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CopyriKiu, IwT. hv John Donouhuc 
 
 "THE BOXER." 
 
 I _ L - l-W . 
 
Ethics of Boxing 
 
 AND 
 
 MANLY SPORT 
 
 P.Y 
 
 JOHN BOYLE O'REILLY 
 
 " It is exercise alone that supports the spirits and keeps the mind in 
 vigor." — Cicero. 
 
 "A man inust often exercise or fast or take physic, or be sick." — 
 Sir IV. Temple. 
 
 "Anything is better than the white-blooded deterioration to which we 
 all tend."— O. IV. Holmes. 
 
 " There is no better preventive of nervous exhaustion than regular, 
 unhurried, muscular exercise. If we could moderate our hurry, lessen our 
 worry, and increase our open - air exercise, a large portion of nervous dis- 
 eases would be abolished." — James Muir Howie. 
 
 1^ 
 ^^■^-^/'O^ Illustrated 
 
 /V 
 
 .APR 21 1888 
 
 BOSTON 
 
 TICKNOR AND COMPANY 
 
 211, i^rcmont .;^treet 
 
 1 888 
 
r- 
 
 Copyrighted 
 Bv .T()}IN BOYLE O'REILLY 
 
 1888. 
 
 ■LBCTROTYPED ANK IRINTKH BY 
 
 CASHMAN, KEATING & COMPANY, 
 BosTOH, Mass. 
 
DEDICATED 
 
 TO THOSE WHO BELIEVE THAT A LOVE FOR 
 
 INNOCENT SPORT, PLAYFUL EXERCISE, 
 
 AND- ENJOYMENT OF NATURE, 
 
 IS A BLESSING INTENDED NOT ONLY FOR 
 
 THE YEARS OF BOYHOOD, BUT FOR 
 
 THE WHOLE LIFE OF A MAN. 
 
CONTENTS, 
 
 ETHICS AND EVOLUTION OF BOXING. 
 
 Page 
 
 I. Has Boxing a Real Value ? . . . .1 
 
 II. Improvement in Modern Boxing ... 5 
 
 III. Antiquity of Boxing . . . . .11 
 
 IV. The Athletes of Ancient Greece ... 18 
 V. The Training of Greek Athletes . . .21 
 
 VI. The Sacred Games of Greece • . . 23 
 
 VII. The Skill of Greek Boxers . . . .26 
 
 VIII. The Gladiators of Rome .... 31 
 
 IX. Feudalism Suppressed Popular Athletic Exercises . 37 
 
 X. The First Modern Champion Boxer . . 43 
 
 XI. The First Modern Rules of the Ring . . .48 
 
 XII. Donnelly and Cooper on the Curragh of Kildare . 52 
 
 XIII. A Lesson even in a Fight . . . .65 
 
 XIV. Characteristics of Great Boxers . • .75 
 XV. Boxing Compared with other Exercises . . 82 
 
 Appendix. 
 
 The Illustrations ...... 88 
 
 Rules of the Ring 89 
 
 London Prize-Ring Rules, as Revised by the British 
 
 Pugilistic Association ... T 90 
 
 Marquis of Queensberry Rules Governing Contests for 
 
 Endurance • . • . . .95 
 
 American Fair-Play Rules to Govern Glove Con- 
 tests . . . . . . .96 
 
 (V) 
 
Vi CONTENTS. 
 
 THE TllAIXlNCi OF ATHLETES TESTED BY 
 
 EVEKY-DAY LIFE. 
 
 Page 
 
 I. Is Training Injurious ? . • . .101 
 
 II. The Evils of Improper Training . 100 
 
 III. Muscular I*o\ver Secondary to Respiratory Power, 111 
 
 IV. The Food of Athletes in Training 11-4 
 V. A Day's Food and Exercise in Training . . 125 
 
 VI. Various Exercises and How to Practise Them . 131 
 
 VIL The Curse of the (Uosed Windows .137 
 
 VIII. Exercise for City Dwellers and School Children, 143 
 
 IX. Corpulence, Diet, and Sleep . .152 
 
 X. Hints for Training and Good Health . . 161 
 
 AXCIENT IRISH ATHLETIC GAMES, EXERCISES, 
 
 - AXD WEAPOXS. 
 
 1. The Museum of the Royal Irish Academy . . 169 
 II. The Most Ancient Weapon Used in Ireland . 174 
 
 III. The Weapon- Feats of Cuchullin . . .185 
 
 IV. Military Athletes of Ancient Ireland . . 189 
 V. Hurling: The <'hief Game of Ancient Ireland 195 
 
 VI. The Ancient Games at Tailten and Carman 202 
 
 VII. An Heroic Combat in Ancient Ireland . . 215 
 
 VIII. A Glance Backward and Forward . . 236 
 
 CANOEING SKETCHES. 
 
 Caxoeino ox the Connecticut .... 243 
 
 Down the Suh^iehanna in a Canoe . . 261 
 
 Down the Delawake River in a Canoe . . 303 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS, 
 
 FULL PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 " The Boxer " .... Frontispiece 
 
 Engraved, by permission, from the statue by John Donoghue. 
 
 Page 
 A Taddle by Moonlight 244 
 
 At the Mouth of the River 256 
 
 Ox THE Delawake River 290 
 
 MOSELEY ON A RoUGH DESCENT 308 
 
 At THE Foot of Great Fout. Rift .... 332 
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS IN THE TEXT. 
 ETHICS AND EVOLUTION OF BOXING. 
 
 The Usual and Wrong Way to Strike a Round Blow . 8 
 
 Round Blow ....... 9 
 
 Ducking the Round Blow . . . . . .10 
 
 Greek Boxers With Cestus ..... 13 
 
 Raw-Hide Cestus from Herculaneum . . . .15 
 
 The Round Cestus ...... 16 
 
 (vii) 
 
o 
 
 55 
 
 Vlll LIST OF ILLLSTKATIONS. 
 
 rage 
 A Straight f'ross-Countor . . . . .28 
 
 "Wastes His Forcos oil 111." AViixl " .... 30 
 
 ASet-To ........ 45 
 
 A Uoiintl Blow Misst'il ...... 5 
 
 Coming 
 
 - o • • • • 
 
 Cross- But tork ...... 57 
 
 Cross-Coiint(MV(l . . . . , .61 
 
 Uppcr-Cut, as Sullivan Strikes It . . .62 
 
 I'pper-Cut, Ulil-Fashioneil . . . .60 
 
 Clinch ■•..... 66 
 
 Good Position of Guard . . . .67 
 
 Straight Counter • . . • 7-3 
 
 Cross-Counter . . . . . , , g^ 
 
 Ducking a Lead wit li til.' Left .... 83 
 
 ANCIENT IHlSil WEAPONS. 
 No. 
 
 !. Kirl>olg Craisech ..... 176 
 
 2. 'i'uatlia di' Dananii .swonl .... J76 
 
 3. Ancient IJronze Sword ..... 177 
 
 4. Lia Landia Laieh, or Champion's Hand-Stone . 178 
 T), Tuatha d«' Danann Sword • .179 
 
 6. " '•".... 179 
 
 7. " 179 
 
 8. Firbolg Battle- A.xe, or Celt .... 180 
 «. '' " "•"... 180 
 
 fo- •• " '■'.... 181 
 
 II a n 
 
 |>> u (( (1 
 
 181 
 181 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. IX 
 
 Xo. Page 
 
 13. Tuatlia de Dananii Battle- Axe, or Celt • . 182 
 
 14. " " " " . . 182 
 
 15. " " " " . . 182 
 
 16. Firbolg Bat tie- Axe 183 
 
 17. Ancient Irish Seal ..... 184 
 
 18. Manais, Tuatlia de Danann Spears . . • 186 
 
 19. " " u u ... 186 
 
 20. " " " " . . • 187 
 
 21. " " " " . . . J87 
 
 22. " " " " . . . 187 
 
 23. Bronze Mace ...... 191 
 
 24. Stuic, or Irish AVar Horn .... 196 
 
 25. Lic-Tailrae, or Sling-Stone .... 196 
 
 26. Military Forks 198 
 
 27. " " 199 
 
 28 Ancient Chessman ..... 201 
 •29. Craisech, with Firbolg Fastening and Tuatlia de 
 
 Danann Point ...... 209 
 
 30. " " " " " " " 209 
 
 31. Firbolg Fiarlanna, or Curved Pointless Blade . 209 
 
 32. Broad Green Spear . . . . • 216 
 
 33. Firbolg Dagger, Called Colg . • . .216 
 
 34. Manais, or Broad Thrusting Spear . . , 216 
 
 35. Slegli, Sharp-pointed Tuatlia de Danann Spear . 226 
 
 36. " " " " " . 226 
 
 . 227 
 
 227 
 
 . 227 
 
 230 
 
 . 231 
 
 37. 
 
 u 
 
 u 
 
 i( 
 
 38. 
 
 li 
 
 u 
 
 n 
 
 39. 
 
 li 
 
 (( 
 
 it 
 
 40. 
 
 Ancient Bronze Shield 
 
 
 41. 
 
 u 
 
 li a 
 
 
 <( u 
 
CORRECTIONS. 
 
 Vi\<;(' 25, fourth liur — read "were" instead of "was." 
 Pa<,'e 71, fiftli line — ivad "defeated" instead of "captured.' 
 Page lit; — ivad • linakfasl at S a. m.."' instead of "8 i-. .m." 
 Page KM), eightii line — ondt the words "all-round." 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 This book is not intended as a mere manual for the 
 special nse of skilled professional or amateur athletes, 
 though necessarily many of its details refer particu- 
 larly to these classes. Its main purpose is to bring 
 into consideration the high value, moral and intel- 
 lectual as well as j)hysical, of those exercises that 
 develop healthy constitutions, cheerful minds, manly 
 self-confidence, and ajipreciation of the beauties of 
 nature and natural enjoyment. Nevertheless, these 
 lines of Bunyan tell my i:)reliminary experience : — 
 
 " Some said, John, print it ; others said, Xot so ; 
 Some said, It miglit do good ; others said, No." 
 
 So long as large numbers of our young people, of 
 both sexes, are narrow-chested, thin-limbed, their mus- 
 cles growing soft as their fat grows hard, timid in 
 the face of danger, and ignorant of the great and 
 varied exercises that are as needful to the stron<r 
 body as letters to the informed mind, such books as 
 this need no excuse for their pidjlication. 
 
 Many will say : " the time for this sort of thing is 
 
 (xi) 
 
XII INTKODUCTION. 
 
 past ; the world has grown too intelligent for these idle 
 games and exercises; we, who know what life is, know 
 
 • 
 
 tJiat athletic s]>orts are only symptoms of questionable 
 tastes." 
 
 The j)ride of knowledge is had, but the pride of 
 ignor;^nce is worse; together, tliey are almost hope- 
 less. The truth is, there is more need to-day for 
 j)hysical develo])mcnt, for play, for sport, for athletic 
 exercises and amusements of all kinds, than there was 
 during ilie Greek Olympiads, or at any other period of 
 human history. Strange, that this obvious truth 
 should call for public statement. " On old and voun<r," 
 says a great Tundi-m philosoi)l)er, ^' the i)ressure of 
 modern life puts a still increasing strain. In all busi- 
 nesses and jtrofessions, intense competition taxes the 
 energies and abilities of every adult; and, with a view 
 of better fitting the young to hold their place under 
 this intenser competition, they are subject to a more 
 severe dis(i])lii)(.' than ever before." 
 
 *'We have not holidays enough," says an eminent 
 American ]>liysician. " P'ive days a year i> our allow- 
 ance, a scanty one indeed, that seems ridiculous to 
 our quiet rr neiirhbors across the water, who, needin<'- 
 rest less than we, get four times as much. But there 
 is no time for relaxation ; we must only do our best to 
 brace up and stand the drive." 
 
INTRODUCTION. XIU 
 
 What parent, who has observed the endless studies 
 of his chihlren, at school during the day, and at home 
 in the evening, with little time and opportunity for 
 vigorous play, and has not inwardly feared that it was 
 too much for the boy or girl? His fears are real 
 warnings : they ai-e true. The studies are too much, 
 unless offset by a proportionate amount of play and 
 vigorous exercise. They prevent the children from 
 developing; and they also prevent them from learning. 
 
 It is a physiological law, pointed out by Lewes in 
 his " Dwarfs and Giants," that there is an antagonism 
 between growth and develojnnent —h\ growth mean- 
 ing increase of size, by development increase of struc- 
 ture . 
 
 The question is not only a cpiestion of bulk, but also 
 a question of quality. A soft, flabby flesh makes as 
 o-ood a show as a firm one ; but though to the careless 
 eye, a youth of full flaccid tissue may appear the equal 
 of one whose fibres are w^ell-toned, a trial of strength 
 will prove the difference. Obesity in adults is often 
 a sificn of feebleness. 
 
 There is a corresponding radical difference l)etween 
 true education and the memorizing of facts. The 
 meanin<>- of the word tells its own story — e-duca~ 
 tioii — the drawing-out of what is in the child, not the 
 
XIV IXTllODUCTIOX. 
 
 craimiiiiig uiuligested facts into the liel])less young 
 memory. The cruelty of it! Were food forced 
 into the body as facts are into the mind, so as to pro- 
 duce violent dyspepsia, j)arents would be compelled to 
 stoj.. JJiit they will not see the consequent mental 
 dysj.ej.sia an<l its vile train of intellectual, moral, and 
 ])liysical abnormalties. Ini])roj)er education stores up 
 useless knowledge as unhealthy living stores uj) stolid 
 fat, instead of turning it into vigorous muscle. 
 
 '' J>y accelerating the circulation of the blood," says 
 a scientific authority, -' it facilitates the performance 
 of every function; and so tends alike to increase 
 health when it exists and to restore it when it has been 
 lost/' For this changeless reason, the same to-day as a 
 thousand years ago or a thousand years hence, 7>/<'^y is 
 a necessity of human nature; and for this reason also 
 I>lay is su])erior to any regulated form of uninterestin^r 
 gymnastic exercise. Play is the gymnastics of nature ; 
 and that artificial exercise is best which comes nearest 
 to it in interest and amusement. "An a^rreeable 
 mental excitement has a highly invigoratuig influence." 
 
 Play also makes an equable distribution of action to 
 all parts of the body; the action of i^vnijiastics, fallin<r 
 on sjiecial parts, ju-oduces fatigue, and if constantly 
 repeated, lea^ls to disproportionate development. 
 
INTRODUCTION. XV 
 
 "Conskler the fact," says Herbert Sj^encer, "from 
 nr.y but the conventional point of view, and it will 
 Keem strano-e that while the raisino: of first-rate bul- 
 locks is an occupation on which men of education 
 willingly bestow much time, inquiry, and thought, the 
 bringing up of fine human beings is an occujxation 
 tacitly voted unworthy of their attention. Mammas 
 who have been taught little but languages, music, and 
 accomplishments, aided by nurses full of antiquated 
 prejudices, are held competent regulators of the food, 
 clothing, and exercise of children. Meanwhile the 
 fathers read books and periodicals, attend agricultural 
 meetings, try exjieriments, and engage in discussions, 
 all with the view of discovering how to fatten prize 
 pigs ! Infinite pains will be taken to produce a racer 
 that sha^l win the Derby : none to produce a modern 
 athlete. Had Gulliver narrated of the Laputans that 
 men vied with each other in learning how best to rear 
 the offspring of other creatures, and were careless of 
 learning how best to rear their own offspring, he 
 would have paralleled any of the other absurdities he 
 ascribes to them." 
 
 There is character as well as strength in muscle ; and 
 little of either in flabbiness or lard. Take the colloped 
 fat from the under-chin and jowl of a young man, and 
 
XVI IXTnODUCTIOX. 
 
 put it on his arms, trunk, and legs in the shape of firn. 
 muscle, and, other things heing e(iual, you improve lii.v 
 moral as well as his bodilv health. 
 
 All who are trained in athletics know the value <.i' 
 the "second wind." Powerful athletes are in danger 
 till this is reached ; but he who has obtained his "second 
 wind" in a contest can go- on as long as his muscular 
 j^ower lasts. It is worth remembering that there is a 
 moral as well as a ]>hysical "second wnnd;" and that 
 many who go down at the first trial* would have 
 held on to a virtuous and hapj)y end had the fail- 
 ing character been sustamed at the period of early 
 weakness. 
 
 Fatness and softness are merely sensuous expres- 
 sions, or symptoms of disease. They are non-conduct- 
 ors of si»iritual messages, stop])nig or deadening the 
 finer currents of enjoyment, as an insulator stops 
 electricitv. 
 
 The motive-centre of a thinker is the brain ; of a 
 ]»hilanthropist, the heart ; of a sensualist the belly. 
 In the latter class, a kindly or beautiful or devo- 
 tional aspiration enters the mind and wanders aim- 
 lessly through the flabby muscles, straying off the 
 nerve at will, for the tissues have not sufficient con- 
 sistency to hold it on the line, until it sinks gradually 
 but surely toward the marshy and forbidden wastes of 
 
IXTRODUCTION. XVll 
 
 appetite, and is drowned, like a belated traveller, in 
 the weedy morasses of the gastric-centre. 
 
 To place manly sport in its proper relation to the 
 people, we must save athletics from the professional 
 athletes, and from the evil association of betting and 
 o-amblino- that stunts, encumbers and diso-races almost 
 all kinds of open-air exercise. 
 
 The very fact that professionals and gamblers fasten 
 on a sport, is the highest proof of its value to the 
 people : your worm never selects an inferior apple. 
 The popular desire is the very stock in trade of the 
 professional gambler. There is only one way in which 
 this reform can be thoroughly made, namely, by the 
 recognition of athletic training as a necessary and 
 admirable part of general education. This will re- 
 move at once the flavor of disrepute which at present 
 attends a taste for manly sport. 
 
 All healthy young people are fond of physical 
 exercise ; and proper instruction is as necessary here 
 as in the intellectual departments of school and col- 
 lege, and will as surely result in benefit to the individ- 
 ual and the state. 
 
 I desire to express my thanks to several persons 
 who have assisted me in the i^reparation of this book, 
 
XVlll INTRODUCTION. 
 
 es|)0cially to Dr. Francis A. Harris, of Boston, for his 
 invaluable paper on the physiology of athletic train- 
 ing; to tlie JjostO)i Herald, for its enterprising publica- 
 tion of the article on boxing, the plates of which The 
 llendd generously presented to me; to my friend, 
 J(»hn Donoghue, the sculptor, for jjcrmission to en- 
 grave his great statute of " The Boxer ; " and to the 
 Editor of OuHiKj, for the use of several illustrations 
 from that interesting: mao-azine. 
 
 John Boyle O'BEirxY. 
 
ETHICS AND EVOLUTION OF BOXING. 
 
 I. 
 
 HAS BOXING A REAL VALUE? 
 
 "Both amoDo- the Greeks and Romans," says 
 an eminent authority, "the practice of pugilism 
 was considered essential to the education of their 
 youth, from its manifest utility in streno'theninof 
 the body, dissipating all fear, and infusing a 
 manly courage into the system." 
 
 The Greeks and Romans kept boxing in its 
 proper relation to ever3'-day life ; not as a brutal 
 exhibition of skill or strength, but as a healthy 
 exercise to invigorate the body, expand the chest, 
 strengthen and quicken the muscles, and render 
 mind and bod}' free, supple, strong, and con- 
 fident. 
 
 " There is nothino- that interests me like crood 
 boxinof," said Sir Robert Peel. "It asks more 
 steadiness, self-control, ay, and manly couraire, 
 than any other exercise. You nuist take as ^yell 
 as giye, — eye to eye, toe to toe, and arm to arm." 
 
 (1) 
 
2 F/rmrs or r.<>\i\(; and manly spokt. 
 
 Mr. I'.\ civil Dt'iiison, once speaker of the House 
 of Coiiuiions, describing an interview with Lord 
 Ahhorp, the minister who led the British Coni- 
 nions when the Iveforni Bill was passed, says : 
 **Lord Althorp l)ecame eloquent; he said that 
 his conviction of the advantaires of puirilisni was 
 so stronir that he had seriously been considerinii* 
 whether it w\as not a dut}' that he owed to the 
 public to go and attend every prize tight which 
 took place, and thus to encourage the nol^le 
 science to the extent of his i)ower." 
 
 ""AVe are the Eomans of the modern Avorld," 
 says the illustrious ''Autocrat of the Breakfast 
 Table," speaking of Americans — ••the great as- 
 similating peo[)lc. Conllicts and concpiests are, of 
 course, necessary accidents with us, as with our 
 ])r()totypes. And so we come to their style of 
 weaixin. . . . The rac(^ that shortens its 
 weapons lengthens its boundaries. Corollary : It 
 was the Polish hina^ that left Poland at last with 
 nothinir of her own to bound. 
 
 " ' Dropped from Ikm- iktvcIcss gras]) the slmffrrf <l sjH'itr! " 
 
 "What business," continues Dr. Ilornes, "had 
 Sarmatiti to be tighting for liberty with a iifteen- 
 foot pole l)el\veen her and the breasts or her 
 enemies? If she had but come to close quarters, 
 there miirht have been a chance for her. " 
 
HAS BOXING A REAL VALUE? 6 
 
 To these famous and wise men mi'oht be added 
 a lonor list of others, eoiiallv distmofuished, who 
 appreciated the personal and national vahie of 
 u'enerations trained to manlv exercises, their 
 bodies developed, and theii* minds cahnlT confi- 
 dent in the ready power of self-defence. 
 
