fighting man, but he handled him If with an easy grace which showed natural aptitude for the game. Doddering old men and brawny lung ones, of all classes and con- ions in life, but all now sunk in mmon misery, gathered about and &eered at the exhibition of the man.
 art given by Gully and his friend. ome of those who witnessed the inn romptu bout had been great men their time, and there were among eefn~ former army officers, scholars
 renown, and men who had achieved anne in many lines, but who had Hen upon evil times and were now tending the wrecked remains of their Ees behind the high walls which shut sn Kings Bench from the outer orld, and made it a little city by it. elf. with streets lined with shops of ATioEs kinds, through which hawk lrs from the outside were permit d to pass and vend their ways. Many
 the inmates had been. there for en or twenty years, and would re- ain there until death brought re- aase. Something of this ii. D d the Kind of Jack Gully as he talked with
 B friend Pearce. >>t.
 T scan never get out of this place." kld tho boy, until somebody pays
 V debts, and I have no friends to l, that. Look around you at these lay and-tottering old foggies who have Dent the best part of their lives here taybe l will be like them some day
 gray and bent and wrnkled and Token in spirits and health"
 But John Gully's forebodings were appily never realized. When he fit the prison the Game Chicken ont directly to some of his wealthy ,ien6s, and besought them to go to he assistance of the youngster from A,istol. Fletcher Reid, Berkeley raven and Major Mellish, three of he most noted patrons of boxing of lat period were interested in Pearce's
 Ie, >snd the next day the Chicken nd his three friends drove up in a hndsome coach to the gates of Mar nalsea. Pearce and Gully again put the gloves, and the boy made such