The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1928-04-16
900 F. 4 IA sss~ ~ 3
RUSSIANS
FISTS
EN- N|A55E
By Gene Turney
Heavyweight Champion

MIAMI, Fla, April 10
Boxing, apparently, is not al
ways a sport. Sometimes it's
q spring tonic-for example,
among the Russian peasants OF
the Ural Mountain district.
I came upon this rather interest
ing bit of information a Few days
ago while looking over a large col
lection of pictures brought back by
an American sportsman who had
penetrated far into the interior OF
Russia. He showed me some pho
tographs which. had it not been
for the strange settings, might have
been taken at an old-fashioned Don
nybrook Fair.
He called the strange nixup wall.
to.WaiI fighting. 1t is INDUCED IN
NV the peasants, he said, in the
spring. as a sort Of tonic to lit
them for the hard summer Of tilling
and farm work. I could see much
reason in what he said, except that
] should call it pretty sharp med1-
cine.
Describing this strange form
Of boxing, my friend declared
that the day, set aside each
wear for the event, assumes car
i1ivaI aspect. IT was originated
more than q century ago by
village bonesetters, who were
called upon to doctor up the
rheumatism and other Ills Of
the peasants before they could
20 about their spring blowing
and sowing.
The entire male population of
village takes part. They are divided
INTO two factions. The factions
stand with backs against walls on
opposite sides of a street. At q
signal and amid the cheers of the
brightly scarfed women the lines
advance, fists held before. until they
clash. Shoulder to shoulder they
stand and battle to break through
che opposing line. As one man
drops, the line closes in and the
process is repeated until the last
opponent has either been knocked
down or driven away, too badly
beaten to continue the fray. When
- is all over, the bruised combat.
ants retire to the town hall, where
q feast is spread, and the rest Of
the day is given over to gaiety.
Next day. the combatants proceed
with their spring round of toll, 'all
limbered up
I could hardly recommend that
sort of boxing as being beneficial
10 anyone, but it is founded on a
sound fact, which is that boxing
will often refresh a man who be-
1ieves himself to be thoroughly
Gatigued after a long mental or
physical task. Most forms Of work
tire, but one part Of the mind or
body and boxing viii not only give
healthy exercise to the parts of the
body which are not tired out, but
win take the aches and cramps
from the muscles that have been
Overworked.
cided that after a long winter spent
mostly inside a stuffy, airless hut,
The peasant would be slothful. |
musclebound and unfit for the hard
toll lying before him.
Perhaps he recommended the
village fights as mental
awakening for the sluggish till
ers of the soil. In either case
he was on the right track and
he was not the first of a prinl-
tive race to recognize the fact
that boxing Is the most COM
plete form of exercise that could
be devised. But no other form
of boxing. as far as IL known,
exists in Russia.
Possibly a survival of war.to-
wall fighting existed in post.Civil
War days in the Middle and North
west States, where numerous i'm
migrants from northern Europe had
taken up their homes. Their fete
days were always marked by
wrestling matches conducted on the
same principle. The men chose
sides and lining up in opposing
rows seized each other, catch-as-
catch-can style, and struggled until
one side had thrown all the others
or at least forced them to quit the
contest. Usually the two leaders
survived and the ensuing match
was the subject of conversation for
weeks.
1t is interesting to find. too,
that mass boxing existed among
the colored river men along the
Mississippi, Missouri and Ohio be-
fore boxing was ever known in those
districts. A ring was marked off
and a half dozen or more of the
huskiest levee workers would
struggle until one man had forced
Il. l.