 Take an eminent man of a contrary opinion, 
 and see how few will be readv to a2:ree with him : 
 how manv will feel shocked at his word, as the 
 expression of a false and injurious doctrine. 
 Sydney Smith, who liked almost everything that 
 was good, by some queer mental perversion, 
 despised and detested manly exercises. •• There 
 is a manliness in the athletic exercises of public 
 schools," he says, "which is as seductive to the 
 imagination as it is utterly unimportant in itself. 
 Of what importance is it in after life whether a 
 bov can play well or ill at cricket, or row a boat 
 with the skill and precision of a waterman ? If 
 our young lords and esquires were hereafter to 
 wrestle together in public, or the gentlemen of 
 the bar to exhibit 01vmi:)ic frames in Hilarv term, 
 the glory attached to these exercises at public 
 schools would be rational and important. But of 
 what use is the bodv of an athlete, when we have 
 gooa laws over our heads, or when a pistol, a post- 
 chtiise, or a porter, can be hired for a few shillings? 
 A irentleman does nothinir but ride or walk, and 
 
4 ETHICS OF BOXING AND MANLY SPORT. 
 
 yet such a ridiculous stress is Itiid upon the iimnli- 
 ness of the exercises customary at j)ul)lic schools." 
 
 How nian\ will s.*i\' that this is sound doctrine 
 lor a man or a conununity? It is of little impor- 
 tance, perhaps, whether or not a grown man can 
 play cricket or row a l)oat ; but it is of very great 
 importance, no matter how cheap pistols or post- 
 chaises may be, that, in case he were called on, 
 f»)r j)ersonal or i)atriotic duty, to swim or climb 
 for a life, to light for a child or a woman, to de- 
 fend his country in the field, he should be ready 
 with a strontr bodv, a stout heart, and a trained 
 hand and mind to raise him over difficulty and 
 danger. 
 
 In speaking of l)oxing, it is not necessary to 
 apologize for prize-fighting or prize-fighters. It is 
 enoui^h to studv the arowth and worth of })oxinir 
 as a healthy and manly exercise. But even for 
 the ])rlze-rin<r, nuich miuht be said to show that 
 to it alone is due whatever is known of order and 
 fair ))lay in a personal encounter. 
 
 '' The rules of the ring" are the condensed 0[)in- 
 ions of fair-minded men as to what is to be and is 
 not to be allowed in a j)ers()nal fight, whether public 
 or priyate (except the London Ring Kules, for 
 Avhich see pages 7 and H9). Every unfair method 
 is condemned ; and, no mattcM* how rough the 
 crowd at a j)ersonal confiict, a foul l)low, or a 
 
IMPKOVEMENT IN MODEKN BOXING. D 
 
 cruel advantaofe, is sure to be shouted down as 
 cowardly and disgraceful. 
 
 II. 
 
 IMPROVEMENT IN MODEKN BOXING. 
 
 The chief reason why boxing has fallen into 
 disrepute is the English practice of prize-iighting 
 with bare hands, and under improper rules. 
 
 The American champion, Sullivan, has done 
 more than attempt to defeat all pugilists who 
 came before him : he has made a manly and most 
 creditable effort to establish the practice not only 
 of sparring, but of fighting, with large gloves ; 
 and secondly, he has made the round blow 
 *' scientific." He also has insisted, whenever he 
 could, that contests should be ruled by three- 
 minute rounds of fair boxing. 
 
 The adoption of gloves for all contests will do 
 more to preserve the practice of boxing than any 
 other conceivable means. It will give pugilism 
 new life, not only as a professional boxer's art, 
 but as a ireneral exercise. The brutalities 
 of a fight Avith bare hands, the crushed nasal 
 bones, maimed lips, and other disfigurements, 
 which call for the utter a])olition of box in o- in the 
 
<) ETHICS OF BOXING AND :MANLy SPOKT. 
 
 iiitiTcsts ot" luiniauity, at once disappear when the 
 contestniits cover their hands with larirc, soft- 
 leather izloves. 
 
 There is no h):?> in ihe (]uality of the contest 
 either, a^ (hose who have .seen ])oth kinds of 
 ])()xinir will testifv. All that is worth notinu' and 
 testing of courage, temper, strength, tenacity, 
 endurance, force, rapidity, precision, foresight, 
 can l)e as coni})letely proven, or rather can be 
 better or more jjlainly proven, in a glove contest 
 than in a ])are-handed tiirht. 
 
 Such a change as is liere contemplated was 
 never dreamt of even ten years acfo. British 
 
 *■' " 
 
 boxing was a lamenta])le exhi))ition at all times; 
 but for twenty-five years past it has been sinking 
 lower and lower in disrepute. The greatest and 
 manliest physical exercise has l)een, for this 
 reason, in danger of complete extinction. 
 
 "Surely a precious tliiiiii; one worthy note, 
 .Should thus be lost forever from the earth." 
 
 It is hoi)ed that the recent l)are-handed tiixht 
 between .Sullivan and Mitchell in France will be 
 the last of its brutal kind.* 
 
 This fight contain^ in itself a complete illustra- 
 
 *The men fought near Chantilly, France, on March JO, 1888, 
 for £500 and the championship of the world. The rules were 
 those of the Lon<lon Prize King. The fight lasted three hours 
 and eleven minutes, in which time oU regular rounds, and 
 
IMPROVEMENT IN MODERN BOXING. 7 
 
 tion of the very worst features of English prize- 
 fio^htin«:. The London Rins: Rules, under which 
 this contest was conducted, enabled the inferior 
 man to escape, and might easily have made him 
 the victor. These rules (see page 89, Appendix) 
 were apparently meant to prevent, not to insure, 
 fair and manly boxing. Had Mitchell been com- 
 pelled to stand up and fight for three-minute 
 rounds, and had he been prevented from fall- 
 ing to escape danger, there would have been a fair 
 test of both men's al)ility. Again, had Sullivan 
 kept to his natural style of fighting, with a master- 
 ful spirit compelling his opponent, instead of 
 adopting a slow and watchful method, it would have 
 been far better for him. In fact, everything was 
 aoainst Sullivan, and infavor of the o^amblerswho 
 evidently ruled the contest. He Avas overtrained 
 (see pages 108-0 for effect of over-training). He 
 had lost forty pounds in about six weeks, most 
 seriously affecting the weight of his blows ; and 
 
 four or five irregular, were fought. After five or six rounds, 
 during wliicli he was knocked down literally every time he 
 stood up, Mitchell adopted a system of running away and fall- 
 ing to escape blows. A cold rain was falling, and Sulli- 
 van became chilled, and in the thirty-fifth round he had 
 a fit of ague. He was overtrained; he had hurt his 
 right hand; he was too heavy to plougli through the nmd 
 after his running adversary, whom he could not catch; so lie 
 agreed to end the contest by a draw. 
 
8 
 
 ETHICS OF BOXING AND MANLY Sl'OUT. 
 
 Ill tliis rtHluction not only had he sacrificed ner- 
 vous force to muscular power, ])ut he had lost the 
 necessary fat to keei>*liini from irettinir cliillcd in 
 
 tlie slow fiiilit ensured ])y the Lon- 
 don Rules. 
 
 In America, Sullivan's example 
 has done nuich to brinir glove con- 
 tests into professional })ractice ; 
 and when the man's faults are re- 
 hearsed, it is only fair that this 
 should be remembered. In other 
 respects it is beyond doubt that he 
 is one of the most remarkable box- 
 wuoNG, WAV TO crs ju tlic wholc history of the 
 
 STKIKE A ROUND . '^ 
 
 „,.,,w. exercise. (See page 75 for analy- 
 
 sis of his method of fighting, which of course is 
 a study of the man when at his best.) 
 
 Sullivan's second achievement is, undoul)tedly, 
 the crystallization of the round blow. This is 
 one of the greatest additions ever made to the 
 pugilism of the ring. The round blow, safely 
 delivered, is the most powerful and effective of 
 all blows. 
 
 Sullivan did Jiot invent the round blow. It 
 is as old as boxing : indeed it is one of the natural 
 movements of human attack. It was the leadini^ 
 blow of the Greeks with the brutal cestus, or armed 
 glove. It is the very blow that a stronir, awk- 
 
IMPROVEMENT IN MODERN BOXING. 9 
 
 ward, iiruoraut man would strike, and thereby 
 disable himself — for the round blow, wrongly 
 delivered, is far more terrible to the giver than to 
 the receiver. 
 
 Formerly, boxers delivered the round blow 
 almost with a straight-arm swing, some with the 
 rVont knuckles leading, and some with the back, 
 and soma airain with the thuml) knuckle, or with 
 the palm or "heel of the hst." But most of 
 
 KOU>"D BLOW. 
 
 (Instantaneous Photograph.) 
 
 these came ofi' with sprained joints or broken 
 wrists, while their opponents easily escaped the 
 slow swing by '-ducking," or threw up the elbow 
 at an acute ansrle and smashed the delicate bone 
 of the strikers forearm. 
 
 The secret of striking the round blow safely 
 lies in the position of the knuckles. Just as in 
 
10 ETHICS OF BOXING Aj^^D MANLY SPORT. 
 
 true cutting with a sword, the elbow and knuckles 
 arc the test. Ask an unskilled man to make the 
 "cut one" with a sabre (from rii^ht to left, hori- 
 zontally), and he will, assuredly, cut vith the 
 hack of the sword for two-thirds of the distance. 
 Simi)ly because he keeps his elbow and his 
 knuckles turned up instead of down. And so 
 with all sword-cuts. So, too, with the round 
 blow iu boxing. An unskilled l)oxer will swiuo: 
 
 DUCKINd THE KUIND BLOW. 
 
 (Instantaneous Photograph.) 
 
 the hand obliquely upward, with the palm down- 
 ward or toward his body. Instead, the ell>ow 
 must be sliirhtlv raised, the back of the hand 
 turned toward the bod v. This brinirs the stiik- 
 ing joints of the hand s(juare in the lead. 
 
 A good boxer, in striking the round blow, instead 
 of looseninir body and arm, ii^athers himself into a 
 
ANTIQUITY OF BOXIXG. 11 
 
 heap of muscularity and begins his blow where 
 all blows ought to begin, from the solidarity of 
 the ri<2:ht foot. He bends the ri^ht arm into an 
 obtuse auii'le, the elbow slio'htly raised from the 
 side, and throws the entire weight of body and 
 momentum of released biceps into the blow. 
 
 Therefore, it may be said, that the last few 
 years have witnessed a greater permanent advance 
 in boxing than any period since the time of John 
 Broughton, who was the British champion from 
 1734 to 1750, and who has been, though not very 
 truly, called '' the founder of the modern art of 
 self-defence." 
 
 III. 
 
 ANTIQUITY OF BOXIXG. 
 
 British and Irish athletes have done much for 
 l)oxing ; l)ut an examination of the whole field 
 would lead to the conclusion that " the modern 
 art of self-defence" is not so modern as some 
 people think. 
 
 Boxin«: is the only art of attaclv and defence 
 which we have as an unbroken inheritance from 
 the ancients. 
 
 Every weapon used by men has been changed 
 in use and shape within one thousand, much less 
 
12 ETHICS OF BOXING AM) MAXLY SPOKT. 
 
 two lliousand years. The i)iko, the ])ow, the 
 mace, the axe, are al)aiKl()ne(l. The only ancient 
 weaj)()n that has not l)een thrown a.side is the 
 sword : antl that has ])een doiihled in lenirth, and 
 used in (juite other ways th;in the Greek and 
 Roman use. 
 
 Tiiere is a ch)se rehitionshi}) between the history 
 of the sword and tliat of hoxin<>-. 
 
 lioth (ireek and Konian used the short sword 
 (average of al)out twenty inches) undou])tedly as 
 a stabhinir weapon — as distinct from a cuttin<>- 
 weapon. The only weapon o])viously used for 
 cutting anionir the ancients was the curved sword 
 of the Lacedccmonians and the Irisli, specimens 
 of which can be seen in the lloyal Irish Academy 
 -Museum, and which ahiiost exactly resem])led the 
 present scimetar of the Persians. 
 
 All the gladiatorial sword tights of the Konians 
 were with the short, straight sword, like a 
 Scottish claymore ; and when the hapless loser 
 threw up his hands and the peoi)le shouted ''Hoc 
 Htihet!' ("lie has got it!") they knew that the 
 victor had driven his straight weapon between his 
 0])jKnient's ribs. 
 
 But with the northern con(|uest of Kome the 
 u.>e of the straight sword, or rather the use of the 
 ])oint as the principal means of attack, practically 
 disappeared for over a thousand years, and w^hen 
 
ANTIQUITY OF BOXING. 
 
 13 
 
 it came again, it was in the long, light rapier play 
 of the Italian and French schools of fence. 
 
 Bat all this time the boxing skill of Greek and 
 Koman must have come traditionally and practi- 
 cally down from father to son, the only change 
 being in the dropping of the hand-weights and 
 bandao'es. 
 
 GUEEK BOXERS WITH THE rESTri--. 
 
 When Pollux ol)tained the boxing victory at the 
 Pvthian aames, he wore sfloves or leathern ban- 
 da2:es tilled with lead and iron. AVhen Sullivan 
 defeats his man, he uses soft gloves filled with 
 curled hair. This is the change of time and 
 judgment. The latter is the l^etter test. A 
 chance ])low from the heavy ce^stus cracked a 
 
14 KTlIirS OF nOXlNG AND MANLY SPORT. 
 
 man's skull or ])r()ko liis arm. There are no 
 chance ])l{)ws in a Tirst-rate modern li<>lit with 
 irloves. 
 
 lUit, so far as we can iind, the " set-to " of the 
 (ireek and Koman ])oxers was not unlike modern 
 jHiirilisni. The records are rather vague as to the 
 ancient manner of oivino: and i>"uardin<>- ])lows, l)ut 
 there are some writinos and munerous drawinas 
 and carvings showing that the position and action 
 of the engaged boxers were precisely then as they 
 are to-day. 
 
 In a Greek drawinir of boxers with the cesfus 
 now before me, one of the men stands in a most 
 approved modern attitude, the left foot and hand 
 advanced, the left arm slightly bent, and the 
 right arm held across the lower chest, just as a 
 careful l)()X(n" of to-day covers "the wind" or 
 " the point." 
 
 The (xreeks were the first boxers. Puii'ilism 
 appeal's to have ])een one of the earliest distinc- 
 tions in i)lay and exercise that appeared between 
 the Ilelleiu's and their Asiatic fathers. The 
 unarmed })ersonal encounter was indicative of a 
 sturdier manhood. The suppleness and adroit- 
 ness of the Oriental were sui)planted by the 
 lieavier build and more direct attack of the 
 Eur()i)ean. 
 
 The modern Englishman claims for his country 
 
ANTIQUITY or BOXING. 
 
 15 
 
 the invention of the art of boxing, at least with 
 skill and bare hands. 
 
 "James Figg was the father of l^oxing," saj^s 
 " The History of British Boxino-," and " Brough- 
 ton was the first man who taught countering and 
 parrying and bending to escape a 1)low." This 
 claims quite too much. 
 
 Two thousand five hun- 
 dred years ago Greek 
 boxers used only their 
 bare hands. They did 
 nothing rudely, or in- 
 completely, in Greece ; 
 and their exercise must 
 have )>een much the same ^ 
 as. ours. Later, as the 
 contests at tlie great na- 
 tional games of Greece 
 ])ecame fiercely earnest, 
 the hands and arms were 
 surrounded with thonos of leather, at first reach- 
 ins: to the wrists, like our " hard aloves," then 
 carried up to the elbow, and afterward extending 
 up to tlie shoulder, the hands l)eing heavily 
 weighted and knol)l)ed with lead and iron. 
 
 The cestus of the Greeks, copied by the 
 Romans, was a dreadful boxino- olove, or gaunt- 
 let, composed of raw-hide thongs and metal. 
 
 ^{{r 
 
 OJ )V' 
 
 RAW-IIIDK CESTUS FKOM 
 HERCULANKtTM. 
 
hi 
 
 KTllUS OF JiOXlNG AM) .MAM.V SPORT. 
 
 A trciiKJiidoiis ce.slus, loiiiid in llerciiliinouni, 
 was composed of sovernl lliicknesses of raw 
 liido fastened toiiether and ronndcd on tlie 
 edii:o. Ilok'S were eiit tlironali for the iinirers, 
 and the thnmb overlai)})ed the .side. 
 
 It is evident from liiis a\shis that there were no 
 *' straiiiht l)lows" in Greek l)oxinir when it was 
 used. A " straight counter" woukl ol)viouslv 
 ])reak the striker's iinaers, for the striking })oint 
 is inside the raw-hide ])hites. This cruel boxinir 
 gkne coukl only liave been used for round ])lows, 
 or for the absurd old Enalisli ])k)W called "the 
 chop]^er," wliich was delivered by the back of the 
 hand in an outward and downward swinsr. 
 
 THE KorNU CKSTl S. 
 
 Here (as Grecdv art tells us) is the form of 
 castas used ])y Polhix, one of the twin brothers 
 who "fought tlicir way like Hercules himself to 
 a seat on Mt. Olympus."' 
 
 These twins, the Dioscuri, i)resided over all 
 rjreek games. C^istor being the god of equestrian- 
 ism, Pollux the ii'od of boxiuir. 
 
ANTIQUITY OF BOXING. 17 
 
 111 those golden days, Amyous, son of Xeptiuie, 
 was kincr of the Bebryces, and he was a famous 
 boxer with the cestiis; indeed, he called himself 
 " the champion of the world." He kept a stand- 
 in2: challeno'e to all comers. AVlien the Aro^o- 
 nauts were sroins: to Colchis for the irolden fleece, 
 the}' touched at the port of Amycus, and were 
 received most kindly by the king, who was evi- 
 dently " spoilins: for a fiirht." He told his ijuests 
 after dinner that he could -'knock out ''any boxer 
 in Greece or elsewhere ; that he could, as modern 
 challengers express it, "send them to sleep." 
 
 Amonir the Ar^ronauts was Pollux, who had 
 lately been winning the lirst prizes at the Pythian 
 games. He accepted the challenge, not knowing 
 that it was the custom of Amycus to kill his man 
 with a foul blow. The flofht came off, and it was 
 a resolute controversy. Amycus tried all his 
 skill and stremrth to deliver his wicked blow, but 
 now he had met a miirhtv man. At last Amycus 
 tried to get in his deadly stroke by a trick, and 
 this roused the wrath of Pollux, who straightway 
 killed the unfair li<rliter, and l)ound his body to a 
 tree. The ioviw o^ cestiis o\\ the preceding page is 
 from an antique bronze representing the battle. 
 
16 ETHICS OF BOXLNG AND MANLY SPOKT. 
 
 IV. 
 
 THE ATHLETES OF ANCIENT GREECE. 
 
 The term ''athlete" was applied in Greec8 
 only to those who contended in the public games 
 for prizes, exclusive of musical and other contests 
 where bodily streniith was not needed. It was 
 not ai)plied to what we call amateurs, or those 
 who exercised without the incentive of a prize. 
 The '' athletes " were the distinct forerunners of 
 the trained tiuhting men who became a profes- 
 sional clas-; in Greece (400-300 b. c). It was 
 not the value of the prizes themselves which led 
 men to devote their lives to athletic exercises. 
 That was at most very insi2:nificant. But, from 
 the heroic legends of competitions for prizes, 
 such as those at the funeral of Patroclus, from 
 the great anticjuity of the four national games 
 of Greece (the Olympian, Pythian, Nemean 
 and Isthmian, with the local Panathenani at 
 Athens) , and from the high social position of the 
 competitors in early times, there gradually be- 
 came attached to each victory in one of these 
 games so nuich glory that the townsmen of a 
 victor were ready to, and frequently did, erect a 
 
THE ATHLETES OF ANCIENT GREECE. 19 
 
 statue to liim, receive him in triumph, and care 
 for him the rest of his life. 
 
 The actual prizes oflered at the Greek national 
 uames were of no intrinsic value. The hiahest 
 reward was the sense of havins^ done well. At 
 the Olympian games the victor was croAvned with 
 olive ; at the Pvthian orames, with laurel ; at the 
 Xemean games, with parsley ; and at the Isthmian 
 games with pine. 
 
