Year: 1873

Reputable Citizens and Prize Flights


The Sin, Disgrace and Crime Of


Them.


A genuine, brutal prize fight on an island in
the Mississippi, fourteen miles from St Louis,
is an occurrence worthy of comment in this
age, and worthy OF the worst of the bad old
days. The men were ''heavy weights" and
the two thousand savage spectators were 'made
up largely Of reputable citizens among them
quite number of business men," No doubt
the reputable citizens of ST Louis paid re-
spectacle price the privilege of seeing one
brute pounded to jelly by another. They
always do pay for this privilege, as the brutes
themselves bleed in the encounter, through
the nose Prize fighting in the East has hap
PLY fallen into decay and disrespect, not
only among the reputable citizens" but
among the roughs. The cause of this decay
is credit to human sagacity, if not shining
light on our compassionate humanity. The
wretched "pugs' here who formed the central
figures of the brutal gathering found that get
ting shocking drubbipg, with the usual mu-
tllations, put money only in the purses of their





that certain well to do brutes stood chance
of winning that amount from certain others of
tho same low and loud stripe, with as much
more to be divided among its managers as they
could extract from the savage curos-
ity Of the reputable citizens" The
victor in the fight found himself
beggar around the fashy hnunts of his
patrons, while the vanquished, with his fea-
lures in pulp, was a beggar to be taunted and
despised as he received his pitiful aims. So
the ''pugs' prudently deserted what was mis-
called manly, and took to the swindling tactics
of their patrons. Who the discoverer was of
the new safety process in puglism we regret
not to be able to state, but it soon was adopted
by the entire bull-necked and pug-nosed frater-
nifty in the East Fights were arranged and
'articles'' signed at the Office of the Br1liser
of the Period tickets for an excursion of the
"hand-saw brigade" were sold at five dollars
each, and then all the five dollar fools took o
sail by the light of the moon But there was
no fight except occasional scrmmages on the
boat when the reputable citizens" objected
to being robbed by the gamblers and thieves
who were pressed on board free. The ''princi-
pals had, meanwhile, been arrested, or mis-
understood the articles, or had taken the wrong
train, Or if captured and brought to 'the
scratch" found 1t naturally impossible to dis
cover a man among the crowd honest enough
to act as referee. This was prize-fghting as
we should rejoice to see it, and only short of
the pleasure its final extinction would give.
1t had far more moral significance than an anti
prize-fght sermon to see rum-soaked rough
at a corner groggery, with shrug of disgust
say, as we'll as his churning quid would permit
him to be heard :-''Yah, they won't fight
prize-fghts is all sells"


The late ST. Louis prize fight indicates that
the pugilists of that locality are as many
leagues behind the intellectual standard of
their brethren here as their city is from the
seaboard. AS the West grows we may hope
they will grow with it into some semblance,
morally, of the swindlers who honor the s'pro-
fession' here. There the men fought; here
they know better Physical courage is looked
on, since the war, as really such common
place article that these pretentious fellows who
feed and train for months before they en-
counter each other with their fists, fade
utterly from the admiration of the hundreds
of thousands who can recollect facing ten
mile line of death at moments warming on
an empty stomach, and with as much nom
chalance as if they were going to breakfast
While the existence of physical courage in the
masses was unsuspected by the masses them
selves the reputable citizens" "cankers of a
calm world and long peace" like Falstaff's
recruits-might have had some apology for
looking at two besotted beasts fittingly pound
each other out of all sembance to humanity.
With these thoughts we can muster proper
sentiment Of contempt for the two thousand
reputables of ST. Louis, who disgraced their
city and themselves, when they could have seen
more blood flow from a single OK in st.
Louis slaughter house for nothing. The
details show that it was a more than
ordinarily sanguinary encounter McCoole
was soon bleeding profusely." Presently he
is knocked down with fearful left-hander
on the iugular'' Next round his face was
being slashed fright and left, till it was
mere mass of bleeding and battered flesh" A
blow on the mouth caused 'the blood to fol-
low it in great stream" He was now
scarcely able to hold up his hands-his left
eve closed, terrible cut under the right eye;
right side Of upper lip also cut of and nose
broken" What is the lust for blood, and how
general and deep, yet how near the surface of
our civilization is it that all this was not
enough for the reputable citizens and promi-
nent business men of st. Louis? Can human
ity no more shake this horrible thirst from its
nature than the tiger can? This wretched
creature, with face like piece of claret jelly
thrown against wall, did not apparently ex-
cite the compassion of any one out of the two
thousand reputable citizens Of St Louis
until his fellow brute and executioner said,