The Birmingham age-herald., 1920-08-19
MEN, WOMEN .%F AND THINGS

 members of Parliament, literary gents,
 ancient and modern, from Homer to Byron. all mixed up. had no idea that there were so many personages around
 the ring
 John Gully won a seat in Parliament |, and made good in spite of his handicap
 as former pugilist and acquiring
 handsome English estate, lived the life of country gentleman, and his sons and
 daughters made careers for themselves | in the world
 l I was sure that if I looked enough 1 would find some trace of politics and Ipugilism being associated together Just turn a bockworm loose in library, and
 if in connection with his omnivorous and
 miscellaneous reading he has had train ling as a searcher of titles, there is no 1 telling what he can turn up. l pride my lself on being sleuth when I get on the trail of any literary or historical ques-
 tion i If YOU have ever seen fistc encounter | you need no one to tell you the duties
 of the bottle e-holder," but realizing that
 some Of you may have never stood around the sawdust ring, I'll state that it is in-
 cumbent upon the second in prize hght to hold the water bottle, while another as- sstant sponges the principal between the rounds. He gives moral but no material
 support to the man he is backing. This is why the term is sometimes extended to one who seconds or advises or backs person or q cause.
 In 1s51 Lord Pamerton told deputa- tion who waited upon him to congratulate him on the success of his effort to io- erat Kossuth that the past crisis was one which required much generalshfp rnc Judgment, and that a good deal of Ju- dicious bottle holding was obliged to be brought into play. The London Times made furious onslaught on ,Paimerston for thus using the phraseology of the Ipugilistic ring, but ' daresay he cared lit-
 
 from royalty to the man in the street. Punch also got on his track with car ltoon representing the noble lord as the "Judicious Bottle Holder" a nickname
 which clung to him. but I haven't been able to find trace of any case in which jhe sued the comic English journal for damages.
 Palnerston had punch" like our own Teddy" who was never so "de-lighted as when pulling a catch phrase which the newspaper boys would take up and make known around the globe. The suc- |cess of any statesman is made when he
 reaches the point where he is good copy and his sayings are given currency and |hs idiosyncrasies of person and manner are made sport of by the cartoonist. It's Ia part of the political game in America land England The worst thing which can happen to any aspiring politician is to get wha. the reporters call the silent treatment.
 John Gully, who fought before the Duke
 of Clarence, afterwards William ", was not the only prize fighter who came
 into the notice of royalty John Jackson
 Cnot Jack Johnson) was blessed by the
 patronage of George ", and even assisted
 as a page at the coronation of the flrst gentleman of Europe. His limbs are ldescribed in the current language = nis time as being elegantly proportioned, and | told a beauty and development were not to be sur passed.
 Not only did he enjoy the friendship and the confidence of royalty. but he was admitted to terms of intimacy with the young literary lions ot his day Lord } Byrcn, in a n )te of Don Juan, which was 5 once read when it was thought to te naughty, in Canto IT. refers to his Told r friend and corporeal pastor (note tne use 3 and association of the word and master, } John Jackson. Esq, professor of pugil- 7 ism" and he speaks of the strength and symmetry of kis model of form, to- :. gether with h;s good humor and his ath- letic as we'll as mental accomplishments. 5 If you have ''Moores Life' of Byron : you have a treasure I'll never forget some five years ago l was sitting on . pile of logs near a railroad station wait , ing for a tra,,., and country doctor, an a old friend of mine, commissioned me tc e tbuy him the above named work, even S tho ugh l had t. pay several times more i than the original price. Several letters
 of Byron to Jackson will be found in
 "Byron's Life by Moore,' which is pretty
 good evidence that Jackson must have
 been man of parts.
 Moore says that the professor, as he 5 calls him kept a very neat establish ment, where he made fl.000 a year (about 5000 by teaching scions of roy n alty and society and literary swells the
 noble art of self defense. He was ex- ceedingly choice in the admission of his pupils, sne before you could get Into t his parlors you had to be properly intro l duced He died in retirement in 1s45, and e lpompous eptaph and characteristic and S symbolic carvings. in Brompton cemetery Lord Byron, when chded with keeping r company with pugilist, insisted thai . Jackson's manners were infinitely su