 But though the Greek games, in this respect, 
 favorably compare with the gambling and greed 
 of our modern race-course or other contest, the 
 reward of the victor was not wholly comprised in 
 his olive crown, or his sense of glory. The suc- 
 cessful athlete received splendid rewards. At 
 the Olympic games, a herald proclaimed to the 
 nuiltitude the winner's name, his parentage, and 
 his country ; the priests took from a table of ivory 
 and gold the olive crown and placed it on his head, 
 and in his hand a branch of pahn : as he marched 
 in the sacred procession to the Temple of Zeus, 
 his admirers showered flowers in his path, and 
 costlv shifts, and sans: the old victor sonir of 
 Archilochus. His name was then inscribed in the 
 Greek Calendar. "Fresh honors and rewards 
 awaited him on his return home," says F. Storr. 
 "If he was an Athenian, he received, according 
 to the law of Solon, five hundred drachmie,and 
 
20 ETHICS OF BOXING AM) MANLY SPOItT. 
 
 free rations for life in the rrytaneiiiii ; if a Spar- 
 tan , lie bad the post of honor in battle. Great poets 
 like Pindar, Sinionides, and Euripides sung his 
 praises, and sculptors like Phidias and Praxiteles 
 were engaged hy the State to carve his statute. 
 . . . Altars Avere built, and sacrifices ofiered 
 to a successful atldete." 
 
 Xo wonder, then, that an Olynipian prize was 
 regarded as the crown of human happiness. 
 
 Cicero tells the story of Diagoras of Rhodes, 
 who, having himself won a first prize at Olympia, 
 and seen his two sons crowned as winners on the 
 same day, was addressed by a Laconian in these 
 words: "Die, Diagoras, for thou hast nothing 
 short of divinity to desire." Alcibiadcs, when 
 declaring his services to the State, puts first his 
 victory at Olympia, and the prestige he had won at 
 Athens for his magnificent display. 
 
 But, perhaps, the most remarkable evidence of 
 the value the (ireeks attached to athletic powers 
 is a casual expression of Thucydides, when de- 
 scribing the enthusiastic reception of Brasidas at 
 Scione. "The Government," he says, " voted 
 him a crown of gold, and the nudtitude flocked 
 round him and decked hin^ with garlands, as 
 thowjh he were an athlete.'' 
 
THE TKAIMNG OF GREEK ATHLETES. 21 
 
 Y. 
 
 THE TRATXIXG OF GREEK ATHLETES. 
 
 Agaixst specially trained athletes the better 
 class of Greek citizens refused to compete, and the 
 lists of the public games being thus left practically 
 open to professionals, training became more a 
 matter of svstem and stud^■, particular! v in regard 
 to diet, which was rigorously prescribed for the 
 athletes by a public functionary. 
 
 At one time the ]')rincipal food of Greek athletes 
 consisted of fresh cheese, dried tia's, and wheaten 
 ])read. Afterward meat was introduced, o-ener- 
 ally beef or pork ; but the bread and meat were 
 taken separately, the former at breakfast and the 
 latter at dinner. Except in Avine, the quantity 
 was unlimited, and the capacity of some of the 
 heavy wei<rhts must have been enormous, if such 
 stories are true as those about ^lilo. 
 
 ^Mih) was not a l)oxer, but a wrestler. He was 
 six times victor at the 01vmi)ian aames. He was 
 a ofreat soldier, a successful a'cneral. lie carried 
 a four-vear-old heifer on his shoulders throuah 
 OIym[)ia, and afterward eat the whole of it in one 
 day. Poor Milo, stroma as he was, died horribly 
 
22 ETHICS OF nOXING ANU MANLY' SPORT. 
 
 in the end. Passing through a forest one clay, he 
 saw the trunk of a tree that had been partially 
 split ()i)on. He tried to rend it farther, but the 
 wood closed on his hands, and while he was thus 
 held he was devoured l)y wolves. 
 
 The traininij of (Ireek athletes consisted, beside 
 the ordinary gy nniastic exercises of the palcestra, 
 in oarrvinir heavy loads, liftinii: weights, bendinii 
 iron rods, striking at a suspended leather sack 
 filled with sand or flour, taming bulls, etc. 
 Boxers had to practise delvinc: the around to 
 sti'engthen their upper limbs. The competitions 
 open to athletes were in running, leaping, throw- 
 inir the discus, wrestling, boxinir, and the Pan- 
 cratium. or a combination of boxinir and wrestlinsf. 
 
 Victory in this last was the hiuhest achieve- 
 ment of an athlete, and was reserved only for 
 men of extraordinary strength. The competitors 
 were naked, having their l)odies salved with oil. 
 
 An athlete could begin his career as a boy in 
 contests set a})art for boys. He ccmld appear 
 again as a youth against his equals, and, though 
 always unsuccessful, could ao on competin"" until 
 the aire of thirtv-tive, when he was debarred, it 
 being assumed that after that period of life, he 
 could not imi)rove. The most celebrated CJreek 
 athletes whose; names have been handed down, 
 beside those above mentioned, are Milo, Hippos- 
 
THE SACRED GAMES OF GREECE. 
 
 23 
 
 thenes, Hercules, Eiyx, Antfeeus, Epeus, Eury- 
 alus, Entellus, Polydamus, Promachus and Glau- 
 cus. 
 
 Gyre lie, famous in the time of Pindar for its 
 athletes, appears to have still maintained its repu- 
 tation to at least the time of Alexander the Great, 
 for in the British Museum are to l^e seen six prize 
 vases carried off from the games at Athens by 
 natives of that district. These vases, found in the 
 tombs of the winners, are made of clay, and are 
 painted on one side with a representation of the 
 contest in which thev were won, and on the other 
 side with a fioure of Pallas Athenae, with an in- 
 scription telling where they were gained, and in 
 some cases addino- the name of the magistrate of 
 Athens, from which the exact year can be obtained. 
 
 YI. 
 
 THE SACRED GAMES OF GREECE. 
 
 It is not to be doubted that the Greek boxers 
 attained to a hiiih dciiTce of skill in counterins: 
 and parrying. Xo awkward or unskilled athletes 
 were allowed to appear at the ()l>'mpian or other 
 national shames, where boxinir was one of the five 
 
"24: KTHICS OF lJOXIN(; AM) ,MANLV .SPOKT. 
 
 principal exercises. At the Olympian games, the 
 order was leapinir, ruiminir, throwinir, boxin<>\ 
 wrestlinir. 
 
 It may be truly said that the supremacy of 
 Greece as the teacher of the Western and Xortli- 
 ern world in all the higher forms of civilization, 
 was intimately related to the marvellous compe- 
 tition of physical and intellectual manhood in 
 these great sacred games. So profoundly w^as the 
 Greek mind affected l)y the games, which were held 
 every four years at Olympia, that time was divided 
 into Olympiads, and this method of reckonintr 
 continued for many centuries. 
 
 Prizes at these iranies were iriven not onlv for 
 athletic exercises, but for music, sinainir, oratorv, 
 and poetry. Herodotus read his history at the 
 Olympic, and Orpheus won the first prize for 
 music at the Pythian games. Alcibiades, the 
 Athenian scholar, soldier, ruler, savs Plutarch, 
 was the most successful and the most mairnificent 
 in his exercises of all that ever contended in these 
 games. lie obtained at one solemnity (the 01 vm- 
 pic, which lasted five days), the first, second, and 
 fourth prizes for chariot-racinsf. 
 
 There is a lesson for moderns in these national 
 games of Greece. There was no other occasion 
 on which the Greek was so forcibly impressed 
 with the glory of his own race and nationality. 
 
THE SACRED GAMES OF GREECE. 
 
 2d 
 
 The games were opened to all Greeks. There 
 was no exemption — except for women. 
 
 There was a riixorous law that if anv woman 
 was found so much as to have passed the river 
 Alpheus during the Olympian games, she was to 
 be thrown headlono' from a rock ; and this con- 
 tinned until Pherenice. who went disouised to 
 attend on her son while he wrestled, was appre- 
 hended and tried. She vras acquitted, out of re- 
 spect to her father, brothers and son, who had all 
 won first i)rizes at the frames. Afterward women 
 were admitted, and then even contended at the 
 oames. Cvnisca, the daughter of Archidamus, 
 was the first woman who was crowned at Olvm- 
 pia ; and after her, many women, especially those 
 of Macedonia, were crowned as the winners of 
 prizes. 
 
 The Komans also excluded women ; but Augus- 
 tus allowed them to witness the o'ladiatorial fiohts, 
 and assianed them a place in the hi<2.-hest seats of 
 the amphitheatre. 
 
 Rich and poor among the Greeks were allowed 
 to enter on the same terms. The preparatory 
 course was long, arduous, and not to be escaped. 
 Every competitor was ol)liged to give ten months' 
 training- before he was allowed to enter the a'ames. 
 The pul)lic gynmasium was at Elis, and thither 
 the competitors had to go for the ten months of 
 traininof. 
 
26 ETHICS or liOXIXG and AlANLY SPOKT. 
 
 This rule was so important that if a man won a 
 prize and it was then found that he had evaded 
 any i)ortion of this long training, the prize was 
 given to his opponent, thus showing the value laid 
 u})on tlie continuous })hysical education by those 
 in authoritv. 
 
 To irnard asfainst gamblinir and dishonoral^le 
 l)ractices, contenders had to swear that thev liad 
 fuUilled the conditions of entering ; and they, 
 their fathers and l)rethren took, also, a solemn 
 oath, that they would not, l)y an unfair or un- 
 lawful means, endeavor to stop or interfere with 
 the i)roccedinirs of the iriimes. 
 
 It is not likely that athletes trained in this 
 manner were inferior boxers, nor that they were 
 ignorant of such primary principles as countering 
 and iiarrvinir. 
 
 VII. 
 
 THE SKILL OF GIIEEK BOXERS. 
 
 It is easy to prove that the Greek Avas a master 
 not oidy of the straight-counter (which any man 
 who used a short, straight sword would naturally 
 learn), but of the cross-counter, one of the most 
 skilful and ell'ective blows known to modern 
 boxinir. 
 
THE SKILL OF GREEK BOXERS. 27 
 
 In Homer's time, the cross-counter, wliicli is 
 supposed to be comparatively a recent discovery 
 in pugilism, was clearly understood. Let any one 
 who understands boxins: follow the movements in 
 this description by Homer of the bare-handed 
 fio'ht between Ulvsses and the ruffian Irus. The 
 ruffian, a Sfiant in size, has otossIv insulted 
 Ulysses, who is in disguise, and a ring is formed 
 by a lot of idlers eaa'er to see a fiaht. 
 
 The bully, Irus, like all bullies, is a coward. 
 He has watched Ulysses stripping, and is terrified 
 when he realizes the kind of man he has aroused. 
 But he is drasfired to the scratch, and as thev face 
 each other, Ulvsses, disixusted at his crino'ins: 
 cowardice, concludes that he is not worth killino', 
 and that he will only " knock him out.'' eliist 
 then Irus strikes out savaaelv — he " led with his 
 left," in the parlance of the gymnasium. We 
 know it was his left, because the blow fell on 
 Ulysses' right shoulder. Says Homer, who evi- 
 dently knew just what he was describino' : 
 
 " On his right shoulder Irus laid his stroke; 
 Ulysses struck him just beneath the ear, 
 His jawbone broke, and made the blood appear; 
 When straight he strewed the dust." 
 
 Now, this was a straioht-cross-counter, accu- 
 rately described, and it tells a whole story of 
 striking and parrying, as we shall see presently. 
 
28 
 
 ETHICS UF BoXIM; \Sl) .MANLY fiPUKT 
 
 Here is another renderinir of the same liirht from 
 Pope's translation : 
 
 '* That instant Inis his huge arm extends, 
 Full on his shoulder the rude weight descends, 
 The sage Ulysses fearful to disclose 
 The hero latent in the man of woes. 
 C'heck'd half his might, yet, rising to the stroke. 
 His jawbone dash'd; the crashing jawbone broke." 
 
 Now, let US analvze this enirairement. Irus 
 leads with his left at Ulysses" head, and his blow 
 falls on the n'r^/it shoulder. Therefore, Ulvsses 
 
 A sTRAn;irr rRoss-roiNTER 
 (In>t:intaueous I'liotograph.) 
 
 did just what to-day Sullivan or Smith would do : 
 he moved his head to the left, and let the bhjw 
 come full on his right shoulder — with a purpose. 
 For he, at the same moment, "risinir to the 
 stroke," crossed Irus' arm with his riiiht. '• struck 
 him just beneath the ear," broke his jaw, and 
 
THE SKILL OF GKEEK BOXERS. 29 
 
 knocked him out. He must have done this, for 
 there was no other way of breakino- Irus' iaw. 
 He could not have struck him with his left, for 
 Irus' jaAv was nearer to his right. 
 
 This straight cross-counter, which the Greeks 
 knew, is the most effective and the most powerful 
 blow that can ])e given, except the round blow. 
 
 Of the tight between the heavy-weight Epeus 
 and Euryalus, after the funeral of Patroclus, here 
 is a report : 
 
 " Him great Tydides urges to contend, 
 "Warm with the hopes of conquest for his friend ; 
 Officious with the cincture, girds him round, 
 And to his Avrists the (/loves of death are bound. 
 Amid the circle now each cliampion stands, 
 And poises higli in air his iron hands; 
 Witli clashing gauntlets now they fiercely close. 
 Their crackling jaws reecho to the blows. 
 And painful sweat from all their members flows. 
 At length Epeus dealt a weighty blow 
 Full on the cheek of his miwary foe ; 
 Beneath the ponderous arms' resistless sway 
 Down dropped he nerveless, and extended lay." 
 
 Here w^e see that the Greek ])oxer wore a belt 
 like the modern, and that he fouii'ht in a rins^ ; but 
 of the details of this h^ht we can iudi>*e nothin<r. 
 
 There is a boxing match, however, in the 
 "^Eneid,'' between Dares and the aged Entellus, 
 in which the manner of the haht is 2:iven more 
 clearly, and from wdiicli we learn that there was a 
 
30 ETHICS OF BOXING AND .MANLY SPOKT. 
 
 complete system of strikinir and parrvinir, jhuI, at 
 least, one of the boxers was an adept at " du'.'kiiiu- " 
 and " irettinir awav ; " 
 
 HE "WASTES HIS FORCES OX THE WIND. 
 
 (Instantaneous Photograph.) 
 
 • This saiil, Entellus for the fight prepares, 
 Strippe;! of his quilted coat, his body bares: 
 Composed of mighty bones and brawn he stands, 
 A goodly, towering object on the sands. 
 Then just ..Eneas equal arms supplied. 
 Which round their shoulders to their icrists they tied. 
 Both on the tip-toe stand, at fidl extent. 
 Their arms aloft, their bodies inly bent; 
 Their heads from aiming blows they bear afar. 
 With clashing gauntlets then provoke the war. 
 Yet equal in success, they ward, they strike, 
 Their ways are different, but their art alike. 
 IJeforc, behind, the Idows are dealt; around 
 Their hollow sides the rattling thumps resoimd; 
 
THE GLADIATORS OF E03IE. 31 
 
 A storm of strokes, well meant, with fm-y flies, 
 
 And errs about their temples, ears, and eyes; 
 
 Nor always errs, for oft the gauntlet draws 
 
 A sweeping stroke along the crackling jaws. 
 
 Hoary with age, Entellus stands his ground, 
 
 But with his warping body wards the wound. 
 
 His hand and watchful eye keep even pace, 
 
 Wliile Dares traverses and sJnJ'ts Ms place, 
 
 With hands on high, Entellus threats the foe; 
 
 But Dares watched the motion from below, 
 
 And slipped aside, and shunned the long- descending blow. 
 
 Entellus wastes Ms forces on the wind, 
 
 And, thus deluded of the stroke designed. 
 
 Headlong and heavy fell." 
 
 There was much more than rude " o:ive-and- 
 take " in this fiofht. It was skilful boxina* even 
 from a modern stand-point. 
 
 YIII. 
 
 THE GLADIATORS OF FtOME. 
 
 Amoxg the Komans, fond as thev were of 
 exhibitions of physical skill and strength, the pro- 
 fession of athlete was entirely an exotic, and was, 
 even under the empire, with difficulty transplanted 
 from Greece. The system, and the athletes them- 
 selves, were always purely Greek. 
 
 The vicious luxury of imperial Rome had de- 
 graded the gymnasium into the circus, and the 
 
:\'2 KTlllCS OF BOXING AND MANLY SPOUT. 
 
 athlete into the liladiator. The gladiatorial shows 
 of the einperor.s were sii»ii enough that a cruel 
 and aboniinal)le power was preparing for its own 
 destruction. 
 
 Tile tirst iiladiatorial shows were exhil)ited in 
 the Forum Boariuni, 2()J: B.C., 1>y ?.Iarcus and 
 Decinuis Brutus, at tlie funeral of their father. 
 This was an evident survi\al of the still more 
 ancient custom of sacrificing slaves and prisoners 
 on the irraves of illustrious chieftains. Onlv three 
 pairs fouixht on this occasion ; but the taste o-rew 
 like fire for these shows, and the number of com- 
 batants increased rapidly. Titus Flaminius, in 
 174 B.C., celebrated his father's obsequies by 
 a three-davs' fiuht with seventv-four' <rladiat()i-s. 
 Julius Ctesar exliil)ited tliree hundred pairs in 
 one show ; and durinir the later years of the 
 rei)ublic the gladiators had grown so powerful, 
 every no])leman em]:)lovin<i a bodv-^ruard of them, 
 that they kept the city in a state of constant peril 
 and unrest. 
 
 Under the empire, notwithstanding: proliil)itorv 
 laws, the passion for the gladiatorial shows 
 steadily increased. One hundred pairs was the 
 fashionable number for a private entertainment. 
 It was a debauch of blood and cruelty. The vile 
 Claudius would sit in his chair of state from 
 morning till night, watching the bloody work, 
 
THE GLADIATOUS OF HOME. 33 
 
 and descending now and then to urge the hcsi- 
 tathis: fia'hters, who were at once monsters and 
 victims. Under Xei'o, senators, and even women 
 of the noble families, appeared as combatants. 
 Titus ordered a frhuliatorial show that lasted a 
 hundred days ; and Trajan, in one triumphal show, 
 exhibited five thousand pairs of gladiators. 
 Domitian, at the Saturnalia of 90 A.D., ordered 
 a battle between dwarfs and women. It was over 
 a hundred years later (200 A.D.) that a law was 
 passed against female gladiators. 
 
 Throughout the whole Roman empire had 
 spread this horrible passion for human conflict to 
 the death. "From Britain to Syria," says F. 
 Storr, " there was not a town of any size that 
 could not boast its arena and annual £>-ames." The 
 following inscription from the pedestal of a statue 
 shows the feeling of the provinces : 
 
 " In four days, at Minturme, he showed eleven 
 pairs of gladiators, who did not cease fighting till 
 one half, all the most valiant men in Campania, 
 had fallen. You remember it well, noble fellow- 
 citizens." 
 
 Gladiators were commonly drawn from prison- 
 ers of war, slaves, or criminals condemned to 
 death. The populace of Rome, drunken with the 
 cruel sights, gloated on every fresh batch of tat- 
 toed Britons who were marched in chains into the 
 
34 KTllRS OF BOXING AND MANLY SPORT. 
 
 city. Tlicy iTJoiced at the ^iglit of Thruciiins, with 
 their strange bucklers, ^Moors, and Negroes. Even 
 these grew scarce in time ; and then Oaliguhi 
 and Xero, to meet the demand for victims, ordered 
 all those nuiltv of minor offences, such as fraud, 
 peculation, etc., to take their chances in the arena, 
 ^len of birth and fortune, for pure love of fight- 
 in«-, sometimes fouuht as irladiators ; and one 
 emperor, Conniwdus, actually appeared in person 
 in the arena. 
 
 Professional aladiators were trained in schools, 
 owned either by the State or private citizens. It 
 was a legitimate enterprise to own gladiators and 
 hire them out. 
 
 Sometimes a aladiator of irreat prowess became 
 famous ; and then his fortune was made. The 
 great i)octs praised him, and money and honors 
 were showered on him ; l)ut the horril)le trade 
 was detestable to brave men, and vet there were 
 thousands of brave men condemned to it for life. 
 '' AVe cannot forget," says Oibbon, " the desper- 
 ate courage of about fourscore gladiators, reserved, 
 with near six hundred others, for the inhuman 
 sports of the amphitheatre. Disdaining to shed 
 their blood for the amusenient of the populace, 
 they killed their keepers, broke from their i)lace 
 of confinement, and filled Rome Avith blood and 
 confusion. After an ol)stinate resistance, they 
 
THE GLx\DIATOKS OF KOME. 35 
 
 were overpowered and cut in pieces b}" the regular 
 forces ; but they obtained, at least, an honorable 
 death and the satisfaction of a just revenge." 
 
 " There are few finer characters in Roman 
 history," saj^s Storr, " than the Thracian Sparta- 
 cus, who escaped from the gladiators' school of 
 Lentulus, at Capua, and for three years defied the 
 leojions of Rome." 
 
 The gladiators fought with various weapons : 
 the Samnites, with a short sword, a plumed 
 helmet, and a shield ; the Thracians, with a round 
 buckler and a das^srer ; some others with a net and 
 a trident, some with a lasso, and many with the 
 deadly cestus. 
 
 The public interest in the shows may be judged 
 from the fact that in the Circus Maximus there 
 were seats for three hundred and fifty thousand ; 
 or, as Juvenal says, "it held the whole of 
 Rome." 
 
 When the debauched people tired of merely 
 human blood, the wilds of the world were ran- 
 sacked for wild beasts to fia'ht with each other 
 and with the gladiators. The generals and })ro- 
 consuls were ordered in far countries to purchase 
 giraffes, tigers, lions, and crocodiles / Sulla, in a 
 single show, had one hundred lions. Pompey had 
 six hundred lions, besides elephants, which fought 
 Ga?talian hunters. When the Colosseum was 
 opened nine thousand beasts were killed ! 
 
'Mt KTMICS OF lJOXIN(r AM) ^fANLV SI'OlIT. 
 
 The ces/iis of the Koiiian ghidiators was even 
 more terril)le than that of the Greeks. In Greece 
 the end desired was skill and courage and strenirth ; 
 in Koine the desire was for death. The death of 
 an antagonist, unless by accident, was severelv 
 punished in Greece; hut in Rome the sooner the 
 gladiator killed his man the better. 
 
 All the great writers and speakers of Rome 
 praised and approved the gladiatorial shows, in- 
 cluding Cicero, Pliny, and even the good ^larcus 
 Aurelius. The tirst word against the shows was 
 spoken by the Christian fathers, Tertullian, Lac- 
 tantius, Cv|)rian, and Auirustine. 
 
 The tirst Christian emperor of Rome abolished 
 the games by an edict, in 325 A. I). ; 1)ut thev 
 continued down to the time of St. Au"^ustine. 
 To a Christian martyr, Telemachus, belongs the 
 honor of their tinal aboHticm. In 404, there 
 came from the East on this sacred mission a monk 
 named Telemachus. When the terrible fi«dit was 
 most intense, he rushed into the arena, and en- 
 deavored to sci)arate the combatants. lie was 
 instantly killed, by order of the pnetor : but the 
 Kmi)eror Ilonorius, on hearing the report, abol- 
 ished the games, which were never afterwards 
 revived. 
 
FEUDALIS31 SUPPRESSED POPULAR ATHLETICS. 37 
 
 IX. 
 
 FEUDALISM SUPPRESSED POPtXAR ATHLETIC 
 
 EXERCISES. 
 
 With the advent of cbivalrv. the art of boxinor 
 waned. The evolution of feudal aristocracv, with 
 other and widely different exercises, pastimes and 
 weapons from those of the common people, made 
 boxinn unlashional)le. 
 
 With the advance of feudalism came the gri-owth 
 of iron armor, until, at last, a ii:rhtinof-man resem- 
 bled an aiTuadillo. He was iron-clad from top 
 to toe. His weapons had changed accordingly. 
 The short sword of the Greek and Eoman sol- 
 dier, STOod for a stout hand-to-hand tiirht, was 
 replaced by a long and heavy blade and a ponder- 
 ous iron-spiked mace. 
 
 Boxinsr in those davs came to be resrarded as 
 mere child's play, or as the rude pastime of the 
 vuljiar. 
 
 The baron was a mounted man, who jousted 
 with a ten-foot lance, and fought dismounted with 
 an axe, or a sword live or six feet lonor, double- 
 hiked, weighing from eight to twelve pounds. 
 
 The student of sociolosrv will tind in the his- 
 
38 i:thics of boxing and manly spout . 
 
 toiy of the sword alone ii key to the political and 
 social classifications of Europe, and, prol)al)ly, 
 of Asia also, could wo trace the evolution of its 
 military arms and methods. 
 
 In all countries and times where the connnon 
 man was ready and al)le to fiirht, sini>lv and com- 
 tined, freedom was at its highest. The ability of 
 the common man to assert himself is every where 
 and always the measure of popular liberty. 
 
 The urowth of armaments and o-overnments 
 everywhere corresponds with the decrease of per- 
 sonal and popular freedom. This may be fol- 
 lowed frojn the fist, staft', or knife of the peasant 
 or mechanic, to the sword of the *' irentleman,'' the 
 lance, horse, and armor of the lord, the nudtijdied 
 muskets of the king, and the Krupp guns and 
 iron-clads of the emperor. 
 
 The knowinir how to fiaht makes common men 
 self-reliant and indei)endent. A people are pre- 
 l)aring for their own subjection to a class, or 
 a tyranny, where a aeneration is allowed to "tow 
 up without physical training and enudation. 
 
 It has always been the aim of royalty and aris- 
 tocracy to lower the individual liberty and inde- 
 pendence of the connnon people. 
 
 A baron and a minute-man could not breathe 
 the same air. 
 
 Every boy in a free country ought to be in- 
 
FEUDALISM SUPPRESSED POPULAR ATHLETICS. 39 
 
 structed in boxinir. wrestliiiir and the use of 
 weapons. Every young man ought to he drilled. 
 Every householder ou<iht. Jit least, to have a risht 
 to own a rifle, and should know how to make 
 cartridges. Then the moral forces will cement 
 the po[)ular self-respect and independence into a 
 solid wall of civilization. 
 
 Nothing could better illustrate the helplessness 
 of a people taken ^>\ surprise l)y a small, well- 
 organized, and usurping class, than the invasion 
 and conquest of England by the Xormans. These 
 foreign land robbers seized the surface of the 
 countrv. which thev hold to this daA'. Thev took 
 possession of fields and farmers together, built 
 their frowning towers on the hills and passes, 
 organized and exercised their own forces, and set 
 about a complete and permanent disorganization 
 and disarmament of the Enolish masses. 
 
 Their first step in this direction was the al)oli- 
 tion of warlike exercises, orames, and customs. 
 The basis of Enolish liberty was the ancient svs- 
 tem of v:apental:e , which was equivalent to the 
 town meetimr of Xew En£rland. (Were this the 
 place to consider it, the similarity of these two 
 truly English systems of home rule miirht be 
 interestinirlv treated ) Under the system of 
 wajyenfal'e. every community in Saxon England 
 selected its own local irovernment, and knew no 
 
40 ETHICS OF BOXIXG AND MANLY SPOUT. 
 
 otliei- ruliiiii- but that of the kino's iiid«'-cs. The 
 political unit was a family, not a person. Ten 
 families were called a tvthino', tliirt}' a trythino-, 
 one hundred a township called by that name. 
 These old Saxon divisions still exist in the " rid- 
 ings" (try things) and ''hundreds" of the northern 
 English counties. 
 
 The local authority was settled yearly, each 
 family of the hundred sending its head to a meet- 
 ing, where one was selected as the leader or 
 justice of the conununity. When this selection 
 was made, the selectman lowered his spear, and 
 all the others came forward and touched it with 
 their own. 
 
 This was the impenta'ke , or weapon-touch ; and 
 there was no higher authority than this in Saxon 
 England, except the king. 
 
 The system of impentalce was abolished in the 
 following manner: the Conqueror AYilliam divided 
 England into sixty thousand shares, or shires, to 
 eacli of which was appointed a Xorman knight as 
 owner and lord. Tin's was the formal introduc- 
 tion into England of the feudal system, in 108G, 
 by the Great Council of the reahn, assembled at 
 Sarum. 
 
 As soon as the Xorman knights took their shires 
 these l)ecame the political units instead of the 
 hundreds, and to each of these they appointed a 
 
FEUDALISM SUPPKESSED POPULAR ATHLETICS. 41 
 
 king's officer to take the place of the selectman 
 of the ivapeiitalt'e. The king's officer was called 
 a sheriff (from the words sJiire and i^eeve, or 
 keeper). 
 
 The leaderless English people were without 
 organization or national purpose. They had to 
 submit and see their ancient and beloved customs 
 and lil)erties trodden under foot. 
 
 Then their new masters, the kni<2:hts, set about 
 quietly disarming the people. Tlieyalso discoun- 
 tenanced all popular militaiy customs, and even 
 the usual athletic exercises and a'ames. 
 
 AVithin a single generation the people had ren- 
 dered up their arms and local rights to the 
 knights, who were bound only to help the king 
 in his wars. 
 
 Before the conquest, every Englishman was a 
 spearman or bowman, and quarter-staff and other 
 lusty exercises w :re the common pastime of the 
 people. That was the time when England was 
 called, and deservedlv, " Merrie England.*' 
 
 Addison, writing about popular exercises 
 (" Spectator," Xo. 161), alludes to "an old stat- 
 ute which ol)li2:ed everv man in Enaland, having' 
 such an estate, to keep and exercise the longbow ;" 
 by which means, he says, "our ancestors excelled 
 all other nations in the use of that weapon, and 
 we had all the real advantaijes without the incon- 
 venience of a standing army." 
 
42 ETHICS OF BOXING AND MANLY SPORT. 
 
 Under the XoriDaii landlords the sports and 
 exercises of the common En2:lishman were de- 
 irraded into rudeness, until " Hod<re," the name 
 his insolent master iiave him and still uives him, 
 knew nought of athletic skill except a crude form 
 of wrestling with body-holds. The bow, the pike, 
 or spear, and even the quarter-statf, ^vere taken 
 from him, and the skilful use of these weapons was 
 forirotten in the land. 
 
 The kniizht wanted no fiirhtinof men except 
 those whom he enlisted and trained for his own 
 or the king's service. The others had better be 
 unskilled, unlearned, undisciplined and uncouth 
 breeders and producers of the necessary wealth 
 from the soil, menials and payers of land-rent. 
 
 This deo-radation of manlv and militarv exer- 
 cises continued in England for six centuries. It 
 beaan to chamre onlv in the earlv part of the last 
 centurv. 
 
 In Ireland it continues still. " There are no 
 l)oxers in Ireland," said a travelled athlete to me 
 the other day. Xo ; the landlord government has 
 been able to continue the Irish i)oi)ular disorgani- 
 zation. Foot-ball, hurlinof, wrestlinir, and boxinir 
 were frozen out. AVhen Donnelly defeated the 
 English champions in the early i)art of this cen- 
 tury, it was considered a dangerous example and 
 precedent for Irishmen ; and from that time the 
 
THE FIRST MODEPiX CHAMPION BOXEPt. 43 
 
 people have been legislated, educated, and gov- 
 erned into io'norance of all means of attack and 
 defence, and of evervtliino- l)ut work in the fields. 
 
 Bat within a few years the Irish people have 
 bes'Lin res-olatelv to play the old heroic frames of 
 the Gael once more, as their Enolish brothers 
 had lono' o-one back to the manly exercises of the 
 Saxon. 
 
 In the first quarter of the last century, the arts 
 of boxing, sword-play, and quarter-staff were be- 
 ginning to attract public attention in Great Bri- 
 tain and Ireland. But these exercises were in an 
 extremely rude condition. There was, especially 
 for boxinir, no unity of knowledoe, no well- 
 known teachers, no established rules. The idea 
 of a national championship was not yet lx)rn. 
 
 X. 
 
 THE FIRST 3IODERX CIIA3IPI0X' BOXEE. 
 
 Ix 1719 appears the first English pugilist who 
 can be considered as a national champion. His 
 name was James Fioo". He had an "academy" 
 for manly exercises in Tottenham Court Koad, 
 London. 
 .Like all the boxino' masters of that time, and 
 
44 ETHICS OF BOXING AND MANLY SPORT. 
 
 for a lonir time after, Fiair was also a professional 
 swordsiiiaii and quarter-stall' player. Ilis card 
 read as follows : 
 
 JAMES FIGG, 
 
 Master of ye Xoble Science of Defence on 
 ye right hand in Oxford road near Adam & 
 Eve court, teaches gentlemen ye use of ye 
 small backsword and quarterstaff, at home 
 and abroad. 
 
 But in Figg's day (1719-34) boxing had evi- 
 dently not been reduced to any intellio-ent rules, 
 though his cards professed to teach " defence 
 scientifically." Figg himself was so famous for 
 ** stops and parries," that he is mentioned in the 
 *'Tatler," *' Guardian" and* " Craftsman," the 
 foremost literary papers of the time. He is de- 
 scribed by Capt. Godfrey, a famous patron of the 
 athletes of his day, as "a matchless master." 
 '* There was a majesty shone in his counte- 
 nance," says Godfrey, "and blazed in all his ac- 
 tions beyond all I eyer saw. His rii>ht leir bold 
 and iirm, and his loft, zc/n'ch could hardlij ever 
 he disfurhed, gaye hiin surprising advantage, and 
 struck his adversary with despair and panic." 
 
 The " backsword " of Fiair's time still remains 
 
THE FIRST MODEKX CHAMPION BOXEK. 
 
 45 
 
 a favorite exercise in England. It is a rude 
 sword-exercise, all cuts and parries, as if the 
 sword had no point. 
 
 One of the mysteries of sword-knowledge is 
 the lena'th of tinie which some nations took to 
 learn that the efiective part of the weapon was 
 
 SET-TO. 
 
 the point and not the edge. The point of a 
 sword, durino' an emjasrement, is never more than 
 two feet from an opponent's body, while the edge 
 for a cutting-blow is from four to seven feet (in 
 sweeping cuts, for instance). 
 
40 ET111C8 OF JJOXING AND MANLY .SPOUT. 
 
 Besides the adviuitagc in space and time, the 
 wound of the i')()int is apt to pierce the vitals, 
 while the wound of the edii'e is a mere surface 
 cut or bruise. 
 
 And yet, how few nations have straiirhtened 
 their sabres and sharpened their points ! 
 
 The absurd old "backsword" play, with a 
 *' hanging guard," is the only exercise safe for 
 the vile, curved sabres that even American cav- 
 alry are equipped with to-day. 
 
 But in Fi<ra''s time, the professional fiiihtinir- 
 man was really a master-of-weapons. Here, for 
 instance, is a s})ecimen of the usual method of 
 advertisin2' a comin2^ fiaht : — 
 
 
 At tlie Bear Garden in Hockley on the Hole. 
 A trial of skill to be performed between two profound 
 Masters of the Xoble Science of Defence, on Wednesday next, 
 being this 13th of the instant July, 1700, at two of the clock 
 precisely. 
 
 "I, George Gray, born in the city of Xorwich, who has 
 fought in many parts of the West Indies, and was never yet 
 worsted, and now lately come to London, do invite James 
 Harris to meet and exercise at these following weapons, viz. : — 
 Back Sword, f Single Falchon 
 
 Sword d' Dagger, ■{ and 
 
 Sword <t Buckler, 1 Case of Falchons. 
 
 "I, .James Harris, Master of the Noble Science of Defence, 
 who formerly rid in the Horse-guards, and hath fought a 
 hundreil and ten prizes, and never left a stage to any man; will 
 not fail (God willing) to meet this brave and bold Smiter at 
 the time and place appointed, desiring sharp swords and no 
 favor. YiVAT Kegixa." 
 
THE FIRST MODEUX CHAMriOX BOXEK. 47 
 
 Other challenges, with the above weapons, add 
 the quarter-staff. 
 
 Fiira' was the first master to include boxinix in 
 his challenges, of which the following is a speci- 
 men : — 
 
 G. /J^^im^kS 1^- 
 
 " At Mr. Figg's Xftw Amphitlieatre, Joyning to his House, the 
 sign of the City of Oxford, in Oxford Road, Marybone Fields, 
 on Wednesday next, being the eighth of June, 1726, will be 
 perform' d a tryal of skill by the following Masters. 
 
 "Whereas, I, Edward Sutton, Pipemaker from Gravesend, 
 and Kentish Professor of the Xoble Science of Defence, hav- 
 ing, under a sleeveless Pretence been deny'd a Combat by and 
 with the Extoll'd Mr. Figg, which I take to be occasioned 
 through fear of his having that Glory eclipsed by me, where- 
 with the eyes of all Spectators have been so much dazzled : 
 Therefore, to make appear, that the great applause which has 
 so nuich puff'd up this Hero has proceeded only from his 
 Foyling such as who are not worthy the name of Swordsmen, 
 as also that he may be without any farther excuse, I do hereby 
 dare the said Mr. Figg to meet as above and dispute with 
 me the Superiority of Judgement with the sword (which will 
 best appear by Cuts etc.,) at all the Weapons he is or shall be 
 then Capable of Performing on the Stage. 
 
 (( 
 
 I, James Figg, Oxonian Professor of the said science, will 
 not fail giving this daring Kentish Champion an Opportmiity 
 to make good his Allegations; when, it is to be hoped, if he 
 finds himself FoylM he will then change his Tone, and not 
 think himself one of the Xumber who are not worthy the name 
 of Swordsmen, as he is please to signifie by his Expression: 
 
48 ETHICS OF BOXING AND MANLY SPOUT. 
 
 However, as the most Significant AVay of deciding these Con- 
 troversies is by Action, I shall defer wliat I have to Act until 
 the Time above specified ; when I shall take care not to deviate 
 from my usual Custom, in making all such Bravadoes sensible 
 of their Error, as also in giving all Spectators intire satisfaction. 
 '"X.B. The doors will be open at Four, and the masters 
 mount between Six and Seven exactly. 
 
 "YiVAT Rex." 
 
 Though Figg was, uiKlou])tedly,a notal)le l)oxor, 
 he was more a teacher than a tighter, and his en- 
 gagements were more with swords than fists. 
 
 The first real fighting champion of Enghind, 
 and certainly one of the n.iost influential boxers 
 of the last century, was John, or '* Jack '' Brou<»h- 
 ton, Avho is usually placed fifth or sixth on the 
 list of champions. Broughton was a man of 
 splendid i)hysique, just one inch short of six feet, 
 handsome of face and tremendously powerful. 
 He was also gentle and good tempered, which 
 made him numerous friends. 
 
 XT. 
 
 TIIK FIRST MODEKX KULES OF THE KING. 
 
 BiioroHTON was the first man who made regular 
 rules for modern hoxing. Up to his time (and 
 long after it, indeed), a i)rize-fight was a roui»h- 
 and-tuml)le scrinunage, in which the men miirht 
 
THE FIRST MODERN RULES OF THE RIXG. 49 
 
 choke each other, wrestle^ butt with the head, trip, 
 and strike a man on his knees. 
 Says the author of " Fistiana " : 
 
 '• The inliiiman practices of uncivilized periods have sub- 
 sisted to a disgraceful extent, and hence we have heard of 
 gouging, piuring, kicking a man with nailed shoes as he lies 
 on the groiuid, striking him in vital parts below the waistband, 
 seizing him when on his knees, and administering punishment 
 till life be extinct, and a variety of other savage expedients by 
 which revenge or passion has been gratified. In Lancashire, 
 even to this day, when a man is got down he is kept doT\n and 
 pimished until incapable of motion — a mode of fighting which 
 is permitted with impunity, unless, indeed, the death of the 
 victim lead to the apprehension and trial of the survivor." 
 
 " Bi'oughton's Rules," as they were called for 
 nearly a century, were '' produced for the better 
 regulation of the amphitheatre, approved by the 
 gentlemen, and agreed to by the pugilists, Aug. 
 1743." They continued in force till '*The Xew 
 Rules of the Ring" were adopted in 1838. The 
 following were " Broughton's Rules," and they 
 tell their own story : 
 
 "1. That a square yard be chalked in the middle of the stage, 
 from which the men shall begin the fight; and every fresh set- 
 to after a fall or being parted from the rails, each second is to 
 bring his man to the side of the square and place him opposite 
 the other. 
 
 "2. After a fall, if the second does not bring his man to the 
 side of the square within the space of half a minute, he shall 
 be deemed a beaten man. 
 
 "3. That no person shall be upon the stage except principals 
 and seconds. 
 
jU ethics of boxing and manly sroiiT. 
 
 ''4. That no man be deemed beaten unless he fails coming up 
 to the line in the limited time, or that his own second declares 
 him beaten. 
 
 "5. The winning man to have two-thirds of the money. 
 
 "0. The principals to choose two umpires, who shall choose 
 a referee. 
 
 ''7. That no boxer is to hit his adversary when he is down, 
 or seize him by the ham, the breeches, or any part below the 
 waist; a man on his knees to be reckoned down." 
 
 The reu'ard that Enoflishmen had for boxins: in 
 the last century may be judged from an article in 
 the -'Connoisseur" (Aug. ^^^ 175-4). 
 
 " Every man," says the " Connoisseur," " who 
 has the honor of the British list at heart must 
 look with admiration on the bottom, the wind, 
 the game of this invincible champion, Slack." 
 
 This praise followed Slack's fight with Petit, a 
 full report of which was published in the " Con- 
 noisseur," which was one of the first literary 
 publications of the period. It is interesting to 
 observe what kind of a fight was this. I quote 
 from the " Connoisseur : " 
 
 "IIarlstox in Xokfolk, July 30, 1754. 
 
 "Yesterday, in the afternoon, Slack and Petit met and 
 fought. At the first set-to. Petit seized Slack by the throat 
 and held him up against the rails and (/rained him so much as 
 to make him extremely black. This continued for half a 
 minute, before Slack could break Petit' s hold." 
 
 The fight proceeded in this style, Petit seizing 
 Slack " by the hams," and Slack flinging Petit off 
 
THE FIRST MODEIiX RULES OF THE RING. 51 
 
 the stage, until Petit ran away in terror, and the 
 fiirht was <T^iven to Shick. 
 
 SUick was in turn defeated by Stevens, the 
 Nailer, who became champion in 1760. In the 
 report of their fight the winning blow is thus 
 descri])ed : "Stevens, with his riiiht hand beat 
 Slack about the head, li'li'de at the same time tri])- 
 jping him off his centre icith his foot.'' 
 
 There is nothing particularly interesting in the 
 records of British boxers till the close of the cen- 
 tury. Daniel Mendoza, a Jew, and James Bel- 
 cher, were the most noted names. Then came 
 John Gully, champion from 1805 to 1808, a man 
 who afterw^ard l^ecame a member of the British 
 Parliament; Thomas Cribb, a really remarkable 
 man and a great boxer ; Peter Corcoran, champion 
 of Ireland and England, and Dan Donnelly, 
 champion of Ireland and England. 
 
 The condition of the "science" at this time 
 may be judged from the fact that there were few 
 crystallized principles of attack or defence. Every 
 man had his own way for doing everything. For 
 instance, the o^uard of ]\Iendoza was to hold his 
 hands pretty close together, directly opposite his 
 mouth, the back of the hand toward his opponent ; 
 while another famous boxer named Johnson came 
 on guard by planting his legs square, "with his 
 arms held in almost a semi-circular direction be- 
 fore his head." 
 
02 ETHICS OF BOXING AND MANLY SPOKT. 
 
 XII. 
 
 DONNELLY AND COOPER ON THE CURRAGH OF 
 
 KILDAP.E. 
 
 One of the most famous fights in the liistoiy of 
 ])uuilism was that between the Enoflish and Irish 
 champions, George Cooper and Dan Donnelly, 
 which took place on the Curragh of Kildare, in 
 the year 1815. 
 
 Dan Doiuielly was one of the greatest boxers 
 ever seen in the ring — a man who, in prowess 
 and other characteristics, nuicli resembled John 
 L. Sullivan. He was born in Dublin in 1788. 
 He was a cari)enter by trade, and a man of ex- 
 traordinary strength, good temper, generosity, 
 antl pluck. He was noted in Dul)lin for his skill 
 in boxing ; l)ut he was not a professional pugilist. 1 
 
 In 1814, when Donnelly was twenty-six years 
 old, one of the most famous })oxers in Enijland, 
 named Thomas Hall, who had beaten Georire 
 Gril)b and other renowned fighters, went to 
 Ireland to make a tour of the countrv, irivina" 
 exhibitions. His advent was proclaimed l)y an 
 arroirantly worded challemre to "all Irehmd." 
 
 He was checked by finding that his challenge 
 
DONNELLY AND COOPER ON THE CURKAGH. 53 
 
 was at oiice publicly accepted in Dublin by Dan 
 Donnelly, who was " backed " by as much money 
 as was needed. 
 
 This battle attracted international attention. 
 In Ireland the excitement was very ijreat. When 
 the men met on the Curra^'h of Kildare, on the 
 14th of September, 1814, there were over thirty 
 thousand persons present. Both men were cheered 
 when they entered the ring ; and the fight was fair 
 
 SPAKKIXO.— A KOUXD BLOW MISSED. 
 
 (Instantaneous Photograph.) 
 
 until Hall, finding himself overmatched, fell several 
 times without a blow, and ultimately raised a cry 
 of '' Foul," to cover his complete defeat. From 
 the first round he had failed to make a sino-le 
 l)oint on Donnelly, or to effectually stop one of 
 Donnelly's. 
 
54 ETHICS OF BOXING AND MANLY SPORT. 
 
 Then Gcorire Cooper, the best man in Enghmd, 
 was sent from London against the Irish cham- 
 l)ion. 
 
 Cooper had defeated the leading boxers of 
 England, including Carter and Thomas Molineux, 
 the neo^ro heavv-weioht, and irreat hopes were 
 founded on his terrible hitting powers. 
 
 The national champions met on the Curragh of 
 Kildare, on the same spot that had witnessed 
 Donnellv"s victory over Hall. The place was 
 called then, and will probably l)e called forever 
 " Donnelly's Hollow." It is at the Newbridge 
 end of the plateau on which the military huts are 
 erected. 
 
 A Boston traveller visited the Currairh a few 
 months ago, and was taken by a proud native to 
 the scene of the famous 1)attle. '' The footsteps 
 of the champions," said this gentleman, the other 
 day, "are still plainly visible. They are pre- 
 served in this way : every visitor, especially 
 those who love the ' noble art,' puts his feet in 
 the ancient marks, which are thus preserved and 
 deepened in the soft green sod." The positions 
 of the men, as they began the fight, are pointed 
 out. *' And over there," said the guide, "just out- 
 side the ring stood Miss Kelly, who wagered 
 thousands of pounds on Dan Donnelly." 
 
 The battle took place on December 13, 1815, 
 
DONNELLY AND COOPER ON THE CUREAGH. 00 
 
 in the forenoon. In Ireland the excitement over 
 the tight was inten.se, and to this day the event 
 is a topic of common conversation. On the 
 morninir of the tiirht, the roads around the Cur- 
 ragh of Kildare were choked up with carriages 
 and wagons of all kinds, from the four-in-hand 
 teams of the nobility to the donkey-carts of peas- 
 ants all the wav from Cork or Connausfht. There 
 was a vast multitude to see the fight, and the 
 profoundest order and good temper prevailed. 
 
 coming! 
 (Instantaneous Photograph.) 
 
 ''Donnelly's Hollow " is probably one of the 
 most perfect natural amphitheatres in the world. 
 Here, on the sloping hill-sides, could stand or sit 
 a hundred thousand men to behold a dramatic 
 
5(3 ETHICS OF IJOXIXCx AND 3IAXLY Sl'OllT. 
 
 scene; and hero, on that day, was asseni1)led a 
 greater crowd than had ever witnessed a l>oxinir 
 contest since the close of the Olympic games. 
 An English correspondent of the press described 
 Donnelly in these words : 
 
 "Donnelly at length stripped, amid tiumders of applause. 
 The Venus de Medicis never underwent a more minute scrutiny 
 by the critical eye of a connoisseur than did the champion of 
 Ireland. There is nothing loose or puffy about him. He is 
 strong and bony to all intents and purposes. He is all muscle. 
 His arms are long and slingj-, his shoulders uncommonly fine, 
 particularly when in action, and prominently indicating their 
 punishing quality. His head is a fighting one, his neck a°thletic 
 and bold; in height nearly six feet, in weight about thirteen 
 stone, and his tout ensemble that of a boxer with first-rate 
 qualifications. Thus much for his person ; now for his quality. 
 His wind appears to be midebauched ; his style is resolute, firni^ 
 and not to be denied. Getting away he either disdains or does 
 not acknowledge in his system of tactics. He makes tremend- 
 ous use of his right hand.'' 
 
 After a storm-like cheer, the fight l)egan amid 
 deep silence. From the first blow, Donnelly had 
 the advantage. He gained the usual points — 
 first blood and first knock-down. Cooper made 
 a brave and desperate fight, and in the fifth round 
 he knocked Donnelly ofi*his feet. In the seventh 
 round Cooper was actually flung into the air bv a 
 cross-])uttock, and in the eiglith was dashed under 
 the ropes l)y a tremendous left-hander. 
 
 For the next three rounds the result was simi- 
 lar, the eleventh and last round closino- with a 
 
DONNELLY AND COOPER ON THE CURRAGH. 57 
 
 fearful right-hand blow on Cooper's mouth, which 
 knocked him senseless. 
 
 The battle was awarded to Donnelly, amid the 
 
 CROSS-BLTTOCK. 
 
 cheers of both Irish and Eni>lish spectators. 
 Donnelly then went to England and challenged 
 all comers. 
 
r. o 
 
 i)b ETHICS OF BOXING AND iMANLY SPORT. 
 
 lie attracted almost as much attention as En^r- 
 lishmen have recently given to Sullivan. Tom 
 Crib!) undoubtedlv had been the leadinir boxer in 
 his time ; but he had retired from the rinc: several 
 years before Donnelly's visit to Enufland. 
 
 England was in straits for a man al)le to meet 
 Donnelly. It was looked upon even by the gov- 
 ernment as dangerous, politically, to allow the 
 Irishman to again defeat a British champion. 
 
 At lenirth a stromr and al)le boxer, Oliver, was 
 found to take up Donnelly's challeno-e. When 
 the match was made, the chances of the fiaht 
 filled the Three Kingdoms once more with matter 
 for earnest discussion. It was said that one 
 hundred thousand pounds (five hundred thousand 
 dollars) were laid in bets on the l)attle. Every 
 man in Ireland who had a pound to spare backed 
 Dan Donnelly; and the "nobility and gentry" 
 stood open-lianded behind Oliver. 
 
 The national battle came off on July 21, 1811), 
 within thirty miles of London. "Donnelly, on 
 strii)ping," says the English report, "exhibited 
 as fine a picture of the human frame as can well 
 be imagined ; indeed, if a sculptor had wished a 
 living model to display the action of the muscles, 
 a tiner subject than Donnelly could not have been 
 found. Oliver was equally fine. . . . He dis- 
 
DOXXELLY AXD COOPER OX THE CURRAGH. 59 
 
 pla3'ed flesh as iirm as a rock. . . . Oliver 
 had never been in so good condition before." 
 
 It was a brave and desperate contest. As 
 usual, Donnelly knocked his man down in the 
 tirst round: drew '• first blood" in the second. 
 In the seventh round, Oliver knocked Donnelly 
 down, and this was almost his onlv successful 
 point. Round after round ended in the same way 
 — '-Oliver down." In the thirteenth round, 
 when Oliver lay helpless on the ropes, Donnelly 
 threw up his hands, so as not to be tempted to 
 strike him, and for this he received a sfreat cheer. 
 *' Very handsome ! " '• Bravo, Donnelly I " In 
 the first hour there were thirty rounds fousfht, for 
 the last four of which Oliver was gaining strength : 
 but in the opening of the second hour Donnelly 
 had got his ** second wind." and •• his eye began 
 to blaze," though, says the English report, " he 
 was as cool as a cucumber." The next three 
 rounds were Donnelly's, and then the Englishmen 
 stopped l)etting and cheering. But they showed 
 fair play throughout the fight ; he is a poor kind 
 of an Englishman who does not love fair play in a 
 boxinsr match. Several times when •' foul " was 
 cried aofainst Donnelly, and when, indeed, it 
 might have been allowed by an umpire bent on 
 ending the fight on a technicality, both umpire 
 and crowd shouted: *' It is all riirht. Go on 
 
()() i<:thk's or uoxincj and manly spout. 
 
 Donnelly !" In the thirty-fourtli round, Donnelly 
 cross-coiintorod Oliver with terrific force, striking 
 lilni on the lower jaw; then while he was dazed 
 Donnelly whirled him over the rinir with a cross- 
 buttock ; and Olivers seconds carried him oil' 
 insensible. The fight was given to Donnelly, 
 who was scarcely marked, and who immediately 
 dressed himself and went olf to see another fight. 
 
 It was said, and believed bv many, that Dan 
 Donnelly, shortly after this fiiiht, was knighted 
 by the rollicking Prince of Wales. At any rate, 
 ever afterward he was called " Sir Dan." He 
 died in 1820, from takino' a drink of cold water 
 after a hard sparring bout. He was only thirty- 
 two years of ai>'e. 
 
 The last century saw pugilism raised in Eng- 
 land and Ireland from barbarous rudeness to a 
 hiiih deirree of skill. I have before me the 
 " Manual of Self-Defence," as tauu'ht by Daniel 
 ^lendoza, who was champion of England in 1784. 
 
 Mendoza was a renowned l)oxer, for skill, and 
 it is interesting to study the contents of liis 
 mamial. 
 
 First, his <2,uard consisted of holdinir both fists 
 opposite the chin, close together, elbows down- 
 ward, the legs slightly l)ent ; left leg foremost; 
 right foot toward the right, not directly behind ; 
 weiij:ht of the l)ody on the foremoM le(i. 
 
DONNELLY AND COOPER ON THE CURRAGH. 61 
 
 The blows tanaht bv Mendoza were of three 
 kinds — " round, straight, and chopping blows." 
 The round blow he considered the unskilled ef- 
 fort ; and, strange to say, he depended most on 
 the silly '* chop]^er," with the back of the hand, 
 from alwve downward, a blow that no sane boxer 
 would attempt to-day, except in fun. The straight 
 blows were for the face and " wind." 
 
 There is not a word in the Manual about the 
 
 CROSS-COU>'TERED. 
 
 (Instantaneous Photograph.) 
 
 cross -counter, the upper-cut, or the scientific 
 round blow, — the three best blows of modern 
 boxinc:. 
 
 In Mendoza's time, "gouging," that is, scoop- 
 ing out the eyes of an opponent, was constantly 
 practised ; and, in other respects, the prize-ring 
 was a place of cruel and barbarous practices. 
 
62 ETHICS OF BOXING AND MANLY SPORT. 
 
 Only six races or nations have produced natural 
 VK)Xcrs, — the Greeks, the Jews, the Negroes, the 
 Enirlish, the Irish, and the Americans. 
 
 Within a centurv, the Jewish race has sent out 
 some famous boxers ; amonir them Daniel Men- 
 doza, once chami)ion of England ; and " Barney " 
 Aaron, one of the best men of his time, — 1819 
 -34. There have also been many leadins: Xesrro 
 Ijoxers, the tirst of whom was ^lolynoaux, a con- 
 temporary of Donnelly in the last century. 
 
 UPPER CUT. AS SULLIVAN STRIKES IT. 
 
 (In^tiintaneous Photograph.) 
 
 But the greatest boxers since the classic days 
 of Greece are the modern men of Enirland and 
 Ireland, and their descendants in America. And 
 the latest are the greatest. 
 
 No English champion, up to his time, ever 
 equalled Tom Sayers, who was a mighty man in 
 the ring from 1846 to 18G3. There was a posi- 
 
DONNELLY AND COOPER ON THE CUllRAGII. 03 
 
 tive value in Sayers' life to his countrymen, no 
 matter what objection may be made to prize- 
 
 fio^htins:. 
 
 Sayers proved that a small man can easily de- 
 feat a big and heavy one by skill, pluck, and 
 endurance. He was five feet eisfht and a half 
 inches in height, and a hundred and fifty pounds 
 
 UPPER-CUT — OLD-fIshIO^'ED. 
 
 in weight; ])ut the "Tipton Slasher," who w\as 
 six feet one inch in height, and two hundred and 
 five pounds in weight, and a good boxer, was a 
 mere child in his hands. 
 
 And when Sayers fought John C. Heenan for 
 
(J4 ETHICS OF BOXING AND MANLY SPORT. 
 
 the championship, there was a lesson of courage 
 and nianlv pride to every bov and man in En2:land 
 in the fact that the stout heart upbore the smaller 
 man against the l)lows of a "^iant for two hours 
 and twenty minutes, though, for nearly two hours 
 of the time, the little man had to fiaht with his 
 riii'ht arm broken. 
 
 Xo wonder Thackeray celebrated this fight in a 
 poem, after the manner of " Ploratius," entitled, 
 *'A Lay of Ancient London, supposed to be re- 
 counted to his great grand-children, April 7, a.d. 
 1920, by an Ancient Gladiator." 
 
 Thackeray carefully followed every feature of 
 the fiirht, endino- thus : — 
 
 " Two hours and more the fight had sped, 
 
 Near unto ten it drew ; 
 But still opposed, one-armed to blind, 
 
 They stood, those dauntless two. 
 Ah, me! that I have lived to hear 
 
 Such men as ruffians scorned; 
 Such deeds of valor "brutal"' called, 
 
 Canted, preached down, and mourned. 
 Ah! that these old eyes ne'er again 
 
 A gallant mill shall see ! 
 No more behold the ropes and stakes, 
 
 "With colors flying free ! 
 
 And now my fists are feeble, 
 And my blood is thin and cold ; 
 
 But 'tis better than Old Tom to me 
 To recall those days of old, 
 
A LESSON EVEX IN A FIGHT. 65 
 
 And may you, my great-grandcliildreii, 
 
 That gather romid my knee, 
 Xe'er see worse men nor iller times 
 
 Than I and mine might he, 
 Thougli England then had prize-fighters, — 
 
 Even reprobates like me." 
 
 XIII. 
 
 A LESSON EVEN IN A FIGHT 
 
 Then again, there was an object-lesson for 
 England, outweighing even the brutality of a 
 bare-handed fight, in the fortitude and reserved 
 power of Tom King when he defeated Mace for 
 the English championship m 1862. 
 
 Mace, a gypsy l)y race, was a middle-sized 
 man, one hundred and fifty-lour pounds weight; 
 but he was the most famous boxer in the Avorld, 
 and he deserved his fame. No man ever used 
 both hands more evenly, or more effectively, in 
 straight body-l)lows, — the best blows for a small 
 man to use on a big one, if he know how to 
 escape a counter on the head. King was six feet 
 two and one quarter inches in height, and trained 
 down to one hundred and eighty pounds weight. 
 But Mace had won his fame with victories over 
 giants. He had defeated Kinsr himself in the 
 
C^ij ETHICS OF BOXING AND MANLY SPOUT. 
 
 early piirt of the same year, after a tremendous 
 battle of forty-three rounds. lie had beaten in 
 five rounds, without receiving a l)k)\v, the gigan- 
 tic Lancashire wrestler and boxer, Hurst, known 
 as *' the Staleybridge Infant." So when Mace 
 
 CLIXCH. 
 
 and Kin<r met in the winter of 1802, for a second 
 fight for the championship, the betting was seven 
 to four on Mace. 
 
 And the course of the fight justified the odds 
 for a long time. AVith extreme caution both men 
 fought ; but, from the moment '' time " was called, 
 the champion Mace had the best of it. For ten 
 rounds this was obviously so ; for fifteen and no 
 
A LESSON EVEN IN A FIGHT. 
 
 67 
 
 change ; at the nineteenth King's friends knew he 
 was beaten. He was fearfully punished about the 
 
 GOOD POSITION OF GUAKD. 
 
 head ; his face was so swelled he could not see. 
 He had to grope for his man. But he came up 
 
fi8 KTIIICS OF BOXING AND >IANLY SPORT. 
 
 do<r£redly to receive the smashing tist of the cham- 
 pion. Xo one wonld take the freely offered odds 
 of thirty to five against King; ten to one was 
 called and no takers. Then the crowd shouted to 
 Mace to '* finish him ! " And Mace, smilingly and 
 confidently, prepared. The l)lind man came stag- 
 gering toward him with the same awful courage 
 and determination which had upheld him so long ; 
 and Mace threw out his left preparatory to giving 
 him the couj) cle grace with his right. But at that 
 moment King stiffened like a man of cast-steel. 
 His time had come. He got within distance, and 
 his right hand shot out like a flash of lightning, 
 cross-countering Mace with appalling directness 
 
 and force. 
 
 It was the blow he had waited for and sparred 
 for under all the terrible punishment. It was 
 worth all the blows of the fight massed into one. 
 Mace fell as if he had been struck with a mallet, 
 bleeding from mouth, eyes, and nose. He lay 
 like a log for some seconds. " The champion is 
 l)eaten I " was the astonished cry. But no, he 
 struL'gled up again, reeled toward King, and 
 was easily struck again to the earth. Once more 
 the shattered champion staggered toward the 
 blind conqueror, who, in pity, would not strike 
 him, but gently pushed him into his corner, and 
 the fiirht was won. 
 
A LESSON EVEN IN A FIGHT. 69 
 
 AVas there no value in this lesson for English- 
 men ? 
 
 They learned here that beating and bruising 
 and even blindino: a man, do not defeat him, if 
 his heart be true and strona'. 
 
 Under every contest, whether of men or game 
 animals, this is the fascinating secret, this is the 
 line to look for, — this unbroken golden thread of 
 l)luck, of manh^ fortitude, of secret, heart-whis- 
 })ering confidence. 
 
 We must regret and deplore the bruises and 
 the scars and the blood ; but they are the price 
 of a precious and beautiful thing, — the sight of 
 manly qualities under the severest strain. 
 
 Where else in one compressed hour can be 
 witnessed .the supreme test and tension of such 
 precious living qualities as courage, temper, en- 
 durance, bodily strength, clear-mindedness in 
 excited action, and, above all, that heroic spirit 
 that puts aside the cloak of defeat though it fall 
 anew a hundred and a thousand times, and in the 
 end reaches out and grasps the silvered mantle of 
 success ? 
 
 This is not meant to encourao'e prize-fight in 2:. 
 Detestable and abhorrent is a brutal bare-handed 
 fight, for the brutality is as unnecessary as it is 
 repulsive ; l)ut you cannot have a prevalent manly 
 exercise interesting to the majority of healthy 
 
70 KTHirS OF liOXING AND MANLY SrOKT. 
 
 men, without h:iviim' professioiuil l)oxers ; nnd it 
 may l)o said that the professional boxer who 
 tiiihts an honest tiiiht, witli hiuh skill and courairo. 
 and without the savagery of l)are hands ov cesttis, 
 is not, thereby, a moral monster and an outrageous 
 example. 
 
 Shaw, the British Life-Guardsman, who slew ten 
 Fi'eneh cuirassiers at Waterloo, was a professional 
 boxer; and, undoubtedly, the training of stout 
 heart, puissant arm, and confident eye, that en- 
 abled him to do and die like a hero and a patriot, 
 was due more to his pugilistic than his military 
 profession. IIow many ]^ritisli hearts have 
 remembered Shaw since then in a hand-to-hand 
 tiiiht, and have been nerved to renewed enersrv 
 by the thouirht? 
 
 "Among the confusion presented by the fiercest 
 and closest cavaby tight which had ever been 
 seen," says Sir AValter Scott, writing of Waterloo, 
 " many individuals distinguished themselves by 
 feats of personal strenofth and valor. Anions: 
 these should not be forgotten Shaw, a corporal of 
 the Life Guards, (reJl Aiwirn cfs a pu(/Uistic cjiarn- 
 pion, and ecjually formidable as a swordsman. 
 He is supi)osed to have slain, or disabled, ten 
 Frenchmen with his own hand before he was 
 killed ])y a musket or pistol shot." 
 
 Poor Shaw ! When he died at AVaterloo, he 
 
A LESSON EVEN IN A FIGHT. 71 
 
 had a challenge standing in England to fight any 
 man in the world with his hands. 
 
 What was the lesson taught l)y that heroic 
 Russian sailor, who, commjinding only a poor 
 little merchant steamer, captured a colossal 
 Turkish iron-clad after a desperate fight on the 
 Black Sea, in 1877? 
 
 This was one of the most s^lorious feats of war 
 ever recorded; and it illustrated the same uncon- 
 querable and hopeful spirit that is often seen even 
 in prize-fights. The story, in this relation, is worth 
 telling. The Turkish iron-clad was of enor- 
 mous power in guns, armor, and engines ; she 
 moved through the sea at the terl'i])le speed of 
 thirty miles an hour. The Russian merchantman, 
 the Vesta, was a light iron steamer, carrying 
 three six-inch mortars and one nine-pound rifle 
 cannon. Her utmost speed was a])out twelve 
 miles an hour. Yet these two ships, so unequal 
 in everything else, were not only equalized, but 
 the weak became the strong when the hearts of 
 the crew were brous^ht to the test of fire. Never 
 was there a nobler showins: of what fearful odds 
 courao'eous men can face and overcome. 
 
 At eight o'clock in the morning of a beautiful 
 day in June, the Russian captain saw the inmiense 
 ram sweeping down on him. He put liis little 
 steamer to her full speed ; but the ram closed on 
 
< .: 
 
 1 KTIIICS OF liOXI\(J AM) MANLY Sl'OlJT. 
 
 liim with frii>litfiil ra))i(litv. The officers of the 
 small steamer were Russian artillerymen, for the 
 shi}) had lately been i)ressed into the regular 
 service. The iruns were in charire of Lieut. -Col. 
 Tchernotf, who pointed them himself. A rattling- 
 fire was kept up against the iron-ch\d ; but the 
 Turk canu; on, as if determined to drive his spur 
 into the side of the steamer. On seeing this, 
 the ca})tain of the Vesta veered oti', upon which 
 the Turk poured a hideous volley of shrapnel 
 over liis decks. One bomb set the steamer on 
 fire near the powder magazine ; this was at once 
 extinijfuished. Another d(duired the deck with 
 ])l{)od, lacerathiij: the neck and shouhler of one of 
 the two orticers at the auns, and mortallv wound- 
 ing the heroic Tchernoff, who had time only to 
 turn to the crew with these words : "Farewell! 
 Wvv from the right-hand stern gun ; it is pointed ! " 
 and fell dead. 1'here were torpedoes on board 
 the steamer, and, at this time, Lieut. ]\Iichacl 
 Perelchine iisked permission of the captain for 
 himself and another lieutenant to Luincli the 
 sloop, and attack the enemy with the mines. The 
 captain was about to. grant th(^ request, when he 
 saw that the sea was too boisterous for the success 
 of so perilous an adventure. The l)rave lieutenant 
 turned from him disappointed, and at that mo- 
 ment was struck by a bomb, which tore away his 
 
A LESSON EVEX IX A FIGHT. 
 
 73 
 
 leg to the hip. " In this condition," writes Capt. 
 Bai'onoft', " he still endeavored to speak to me 
 ai)out the use to l)e made of the steam sloops." 
 Still the fight went on. The lieutenant who was 
 pointing the guns of the steamer received seven- 
 teen wounds in a few minutes. Everv man and 
 bov in the ship stared grim death in the face, and 
 never dreamt of o-ivimr in. But it nmst soon 
 
 STKAKillT COUNTER. 
 
 (Instantaneous Photogi'a])h.) 
 
 end : the heavy projectiles of the iron-clad were 
 literally knocking the steamer to pieces ; ])ut just 
 at this moment the artillery officer oot a oood 
 sight, burst in the porthole of the enemy's largest 
 gun, and lodged a bomb in her chimnev. Another 
 
74 ETHICS OF BOXING AND MANLY SPORT. 
 
 bonil) must have set fire to the iron-clad, for a 
 dense smoke arose. " A terrible confusion en- 
 sued on his deck ; he drew out of the fight," 
 turned tail, and steamed oflT at a tremendous rate. 
 The Russian captain, with his little steamer shat- 
 tered and torn, his ofiicers dead or wounded, and 
 his deck streaminir with the blood of his brave 
 crew, tried to keep up chase ; but his rudder had 
 been injured in the tiirht and soon became useless. 
 The lesson of this battle is that there is hardly 
 anv emero:ency in Avhich a connnander should 
 yield without a fi<rht. If this brave captain had 
 stopped to calculate c-hances, he would have struck 
 his flag without firing a gun. His calculations 
 would have l)een a mistake, as such calculations 
 almost always are. lie might count the guns of 
 his enemy, and estimate the speed of the ram, 
 and the miml)er of the crew, and still leave out 
 the principal consideration, — the [)luck of the 
 hearts. Guns will not fire straight without steady 
 aim, and strong l)ulwarks may be a shield for 
 cowardly hearts. 
 
 Readiness to fight doubles the strength. All 
 contests are worth watchinir for the sight of 
 these golden lines. 
 
 I 
 
CHAKACTERISTICS OF GREAT BOXERS. i i) 
 
 n 
 
 XIY. 
 
 CHARACTERISTICS OF GREAT BOXERS. 
 
 There never was, in the whole history of the 
 art, a more remarkal)le or interesting ])oxer than 
 Sullivan. ^lany people believe that his master- 
 ful quality lies in his vast physical strength. 
 Nothino" could be farther from the truth. There 
 are thousands of men in America physically much 
 stronirer, — men who could lift a heavier weia'ht, 
 pull a heavier load, and keep up the strain longer 
 than he. 
 
 The superiority of Sullivan lies in his extraor- 
 dinary nervous force, and his altogether incom- 
 parable skill as a l>oxer. His recent f^iihire to 
 defeat a man with l)are hands, in three houi's, 
 whom he had formerly overcome with ease in 
 fifteen minutes with large gloves, means only that 
 the conditions were unfair. Sullivan does not 
 pretend to be a runner ; and this fight was more 
 a race than a bout. 
 
 The qualities of both Sullivan and Mitchell are 
 thoroughly known. There is really no doubt in 
 people's minds about their relative abilities. 
 Mitchell is admittedly a most skilful l)oxer. But 
 were the element of o-amblinir ruled out, there 
 
 4M* 
 
7Ci ETHICS OF BOXINC AND MANLY SPORT. 
 
 never would have been a question raised as to the 
 enormous superiority of Sullivan. 
 
 There are nianv better boxers than Mitchell in 
 Anieriea, if not in Knii'land ; but there is not one 
 who dare ehallenijfe Sullivan. Thev know that 
 this runnin": iii>-ht in France has proved nothintr 
 aii^ainst him. 
 
 In what does his extraordinary skill consist? In 
 hitting as straight and almost as rapidly as light ; 
 in the variety and readiness of his blows ; in 
 standinir iirndv on his feet and drivino^ his whole 
 weight and nervous force at the end of his fist, — 
 a very rare and a very high quality in a boxer ; in 
 movements as (juick and purposeful as the leap of 
 a lion. He can " duck" lower than any feather- 
 weisfht ])oxer in America ; he can strike more 
 heavy blows in ten seconds than anv other man 
 in a minute, and he watches his opponent with a 
 self-possession and calculation that do not flurry 
 with excitement, but only flame into a ravening 
 intensity to beat him down, to spring on him from 
 a new direction, and strike him a new blow every 
 tenth of a second, to rush, hannner, contemn, 
 overmaster, overwhelm, and appall him. 
 
 Look at " The Boxer" as he leaps on the stage 
 and stands gazing at his opponent, waiting for 
 the referee to call '' time." That is the quivering 
 moment seized l)y the great sculptor whose statue, 
 
i 
 
 Sullivan's supekiokity as a boxer. 77 
 
 recently completed in Boston, is pictured in the 
 frontispiece of this book. 
 
 Look at the statue ; that is Sullivan, life, body, 
 and spirit. See the tremendous chest, filled with 
 capacious lungs and a mighty heart, capable of 
 pumping blood everywhere at once. See the 
 marvellous trunk and the herculean arms, not 
 twisted and hardened into foolish lumps of dry i 
 
 muscle, but soft and lissome as the leo^ of a tio'er. 
 See the ponderous fist and the massive wrist ; and 
 the leo^s and feet — ah! there vou see the limbs 
 of a perfect boxer — light as a dancer, firm as a 
 tower. And then, look up to the buttressed, 
 Samson neck, springing beautifully from the 
 great shouldei's ; look at the head — large, round 
 as a Greek's, broad-browed, wide-chinned, with 
 a deep dimple, showing the good-nature, and a 
 mouth and lips that ought be cut in granite, so 
 fidl are they of doomful power and pur})ose. 
 
 And what an attitude ! The advanced left foot 
 hardly pressing the ground, the bones and mus- 
 cles of the rioht le<>* straio'ht and stroma as a 
 pillar. A position of repose, but the repose of 
 the coiled steel spring. See the will and watch- 
 fulness of the pushed lower lip and level eye, and 
 the sli«:ht forward inclination of the head. Above 
 all, watch the arms, that appear to hang loosely 
 at first sight. There is not a loose cord in them ; 
 
78 ETHICS OF BOXING AND MANLY SPORT. 
 
 they don't hang, they are carefully held a little 
 out from the sides ; and mark the slight, but 
 vastly significant, rounding of the wrist — out- 
 ward, not inward — the legible and pregnant mark 
 of "The Boxer." 
 
 This expressive holding the clenched hand, with 
 the wrist rounded outward, has not been produced 
 in art before, certainly not l)y any modern artist. 
 But it is the very sign and symbolization of the 
 modern boxer. It is, in a special way, the im- 
 print of Sullivan. It tells the genius of the 
 sculptor and the instinct of the athlete. In that 
 premonitory wrist and fist we see the very natal 
 spring of the round blow. lie has but to throw 
 up his elbow slightly, and hand, arm, shoulder, 
 and right leg are ready, and the champion's round 
 blow flies like a thunderbolt. 
 
 There is no need to say that this is a wonderful 
 statue — a work of art that will become famous 
 everywhere, that will attract as much attention 
 next year in the Paris Salon as this year when 
 exhibited in Boston. It tells its own greatness 
 to every beholder. Subject and artist came at 
 the riirht moment ; and America is enriched with 
 a work of art that would have won a crown in 
 Periclesian Athens. 
 
 Sullivan enters on a fight unlike all other men. 
 From the first movement his action is ultimate. 
 
Sullivan's surEiiioiiiTY as a boxer. 79 
 
 Other boxers ])egm by sparring ; he begins by 
 lio:htin2: — and he never ceases to fio'ht. He is as 
 distinct from other boxers as a bull dos: is from a 
 spaniel. He is a fighting man. Every other 
 American boxer, and from report, every English 
 boxer, is of the sparring kind. Kiirain is a 
 superb pugilist — strong, skilful, good-tempered, 
 and a hard Jiitter. He is the safest boxer living, 
 and next to Sullivan easily the best pugilist in 
 the world. But Kiirain is not a natural iiirhter — 
 he is too «:entle. He waits to see what his oppo- 
 nent is o'oinii' to do. It takes five or six rounds 
 to Cfet his heart at full beat and his nervous reser- 
 voir opened. 
 
 But from the first instant of the fight, Sullivan 
 is as fierce, relentless, tireless as a cataract. The 
 fight is wdioll}^ to go in his w^ay — not at all in 
 the other man's. His opponent wants to spar ; 
 he leaps on him with a straight blow. He wants 
 to ])reathe ; he dashes him into the corner with a 
 drive in the stomach. He does not waste ten 
 seconds of the three minutes of each round. 
 
 And look at the odds he offers — and offers to 
 all the w^Drld ! Thev are not ten to one, nor 
 twenty to one, but nearer to one hundred to one. 
 Observe, he will not only defeat all-comers, but 
 he will defeat them in four rounds — in twelve 
 minutes! And this is not all — he will defeat 
 them w^ith his hands muffled in laro:e o'loves. 
 
80 ETHICS OF BOXING AND MANLY SIOHT. 
 
 Consider the odds here : he throws away for 
 himself all the chances of a long light, and he 
 otters to his opponents all the chances of endur- 
 inij even his opposition for a short one. Mace 
 defeated King only after forty-three rounds, and 
 Brettle after forty rounds. Heenan fought Say- 
 ers thirty-seven rounds, to what the Englishmen 
 called a draw. Savers beat Paddock in twentv- 
 one rounds. He fought Aaron Jones sixty-two 
 rounds to a draw, and only defeated him after 
 eighty-tive rounds more ; while the tight of 
 Savers with Poulson consumed three hours and 
 eight minutes, in which one hundred and nine 
 rounds were foui2:ht.* 
 
 * Longest bare-knuckled battle on record — six hours, fifteen 
 minutes. James Kelly anl Jonathan Smith, near Melbourne, 
 Australia, Xovember, ISoo. 
 
 Longest bare-knuckle battle in England — six hours, three 
 minutes, Mike Madden and Bill Hayes, Edenbridge. July IT, 
 1849. 
 
 Longest bare-knuckle battle in America — four hours, 
 twenty minutes, J. Fitzpatrick and James O'Xeil, Berwick, 
 Maine, Dec. 4, 18G0. 
 
 Longest glove fight — five hom-s. three minutes, forty-five 
 seconds; seventy-six rounds, Wm. Sheriff and J. Welch, Phila- 
 delphia, Penn., April 10. 18S4. 
 
 Largest stake fought for in America — $10,000, Tom Hyer 
 and Yankee Sullivan. Kock Point. Md.. Feb. 7. 1840. 
 
 Largest stake fought for in England — £2,000, Tom King 
 and .John C. Heenan, Wadhurst, England. Dec. 10, 18C3. 
 
 First ring fight in America — Jacob Hyer and Thomas 
 Beasley, in 1816. 
 
SULLIVAN S SUPERIORITY AS A BOXER. 
 
 81 
 
 If Sayers could not knock out Poulson in one 
 hundred and eisfht rounds, with bare hands, what 
 effect would he have had on him in four rounds 
 with laro-e soft-sfloves ? 
 
 CROSS-COO'TER. 
 
 As Savers, with bare hands, was to Poulson 
 (an inferior man) in one hundred and nine rounds, 
 so is Sullivan, with lar^e gloves, to the best man 
 in the world in four rounds. That is the sum in 
 proportion. 
 
82 KTIIICS OF BOXINd AM) MANLY SPORT. 
 
 To show the progress in boxing ]>etween 
 Brouixhton's day and ours, the reader is referred 
 to the Appendix for the best code of rules to 
 crovern glove contests that has ever been drawn 
 up. They are the product of a Boston man, Mr. 
 David Blanchard. 
 
 XV. 
 
 BOXlXa COMPARED AVITII OTHER EXERCISES. 
 
 rRiZE-FiGiiTixG is not the aim of boxing. This 
 noble exercise ought not to be judged by the 
 dishonesty or the low lives of too many of its 
 professional followers. Let it stand alone, an 
 athletic practice, on the same footing as boating 
 
 or foot-ball. 
 
 Putting prize-fighting altogether aside as one 
 of the unavoidable evils attending on this manly 
 exercise, the inestimable value of boxing as a 
 training, discipline, and development of boys and 
 young men remains. 
 
 All other athletic exercises, with one exception, 
 arc limited or partial in their physical develop- 
 ment. That exception is swimming. Swimming 
 takes the whole nmscular system into play, uni- 
 formly and powerfully. Lungs, heart, trunk, and 
 
BOXING COMPARED WITH OTHER EXERCISES. 83 
 
 limbs, all but the eyes, have to do their full share 
 of the work. 
 
 Boxinir leaves out nothinjx ; it exercises the 
 whole luan at once and equally — the trunk, the 
 limbs, the eyes — and the mmd. 
 
 Swimmina' is, more than anv other phvsical 
 exercise, a reversal to the prmiitive. The 
 swimmer has no thoughts — only perceptions. 
 He sees, in a vague way, the trees on the shore, 
 the clouds, the ripple on the wave within thirty 
 
 DLXKING" A LEAD WITH THE LEFT. 
 
 (Instantaneous riiotograpli.) 
 
 inches of his lips, and he feels the embracing 
 water in a manner that diffuses thouirht or sen- 
 sitiveness all over his body, taking it away from 
 the brain. Xo swimmer thinks — he merely takes 
 care. He is in a condition of animalism. The 
 
84 ETHICS OF BOXING AND MANLY SPORT. 
 
 intellectuiilitv of the swimmer is relaxed, or 
 }):irtly suspended. 
 
 But the boxer, in action, has not a loose muscle 
 or a sleepy brain cell. His mind is quicker and 
 more watchful than a chess-player's. He has to 
 gather his impulses and hurl them, straight and 
 purposeful, with every moment and motion. It 
 is not the big, evenly-disposed opposition of nature 
 he has to overcome, like the swimmer or the 
 runner, but the keen and precise cunning of an 
 excited brain, that is watching him with eyes as 
 briii^ht as a hawk's. 
 
 There is no emulation or controversy so hot, 
 so vital, so dcliciously interesting, as the boxer's. 
 The ecstacy of the sinirle-stick is rude and brief; 
 the wrestler's tug is comparatively slow and labo- 
 rious ; even the lun^re of the foil is cold, slin^ht, and 
 vaij^ue, beside the life-touchino: kiss of the hot 
 glove on neck, arm, or shoulder. 
 
 The nearer you come to nature, wdien you are 
 not fighting nature, the deeper the enjoyment, 
 whether of living, loving, exercising, playing, or 
 fi^htinij. 
 
 The elements of character which boximr, better 
 than all other exercises, develops, are fairness ot 
 personal judgment and an acceptance of give-and- 
 take. 
 
 The boxer must take as well as give. It is 
 
BOXIXG COMPARED WITH OTHER EXERCISES. 85 
 
 only the Inillv and the coward who want to qive 
 all the time, and escape fciL'inj ; and if boxing 
 were tauirht in every American school, as it ouaht 
 to be, there would be fewer bullies and cowards 
 sent out unpunished and uncorrected, 
 
 A few years airo. in Xew Enirland, a youns: 
 man who was fond of rowina* or ridinsf, or any 
 other vigorous sport, was considered to be on the 
 high road to ruin. It was not respectable even to 
 Avhistle ; and the cheerful whistler is a lost artist 
 in Xew Enirland. 
 
 This is chanired completely. In the o^reatest 
 school in America, Harvard, there is probably the 
 most perfect gymnasium in the world ; and the 
 annual ijames at all the universities and hio'her 
 schools of America, Avhere the mothers and sisters 
 of the best-bred boys in the country are present 
 in thousands, are not unworthy modern represen- 
 tations of the national oames of Greece. 
 
 Gymnasiums are irrowino^ common in Xew 
 England in connection with schools — their proper 
 relation. It is beginning to be realized that, 
 under our confined and artificial city life, the 
 bodies of boys and Sfirls need as much and as 
 careful traininir and cultivation as their minds. 
 *'A sound mind in a sound body" promises to 
 become an American, as it v\'as a Roman, proverb. 
 To cultivate the mind at the expense of the body 
 
SC) ETHICS OF BOXING AXI> MANLV SPOKT. 
 
 is to put a premium on immorality, rascality, and 
 craziness. 
 
 There never was a race so fond of athletics as 
 the American is iroinir to be — as it is alreadv — 
 at least, not since the Olympiads. The best of 
 the English lield-sports are coniined to the aris- 
 tocracy. There never was a race with so many 
 and so various athletes as the American. Our 
 games are not •' sacred" like the Greeks", nor are 
 they national, or periodical, or belonging to a class 
 — except our fox-hunting in scarlet and top-boots. 
 AVe do not concentrate our athletic efforts into 
 four days every four or five years like the Greeks. 
 Our Olympiads begin every May and last till 
 November, and take in every l)0v and man who 
 has warm ])lood in his veins. 
 
 The Greeks had runners, wrestlers, boxers, 
 charioteers, quoit-throwers, bull-tamers ; the Ivo- 
 mans had boxers, wrestlers, and swordsmen. AVe 
 have more than all these. Base-ball alone in 
 America makes more athletes yearly than the 
 whole curriculum of Elis. The youths who 
 ''break the records" for running, leaping, row- 
 iniz, and foot-ball in American colleires would 
 take all the laurel and parsley crowns at Isthmia 
 and Corinth. For every Greek chariot driyer we 
 haye a thou: and American yachtsmen. Greece 
 and Rome will be nowhere in athletics in com])ari- 
 
4 
 
 BOXING COMPARED WITH OTHER EXERCISES. 87 
 
 son with Xew England alone, twcntv-live years 
 hence, if the wave of popuhir interest in field and 
 water and gynmasiuni sports, which is now rapidly 
 rising, is allowed to proceed unchecked. 
 
 It is no lono-er resfarded as deplorable for a 
 youth to aspire to l)e an athlete. The whole 
 country hanirs in suspense over a college race or 
 fo()t-])all game. Above all, we are in a fair wa}' 
 to rescue boxina* from the boxers, and to restore 
 to its proper place in the training of youth the 
 exercise that leads all others in fittino* them to be 
 fair-minded, confident, courageous, peaceful and 
 patriotic citizens. 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
SS ETHICS or boxing and manly sport. 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 THE ILLUSTRATIOXS. 
 
 The illustrations used in this article are made from instan- 
 taneous photographs of two famous boxers. This is the first 
 time the instantaneous j^hotograph has been used to record the 
 movements of boxers in excited action; and the residt, it will 
 be admitted, is interesting and satisfactory^ 
 
 Mr. John Donoghue, the sculptor of the great statue of 
 " The Boxer,'' for which Sullivan stood as his model all 
 through the past Summer, has kindly allowed me to use, for 
 the first time, the beautiful plate in the frontispiece. 
 
 Among the illustrations are foiu* or five from excellent draw- 
 ings, made for " Outing," from two of the best boxers in 
 America, which have been copied by the kind permission of 
 the editor of "Outing." These plates are "A Good Position 
 of Guard," "Set-To," "A Cross-Coimter,"" An Old-Fash- 
 ioned Upper-Cut,*' and "A Cross-Buttock,"' the latter a won- 
 derfully good picture. 
 
 The process of taking the instantaneous photographs of the 
 boxers for this article was verv interesting. The lessons the 
 pictures give, even to professional boxers, will not be thrown 
 away. For instance, take the illustration, " Cross-Countered," 
 (page Gl), where the man leading has raised his right foot in the 
 air: it is obvious that such a blow coidd have little strength, 
 and that the cross-blow of Ills opponent, whose right toe is 
 finnly grounded, must stagger him, at least. The careful boxer 
 whose leg is raised would never believe that this was his 
 position; but the camera cannot lie. 
 
 And what a perfect illustration is the first plate, — " Ducking 
 the Round Blow." (page 10), which never could be secured except 
 by the instantaneous process. Except in the sudden bend of an 
 
APPENDIX. 89 
 
 excited moment, a mau coiild not assume sucli a singular, and 
 yet graceful and powerful position. A less cool or skilful boxer 
 than this (he is the light-weight champion of England) would 
 lose his power of recovery in making such an escape as this ; 
 but observe, hands, feet, and body are so held that, as soon as 
 tlie sweeping fist has passed overhead, he can straighten him- 
 self where he stands, and get in a powerful right-hander. 
 
 Another illustration of extraordinary vigor is "The Upper- 
 Cut, as Sullivan Strikes It*' (page 02). Here the camera has 
 captured an upper-cut at its very birth. There is no short- 
 armed fibbing about this blow. It springs, not from the elbow, 
 but from the feet; and, if i!: reaches its object in earnest, it is 
 frequently the end of a fight. 
 
 RULES OF THE EIXG. 
 
 There have been, in England, three notable codes, or " Eules 
 of the Ring."' for the ordering of pugilistic contests. The first 
 were known as " Broughton's Rules " (they are given in full at 
 page 4.i). They governed all prize-fights in England for nearly 
 a Century, till the adoption of the code known commonly as 
 "The London Prizc-Ring Rules." 
 
 The later and better English rules are those known as " The 
 Marquis of Queensberry Rules," which provide for regular 
 rounds of three minutes instead of the former system of ending 
 a round when one of the contestants came to the ground. The 
 " London Ring Rules " are still followed in England; but never, 
 it may be depended on, when the contest is intended to be fair 
 and above-board. They seem to have been framed to enable 
 the worst man to wiii, by permitting all kinds of cowardly tricks 
 and evasions. Whenever his manlier opponent is in danger of 
 getting an advantage, the schemer can clinch, and imnie.liately 
 slip to the ground. 
 
 By the "Queensberry Rules," each round lasts three fidl 
 minutes, with a minute between for rest. If a man is knocked 
 down during the round, he is allowed ten seconds to get up, 
 unassisted, and return to the contest. Should he be imable to 
 
DO ETHICS OF BOXING AXI) MANLY SPORT. 
 
 rise when " time " is called at the end of the ten seconds, he 
 has lost the fi'jrht. 
 
 But the hest "rules of the ring" ever devised are those lately 
 drawn up hy Mr. David U. Blanchard, of Boston, called " The 
 American Fair-Play Bules." So far as can he seen, they cover 
 every point, and provide for a fair and manly pugilistic con- 
 test, without hrutality. Every future American hoxing contest 
 ouglit to be controlled by these "American Ilules." 
 
 All other rules liaA'e failed to stop the vile clinching which 
 often makes a boxing contest a mere wrestling match, during 
 which the referee has nothing to do but shout, " Break! " But 
 here it is provided that the boxers themselves shall stop the 
 clinching, not the referee. Eule 5 says: "If a contestant 
 should resort to clinching, hi 5 opponent may continue hitting 
 as long as he does not clinch himself." 
 
 This settles the clincher, who stops his own fighting, but 
 allows his opponent to go on in- fighting. If referees will 
 observe this rule, and decline to cry "break" when the clinch 
 is not mutual, there will soon be an end of clinchers and 
 clinching. 
 
 Mr. Blanchard deserves much credit for the careful attention 
 he has bestowed on this excellent code of rules, which at once 
 bars out cruelty, brutality, and cowardice (his ring is only 
 twenty feet square; large enough for a fight, but not for a race- 
 course), and ensures as fair a glove contest as possible. 
 
 LONDOX PKIZE-JIIXG RULES, AS JIEVISED BY THE BRTTISIT 
 
 PUGILISTIC ASSOCIATIOX. 
 
 It having been found that many of the Rules of the Ring 
 are insufficient to provide for the various contingencies which 
 continually arise in prize battles, an entire revision has been 
 determined on, and a committee of gentlemen, members of the 
 Pugilistic Association, undertook the task. AVhen the revision 
 was complete, tlu^ laws wei-e submitted to a general meeting of 
 thi^ momb(>rs of the Prize Pting (being members of the Associa- 
 tion), and unanimously agreed to: — 
 
APPENDIX. 91 
 
 1. Tliat the ring shall be made on tui-f, and shall be four- 
 aud-twenty feet square, formed of eight stakes and ropes, the 
 latter extending in double lines, the uppermost line being foiu* 
 feet from the ground, and the lower two feet from the groimd. 
 That in the centre of the ring a mark be formed, to be termed 
 "the scratch"; and that at two opposite corners, as may be 
 selected, spaces be enclosed by other marks sufficiently large 
 for the reception of the seconds and bottle-holders, to be en- 
 titled "'the comers." 
 
 2. That each man shall be attended to the ring by a second 
 and a bottle-hoLler, the former provided with a sponge, and the 
 latter with a bottle of water. That the combatants, on shak- 
 ing hands, shall retire until the seconds of each have tossed for 
 choice of position, which adjusted, the winner shall choose liis 
 comer according to the state of the wind or sim, and conduct 
 his man thereto; the loser taking the opposite corner. 
 
 o. That each man shall be provided with a handkerchief 
 of a color suitable to his o^vn fancy, and that the seconds pro- 
 ceed to entwine these handkerchiefs at the uj)per end of one of 
 the centre stakes. That these handkerchiefs shall be called 
 the •' colors "; and tliat the Avinner of the battle at its conclusion 
 shall be entitled to their possession as the trophy of victory. 
 
 4. That two mnpires shall be chosen by the seconds or 
 backers to watch the progress of the battle, and take exception 
 to any breach of the rules hereafter stated. That a referee 
 shall be chosen by the umpires, imless otherwise agreed on, to 
 whom all disputes shall be referred; and that the decision of 
 tliis referee, whatever it may be, shall be final and strictly 
 binding on al! i>ai1;ies, whether as to the matter in dispute or 
 the issue of the battle. That the umpires shall be provided 
 with a watch for the purj^ose of calling time; and that they 
 mutually agree upon whom tliis duty shall devolve, the call of 
 that lunpire only to be attended to, and no other i)erson what- 
 ever to interfere in calling time. That the referee shall with- 
 hold all opinion till api)ealed to by the imipires, and that the 
 umpires strictly abide by his decision without dispute. 
 
 5. That on the men being stripped, it shall be the duty of 
 
92 KTIIirS OF BOXING AM) MANLY SPORT. 
 
 the seconds to exaiuiiie tlieir drawers, and if any objection 
 arise as to insertion of imx)ropcr substances therein, they shall 
 appeal to their umpires, who, with the concurrence of the 
 referee, shall direct what alterations shall be made. 
 
 ('). That in future no spikes be used in fighting boots except 
 those authorized by the Pugilistic Association, which shall not 
 exceed three-eighths of an inch from the sole of the boot, and 
 shall not be less than one-eighth of an inch broad at the jjoint; 
 and it shall be in the power of the referee to alter, or lile in any 
 way he pleases, spikes which shall not accord with the above 
 dimensions, even to filing them away altogether. 
 
 7. That both men being ready, each man shall be con- 
 ducted to that side of the scratch next his corner previously 
 chosen; and the seconds on the one side, and the men on the 
 other, having shaken hando, the former shall immediately 
 return to their corners, and there remain within the prescribed 
 marks till the roimd be finished, on no pretence whatever ap- 
 proaching their principals during the round, under a penalty of 
 five shillings for each offence, at the option of the referee. The 
 penalty, which Mill be strictly enforced, to go to the funds of 
 the Association. The principal to be responsible for every fine 
 inflicted on his second. 
 
 8. That at the conclusion of the round, when one or both 
 of the men shall be down, the seconds and bottle-hollers shall 
 step forward, and carry or conduct their principal to his corner, 
 there affording him the necessary assistance, and that no per- 
 son whatever be permitted to interfere in this duty. 
 
 0. That on the expiration of thirty seconds, the umpire 
 appointed shall cry "Time," upon which each man shall rise 
 from the knee of his bottle-holder, and walk to his own side 
 of the scratch unaided; the seconds and bottle-holders remain- 
 ing at their corner; and that either man failing so to be at the 
 scratch within eight seconds, shall be deemed to have lost the 
 battle. This rule to be strictly adhered to. 
 
 10. That on no consideration whatever shall any person be 
 permitted to enter the ring during the battle, nor till it shall 
 have been concluded; and that in the event of such unfair 
 
API'E>D1X. 93 
 
 practice, or the ropes or stakes being disturbed or removed, it 
 sliall be ill the power of the referee to award the victory to that 
 man who, in his honest ojiinion, shall have the best of the 
 contest. 
 
 11. That the seconds and bottle-holders shall not interfere, 
 advise, or direct the adversary of their principal, and shall 
 refrain from all offensive and irritating expressions, in all 
 respects conducting themselves with order and decorum, and 
 confine themselves to the diligent and careful discharge of their 
 duties to their principals. 
 
 12. That in picking up their men, should the seconds or 
 bottle-holders wilfully injure the antagonist of their principal, 
 the latter shall be deemed to have forfeited the battle on the 
 decision of the referee. 
 
 13. That it shall be a fair "stand-up fight," and if either 
 man shall wilfully throw himself down without receiving a 
 blow, whether hloics shall hate prexioushj been exchanged or 
 not, he shall be deemed to have lost the battle; but that this 
 rule shall not apply to a man who in a close slips down from 
 the grasp of his opponent to avoid punishment, or from obvious 
 accident or weakness. 
 
 14. That butting with the head shall be deemed foul, and the 
 party resorting to this practice shall be deemed to have lost 
 the battle. 
 
 15. That a blow struck when a man is thrown or down, shall 
 be deemed foid. That a man with one knee and one hand on 
 the ground, or with both knees on the ground, shall be deemed 
 down ; and a blow given in either of those positions shall be 
 considered foul, providing always that, when in such position, 
 the man so down shall not himself strike or attempt to strike. 
 
 16. That a blow struck below the waistband shall be deemed 
 foul, and that in a close seizing an antagonist below the waist, 
 by the thigh, or otherwise, shall be deemed foul. 
 
 IT. That all attempts to inflict injury by gouging, or tearing 
 the flesh with the fingers or nails, and biting, shall be deemed 
 foul. 
 
 18. That kicking or deliberately falling on an antagonist with 
 the knees or othei*wise when doA^Ti, shall be deemed foul. 
 
94 ETHICS OF BOXIXG AND MANLY SrOUT. 
 
 1!>. That all bets shall be paid as the battle -money, after a 
 fight, is awarded. 
 
 20. That no person, under any pretence whatever, shall be 
 permitted to approach nearer the ring than ten feet, with the 
 exception of the umpires and referee, and the persons appointed 
 to take charge of the water or oth^r refreshment for the com- 
 batants, who shall take their seats close to the corners selected 
 by the seconds. 
 
 ■2\. That due notice shall be given by the stakeholder of the 
 day and place where the battle-money is to be given up, and 
 that he be exonerated from all responsibility upon obeying the 
 direction of the referee; that all parties be strictly bound by 
 these rules; and that in future all articles of agreement for a 
 contest be entered into Avith a strict and willing adherence to 
 the letter and spirit of these rules. 
 
 22. That in the event of magisterial or other interference, or 
 in case of darkness coming on, the referee shall have the power 
 to name the time and place for the next meeting, if possible on 
 the same day, or as soon after as may be. 
 
 23. That, should the fight not be decided on the day, all bets 
 shall be drawn, unless the fight shall be resumed the same 
 week, between Sunday and Sunday; in which case the bets 
 shall stand and be decided by the event. The battle-money 
 shall remahi ii? the hands of the stakeholder until fairly won or 
 lost by a light, unless a draw be mutually agreed upon. 
 
 24. That any pugilist voluntarily quittiug the ring previous 
 to the deliberate judgment of the referee being obtained, shall 
 be deemed to have lost the fight. 
 
 25. That on an objection being made by the seconds or um- 
 pire, the men shall retire to their corners, and there remain 
 until the decision of the appointed authorities shall be obtained; 
 that if pronounced " foul," the battle shall be at an end; but if 
 '' fair," '• time " shall be called by the party appointed, and the 
 man absent from the scratch in eight seconds after shall be 
 deemed to have lost the fight. The decision in all cases to be 
 given promptly and irrevocably, for which purpose the umpires 
 and the referee should be invariably close together. 
 
APPENDIX. 95 
 
 2G. That if in a rally at the ropes a man steps outside the 
 ring to avoid his antagonist, or to escape punishment, he shall 
 forfeit the hattle. 
 
 27. That the use of hard substances, such as stone, or stick, 
 or of resin, in the hand during the battle shall be deemed foul, 
 and that on the requisition of the seconds of either man, the 
 accused shall open his hands for the examination of the referee. 
 
 28. That hugging on the ropes shall be deemed foul. That a 
 man held by the neck against the stakes, or upon or against 
 the ropes, shall be considered down, and all interference with 
 him in that position shall be foul. That if a man in any way 
 makes use of the ropes or stakes to aid him in squeezing his 
 adversary, he shall be deemed the loser of the battle ; and that 
 if a man in a close reaches the ground with his knees, his ad- 
 versaiy shall immediately loose him or lose the battle. 
 
 20. That all stage fights be as nearly as i^ossible in conformity 
 with the foregoing rules. 
 
 MAEQUIS OF QUEENSBEURY RULES GOA^EEjSTHSTG CONTESTS 
 
 FOR ENDURANCE. 
 
 1. To be a fair stand-up boxing matcli, in a twenty-four foot 
 ring, or as near that size as practicable. 
 
 2. No wrestling or hugging allowed. 
 
 o. The rounds to be of three minutes' duration, and one 
 minute time between rounds. 
 
 4. If either man fall, through weakness or otherwise, he 
 nmst get up unassisted ; ten seconds to be allowed him to do 
 so, the other man meanwhile to retiurn to his corner, and when 
 the fallen man is on his legs the round is to be resumed and 
 continued until the three minutes have expired. If one man 
 fails to come to the scratch in the ten seconds allowed, it shall 
 be in the power of the referee to give his award in favor of the 
 other man. 
 
 5. xi man hanging on the ropes in a liolpless state, with I 
 
 liis toes off the ground, shall be considered down, 1 
 
06 ETHICS OF BOXING AND MANLY SPORT. 
 
 0. No seconds or any other person to be allowed in the 
 ring during the rounds. 
 
 7. Should the contest be stopped by any imavoidable inter- 
 ference, the referee to name time and place, as soon as iwssible, 
 for finishing the contest ; so that the match must be won and 
 lost, imless the backers of both men agree to draw the stakes. 
 
 8. The gloves to be fair-sized boxing gloves of the best 
 quality, and new. 
 
 9. Should a glove burst, or come off, it must be replaced to 
 the referee's satisfaction. 
 
 10. A man on one knee is considered down, and if struck 
 is entitled to the stakes. 
 
 11. Xo shoes or boots with sprigs allowed. * 
 
 12. The contest in all other respects to be governed by the 
 the revised rules of the London Prize-ring. 
 
 AMERICAN FAIR-PLAY Rl LES TO GOVERN GLOVE CONTESTS. 
 
 1. An honest and competent referee must be chosen, who 
 should be familiar with the rules. His ordei-s must be promptly 
 obeyed, and his decisions in all cases shall be final. 
 
 2. A responsible time-keeper must be appointed, who shall 
 take his i)osition near the ropes, and should be provided 
 with a proper time watch. The referee, also, may have the 
 privilege of keeping time, for his o^\ti satisfaction, particularly 
 in reference to the twelve seconds after a fall. 
 
 3. All contests should take place in a roped square en- 
 closure, twenty foot square, or as near that as possible, with 
 eight posts, which should be padded on the inside. Three 
 ropes, of one inch diameter, should be used, the top one to be 
 fom* feet from the floor, or ground, and the others at equal 
 distance below it, or sixteen inches apart. There should be a 
 circle, three feet in diameter, drawn in the middle of the en- 
 closure, to be kno%\Ti as tlie centre, where contestants shall 
 meet for the beginning of each round. 
 
 4. Each principal may have two attendants, only one of 
 whom shall be allowed within the enclosure. While the con- 
 
APPENDIX. 97 
 
 test is in progress the attendants must take positions outside 
 the ring, and neither advise nor sx^eak to either of the principals, 
 except Avliile they are resting. A violation of this rule may be 
 punished by the referee excluding the offender from serving as 
 an attendant. Either attendant may quietly call the attention 
 of the referee to any violation of the rules. "While resting, 
 principals may use a light chair in their corners ; but it must be 
 placed outside by the attendants while the contest is in progress. 
 
 5. Xo wrestling, clinching, hugging, butting, or an}i:liing 
 done to injure an opponent, except by fair and manly boxing, 
 shall be allowed. If a contestant should resort to clinchiwj^ 
 his opponent viay continue hitting, as long as he does not 
 clinch, himself. A contestant shall not go to the floor to avoid 
 his opponent, or to obtain rest, nor shall he strike his opponent 
 when down, or on one or both knees, nor be allowed to strike 
 below the belt or waist, i^o ill feeling should exist between 
 contestants, and the custom of shaking hands, before and after 
 the contests, should never be omitted. 
 
 G. A round shall be of three (3) minutes' duration, Avith one 
 minute, between rounds, for rest ; and the time occupied in 
 verbal contention or discussion shall be noted by the time- 
 keeper, and it shall not be included as part of a romid. In 
 all matches, the number of rounds and weight of gloves slioidd 
 be mutually agreed upon. It is suggested that the gloves should 
 not weigh less than three ounces each. 
 
 7. If a glove shall burst or come off, it must be replaced 
 immediately, to the satisfaction of the referee. IS"o tampering 
 with the gloves, by forcing the hair from the knuckles, or 
 othenvise, shall be allowed. The costimie should be tights, 
 with stockings and light shoes, and shirt, if desired. 
 
 8. If either man is sent to the floor, or accidentally falls, he 
 shall be allowed twelve seconds to rise and walk unassisted to 
 the centre. In the meantime his opponent shall retire to his 
 corner, and remain until the fallen man shall first reach the 
 centre, when time shall be called and the round completed. 
 If, however, the man fails to come to the centre within twelve 
 seconds, the referee shall decide that he has lost the contest. 
 
98 ETHICS OF BOXING A2sD MA>'LY 6POKT. 
 
 0. If a man is forced on to the ropes in such a manner as to 
 he in a position where he is miahle to defend himself, it shall 
 he the duty of the referee to order hoth men to the centre. 
 
 10. If either principal hecomes so exhausted that it is ap- 
 parently imprudent to continue, it shall he the duty of the 
 referee to stop the contest, and give his decision in favor of 
 the more deserving man. 
 
 11. Spectators shoidd not be allowed within three (3) feet of 
 
 the enclosure. 
 
 12. If at any time during the contest it should become 
 evident that the parties interested, or by-standers, are doing 
 anything to injure or intimidate either principal, or to wilfully 
 interfere in any way to prevent him from fairly winning, the 
 referee shall have the power to declare the principal so inter- 
 fered with, the winner. Or, if at any tima the ring is broken 
 into to prevent the principals from finishing the contest, it 
 shall then also be the duty of the referee to award the contest 
 to the man who, at that time, has, in his opinion, the advan- 
 
 tage 
 
 13. If, on the day named for the meeting, anjihing unavoid- 
 able should occur to prevent the contest from taking place, or 
 from being finished, the referee shall name the time and place 
 for the next meeting, which must be within three days from 
 the day of postponement, proper notice of which shall be given 
 to both parties. Either man failing to appear at the time and 
 place appointed by the referee, shall be deemed to have lost 
 the contest. 
 
 14. If there is anjihing said or done to intimidate the 
 referee, while sening, or if the referee has any other good and 
 sutficient reasons why his decision shoidd not be immediately 
 rendered, he shall have the right to reser^-e his decision, which, 
 however, must be rendered within twenty-four hours after the 
 
 contest. 
 
 1.'). If the contest shoidd occur in a field, blunt hobbles, not 
 over one-eighth of an inch in thickness or length, shall be used 
 in place of spikes on the soles of the shoes, and must be placed 
 so as to be harmless to an opponent. 
 
I 
 
 APPENDIX. 99 
 
 10. In order that exhibitions may be conducted in a quiet 
 and orderly manner, the referee shoidd always request specta- 
 toi*s to refrain from loud expressions or demonstrations, and 
 any one guilty of such conduct, while a contest is in j)rogres3, 
 shoidd be severely condemned. 
 
 Suggestion to Refehee. — While, in the foregoing nde3, 
 broad and unrestricted powers are reposed in the referee, in 
 order that his authority may be unquestioned in preventing 
 intentional violations of the rules and of fah' dealing, it is ex- 
 I)ected that the referees v>ill use the greatest caution and wisest 
 discretion in the exercise of their power, and in distinguishing 
 accidental mistakes, on the part of the contestants or their Eur>- 
 porters, from wilful violations of the spirit of these articles. 
 
THE TRAINING OF ATHLETES TESTED 
 BY EVERY-DAY LIFE. 
 
 I. 
 
 IS TEAIXIXG IX.TUEIOUS? 
 
 TiTE ti'ainino' of athletes must alwavs be a sub- 
 ject of general interest. If there be an art by 
 Avhicli men are made specially strong for some 
 unusual period and purpose, how far can it be 
 applied to the daily lives of average men ? Is the 
 training: of an athlete a solid buildino: of streno-th, 
 or is it even consistent with a lastins^ condition of 
 vigorous health ? 
 
 These questions must be considered from two 
 very different standpoints, namely, from that of 
 the professional athlete and that of the average 
 person who wants to sfet into lastino: " srood 
 condition." Throughout this article, even when 
 treating of special training, the amateur and 
 his modified needs are not forirotten. The in- 
 formation intended for athleiies in traininsr for a 
 contest, like their exercise and food, umst be 
 
 (101) 
 
102 ETHICS OF BOXING AND MANLY SPORT. 
 
 condensed and partieularized ; but it will ])e found 
 to contain matter of connnon interest, needing 
 only the cbaniie suitable to individual circuiu- 
 stances. 
 
 It is undoubtedly true tliat the mass of those 
 
 ft. 
 
 who liye in cities, and whose occupations inyolve 
 little manual or physical exercise, allow their 
 l)odies, at an early aire of manhood, to sink out 
 of all trained and athletic strength and shapeli- 
 ness. It is only necessary to visit a Turkish 
 bath to tind abundant eyidence of the muscular 
 collapse Avhich has overtaken the modern city- 
 dweller : l)odies "developed" everywhere in the 
 wrong direction ; arms like pipe-stems, while the 
 beautiful nmscles of the shoulders and back are 
 smothered in layers of vile fat, and spindle- 
 thighs and straight calves weakly support l)ellies 
 like Bacchus. 
 
 When the observer beholds the superb condi- 
 tion of trained oarsmen enterinir a race, or of 
 boxers going to fight for a championship, he 
 stands in admiration of the lirm and massive 
 muscles, the light and elastic step, the strong 
 wind, and the insensibility to blows that would 
 produce concussion of the brain in a common 
 man. Can the rules Ayliich produce these results 
 be taken out of the training-school, and followed 
 in common life, even with larij^e modilications ? 
 
IS TRAIXIXG IXTURIOUS? 
 
 103 
 
 The unhesitatiniT answer is — Xo. The train- 
 ing of an athlete for a contest must continue 
 to he essentiallv dillerent from the traininii: of a 
 man for his everv-dav livinir- 
 
 Furthermore, the trainimr of an athlete, vrith 
 the siuirle view of enahlinij him to concentrate his 
 entire muscular powers for a struggle lasting 
 from ten minutes to two hours or more, is likelv 
 to be injurious when seemimilv most successful. 
 The injurious effects, however, may be reduced 
 to a minimum bv a careful adherence to physi- 
 oloofical rules. 
 
 ** Training:," savs a phvsician, *' sacrifices a man 
 to muscle, not less than a prize pig is sacrificed 
 to fat. Muscle and fat beina" in each case the 
 special object, the success of the art is measured 
 bv the amount of the sacrifice. But it is not' 
 thus that men and pigs are made healthy." 
 
 This is an extreme view, perhaps, particularly 
 in sight of recent improvement in training sys- 
 tems. But all forcimr is injurious, and traininu^ 
 is a forcinir of the muscles. As Dr. Oliver 
 AVendell Holmes savs. it is " burninir the vital fire 
 with the blower up." It is like cramming for an 
 examination — an immense amount of information 
 is gathered in a very brief space of time ; l)ut too 
 often the mind has been sacrificed to the memorv ; 
 the over-stinndated brain soon loses its vi^or; 
 
10 i i:tiiks of hoxixu and manly sport. 
 
 tlu' triiiinph lias ])een purchased by a life of 
 iiKHlioc'i'ity or ai)athy. 
 
 It was noted in ancient Rome that the athletes 
 were short-lived, liable "to rupture of blood- 
 vessels, to apoplexy, and lethargic complaints;" 
 and it has been charired that even the trainin^y 
 of our American college athletes, at least in the 
 past, has had an injurious effect on' their health. 
 
 Still, it must be admitted, in favor of training, 
 that the greatest athletes known in modern times 
 were not short-lived. 
 
 From the results of the training adopted at the 
 Knglish universities, it would appear that the 
 constitution is even strengthened, the intellect 
 sh.-irpened, and life lengthened. Dr. John Morgan 
 ('• Fniversity Oars,'' 1873), collected statistics of 
 the subsequent health of those who have rowed 
 in the university races since 1829, and he found 
 that, whereas at twenty years of age, accordinir 
 to Farr's life tables, the average expectation of 
 survival is forty years, for these oarsmen it was 
 forfy-two years. ^Moreover, in cases of death, 
 inquiry into its causes exhibited evidence of good 
 constitutions I'ather than the contrary, the causes 
 consisting largely of fevers and accidents, to 
 which the vigorous and active are more exposed 
 than the sick. 
 
 And it was certainly not at the expense of the 
 
IS TRAIXIXG IXJURIOUS? 
 
 105 
 
 mind, in those cases, that the body was cultivated, 
 for this roll of athletes is adorned with the names 
 of bishops, poets, queen's counsel, etc. 
 
 The following: tal)le iz'ives the names and ao'es 
 of twenty-two of the most famous prize-hirhters 
 of p]nirland, Ireland, and America : 
 
 NAME. 
 
 John Brougliton 
 
 Tom Johnson 
 
 Daniel Mendoz.i 
 
 John Jackson 
 
 Jim Belcher 
 
 Tom Belcher 
 
 John Gnlly 
 
 TomCribb 
 
 Dan Donnelly 
 
 Tom Spring 
 
 Bendigo (W. Thompson). . . . 
 
 Ben Camnt 
 
 Wm, Perry (Tipton Slasher). 
 
 Nat Laughain 
 
 Harry Orme 
 
 Tom Paddock 
 
 Harry Browne 
 
 Deaf Burke 
 
 Tom Sayers . . . ., 
 
 " Yankee " Sullivan 
 
 John Morrissey 
 
 John C. Heenan 
 
 BORX. 
 
 DIED. 
 
 1703 
 
 1789 
 
 1750 
 
 1797 
 
 1763 
 
 1736 
 
 1769 
 
 1845 
 
 1 1781 
 
 1811 
 
 : 1783 
 
 1854 
 
 ' 1783 
 
 1863 
 
 1781 
 
 1848 
 
 1788 
 
 1820 - 
 
 1795 
 
 1851 
 
 1811 
 
 1880 
 
 1815 
 
 1861 
 
 1819 
 
 1881 
 
 1820 
 
 1871 
 
 1826 
 
 1864 
 
 1824 
 
 1863 
 
 1826 
 
 1865 
 
 1809 
 
 1845 
 
 1828 
 
 1866 
 
 1811 
 
 1856 
 
 1831 
 
 1878 
 
 1835 
 
 1873 
 
 AGE. 
 
 85 
 47 
 73 
 76 
 30 
 71 
 80 
 67 
 32 
 56 
 69 
 46 
 61 
 51 
 39 
 39 
 .39 
 36 
 38 
 45 
 47 
 38 
 
 Average Age, 47. 
 
 This is not a very h^^vd showing for men whose 
 profession involved numerous severe trainings 
 
KM) ETHICS OF BOXING AND MAXLV :S1*0IJT. 
 
 and exhaustive conflicts, and whose lives in the 
 intervals were usually dissipated and full of ex- 
 eireinenl. Vnit it must be renienibered that, to 
 start with, these men were exceptional for he;«llli, 
 strength, and pr()l)al)le longevity. 
 
 These iigunvs and facts seem to point to a pos- 
 sible training, based on scientific principles, by 
 which the highest possible nuiscular results may 
 ])e obtained without injury to health. 
 
 II. 
 
 THE EVILS OF niPROrEU TIIAIXIXG. . 
 
 The "system of traininu" i)ursue(l bv most of 
 those who train athletes, especially boxers, is, in 
 the main, traditional, arbitrarv, and unscientilic. 
 The main evils and danoers of the " svstem " are 
 over-training, reduction of nervous force for the 
 sake of muscular power, disregard of instruction 
 in respiration, sul)jecting individuals of diflerent 
 needs and appetites to the same rule, and training 
 men who are from the first unfit to be trained. 
 
 The end of training is to keep up the top speed 
 or top force for a short or a long period. To do 
 the latter requires the full development of the 
 body, and long, careful, and patient preparation. 
 
THE EVILS OF IMPKOrER TRAINING. 107 
 
 In a long contest, of any kind, a bad man 
 trained will beat a good man untrained. This is 
 a notal)le fact. 
 
 Training implies a struggle of some kind. It 
 ought to be l)ased on the principles of physiology 
 and the special needs of the individual athlete. 
 The usual time allotted to trainin": a man, or a 
 crew, for a contested struaa'le, is six weeks. The 
 objects to be obtained in this time are : 
 
 1. The removal of superfluous fat and water. 
 
 2. The increase of contractile power in the 
 nuiscles. 
 
 3. Increased endurance. 
 
 4. '/Wind," or the power of breathing, and 
 circulating the blood steadily, in spite of exertion. 
 
 The first is arrived at mainlv bv a change of 
 food ; the second and third by various muscular 
 exercises ; the fourth by steadily keeping up such 
 exercise as can only be sustained when the breath- 
 iiiir and circulating: or^rans do their full dutv, such 
 as running. Of course, each of these aids reacts 
 on and helps all the others. 
 
 Before considcrino- the training' that is bencfi- 
 cial, it mav be well to ulancc at the unfortunate 
 cflects of the traditional systems of training that 
 are too commonly followed. 
 
 Thouirh the trainin<>- of our athletes irrows 
 better year by year (owing principally to the 
 
lOS lyrmcs of boxing and manly spout. 
 
 liiiiluM' iiitclliixencc ;n^i)lied in the case of collcire 
 oarsinen and ayninasts), it is a fact that to-da\' 
 almost every boxer, and many other athletes, 
 trainedfor a contest, are over-trained and seriously 
 weakened. Quite recently, I saw a man on the 
 day of his contest, Avhom his trainer spoke of as 
 being "in splendid condition — hard as nails ; lost 
 twenty pounds in six weeks." The man was 
 iraunt ; there was a look in his eve that was un- 
 natural. Ilis muscular svstem Avas wonderful to 
 look on : but it liad drained almost his entire ner- 
 vous vitalitv. lie could bear hammerina-, and he 
 could strike hard; but the sul)tle and precious 
 moral and nervous strenirth that would sustain 
 him in a close fight, enable him to endure, and to 
 leap into renewed opportunity, was drained dry 
 to feed his hard muscles. lie was naturallv a 
 brave and confident man : but that dav, when the 
 struiriile tired and tested him, and his muscles 
 were weary with o})p()sition, he had no nervous 
 force to sustain him, and he suffered, dodged, and 
 at last yielded, half-beaten, like a coward. The 
 man had been trained out of humanity into a 
 spiritless and thoughtless animal. 
 
 It is notorious that " over-trainins:" leads to a 
 condition of system in which the sufferers describe 
 themselves as " fallen to pieces." The most 
 ])eculiar svmi)tom is a sudden loss of voluntarv 
 
THE EVILS OF IMPROPER TRAINING. 109 
 
 power after exertion. It is sometimes called 
 " fainting ; " but there is no loss of sense, and it is 
 quickly relieved by liquid food. It is no uncommon 
 thinor to see a man in the rins: or on the track come 
 to a dead stop, though full of muscular power. 
 
 This is sometimes caused by loss of "wind" 
 (to be explained hereafter) ; but much oftener it is 
 the result of the complete overlooking of the ner- 
 vous streno'th bv a trainer ^vho thinks of no force 
 except that which he can handle and measure. 
 
 " The power which is to drive the muscles as 
 the power of steam drives an engine, is produced 
 by the nerves — a fact much overlooked." 
 
 The effects of over-train imr and iirnorant train- 
 ino^ are strikino-ly shown in the following: remarks 
 bv a leadinir English medical iournal, " The 
 Lancet," on the condition of John C. Heenan, the 
 American boxer, when he fouirht Kino: for the 
 championship of England, in December, 1863 : 
 
 " The immense development of the muscles about the 
 shoulders and chest was very remarkable. They stood out 
 prominently, and as little encumbered with fat as if they had 
 been cleaned with a scalpel. In firmness they resembled carti- 
 lage. But, with all this splendid development, it was evident 
 that Ileenan had received a shock from which his system Avas 
 only slowly recovering; though whether this loss of power was 
 due to punishment received in fight, or to the hard training which 
 he had previously undergone, may be a disputed point. As physi- 
 ologists, it seemed to us highly probable that his training had 
 been too prolonged and too severe. "When Heenan M'ent into 
 
lU) KTIilCiJ OF IJOXINd AM) MANLY 81'OUT. 
 
 training on Wedncsilay, the 20d of September — just eleven 
 weeks before the match — his weight was fifteen stone, seven 
 pounds. As he stepped into the ring on the 10th Instant, he 
 was exactly fourteen stone. At the same time King weigheil 
 thirteen stone, though he was three quarters of an inch taller 
 than Heenan, whose height was six feet one and one half 
 inches. Those who know what severe training means will, 
 perhaps, agree that Heenan was probably in a better condition 
 live weeks before meeting his antagonist, than on the morning 
 of his defeat, although when he stripped for fighting the look- 
 ers-on all agreed that he seemed to promise himself an easy 
 victory, while exulting in his fine proportions and splendid 
 muscular development. It is now clearly proven that Ileenan 
 went into the contest iclth much more muscular than vital power. 
 Long before he had met with any severe pmiishment — indeed, 
 as he states at the close of the third romid — he felt faint, 
 breathed with much difficulty, and, as he described it, his res- 
 piration was "roaring." He declares that he received more 
 severe treatment at the hands of Sayers than he did from King; 
 yet at the termination of the former fight, which ■ lasted 
 upwards of two hours, he was so fresh as to leap over two or 
 three hurdles, and distance many of his friends in the race. It 
 was noticed on the present occasion that his physique \\dn\ 
 deteriorated, and that he looked much older than at his last 
 appearance in the ring. Without offering any opinion as to 
 the merits of the combatants, it is certain that Ileenan was in 
 a state of deteriorated health when he faced his opponent; and 
 it ii fair to conclude that the deterioration was due, in a great 
 measure, to the severity of the training which he had mider- 
 gone. As Mith the mind, so with the body, undue and pro- 
 longed exertion must end in depression of power. In the 
 process of physical education of the young, in training of our 
 recruits, or in the sports of the athlete, the case of Heenan 
 suggests a striking commentary of great interest in a physical 
 point of view. AVhile exercise, properly so called, tends to 
 (bvelopraent and health, excessive exertion produces debility 
 and decay." 
 
MUSCULAII AND KESPIKATOKY POWEK. Ill 
 
 III. 
 
 ML'SCULAR POWEE SECOXDAEY TO EESPIRATORY 
 
 POWER. 
 
 '* MuscuLAPw power," saA's a leadiiiir Enaii^h 
 authority on training (Maclaren), *' plays quite 
 a secondary part in rowing ; respiratory power 
 makes the first claim, and makes it more exact- 
 inalv than in anv other mode of i:)hvsical exertion 
 in which men can he ena"a£red." 
 
 I do not think that rowing" makes a 2"reater 
 claim on ''the wind" than anv other exercise. 
 I am convinced that a heavier demand on the 
 lunirs is made bv both fast swimmimr and boxing- 
 — undoiibtedlv bv the latter. Probablv nine 
 
 ft. «/ ft.- 
 
 pugilistic contests out of a dozen are decided by 
 sui)erior •' wind," and this is true of almost all 
 fast-swimmina' matches. 
 
 In another place in this article reference is 
 made to the need of deep-breathing for the attain- 
 ment of general health. But it is not deep- 
 breathins" alone that the stru2"ii'lin2' athlete needs. 
 He must, by practice, attain tlie art of koldimf his 
 hreath and addiiuj thereto. Even in deep-breath- 
 ing the lungs are never emptied of resident air. 
 Fresh air must be stored for a time in the luns^s 
 
 I 
 
11:^ KTIIKS OF BOXLVG AND MANLY SPOUT. 
 
 before it is allowed to reach tlie ])lood. We 
 retain al)oiit two huiidred and iit'ty cubic inches of 
 this resident air (which is the tempered reservoir 
 whence the bh)od derives its oxvsren), and <>-rad- 
 uallv renew and chanij^e it l)v breathin<r. We 
 inspire only some twenty-five to thirty cubic 
 inches of fresh, cold air at each breath. This 
 is a ni:in's normal restiniz condition ; of course, 
 when stroni^ exercise beo-ins the blood demands 
 more fresh air. The novice, or the unin- 
 structed athlete, when exercise l)C2:ins, connnits 
 the irrave mistake of l)reathino: out his resident 
 air, to make room for a deeper inspiration. But 
 the cold, fresh air is not aHowed by nature to 
 reach the air-cells : if it chances to o-et down too 
 far it makes us cough ; it is too cold, and has too 
 much oxygen. Therefore, a vacuum, or half-filled 
 space, is created ; the novice <^^U "out of breath ; " 
 and, if he cannot gradually recover what he has 
 lost, he must come to a stop. 
 
 The [)roperly trained man, on the contrary, 
 endeavors to keep all the air he has got, and to 
 add to it, by intruding on the complementary 
 space. AVhen he has regained the small (juantity 
 necessarilv lost at startimr the muscular action, 
 and increased on it, he has i^ot what is called 
 his " second wind," and then he is able to go on 
 while his nmscular power holds out. 
 
MUSCULxiR AND KESPIRATOKY POWER. llo 
 
 Kuiininof is the best exercise to increase the 
 breathing and staying power, as the muscles used 
 in propelling the runner's body do not interfere 
 with those of respiration. The runner can hold 
 his breath, with the chest fully extended, for a 
 long time, while the rower, for instance, must fill 
 his lungs at each stroke, — from thirty to forty 
 times a minute. But, with practice, the rower 
 can keep his chest well filled without letting out 
 his resident air ; he lets out a small quantity only, 
 and fills this up again, so as to keep the full com- 
 plement of air necessary for the blood without 
 chano'ino' a o'reat quantity at each breath. 
 
 As the arm increases in o^irth from usins: the 
 dumb-bell, the chest of the runner and oarsman 
 accustoms itself to the lara'cr demands made 
 upon it, both for breathing and holding the wind. 
 
 It must be remembered that mau}^ persons, 
 thouiih muscular and athletic, can never learn 
 to do anything that demands rapid respiration. 
 They can put forth their strength slowly ; but 
 they always get " winded" in a rapid and vigorous 
 test. Persons, with this peculiarity, usually try 
 to cure themselves by muscular exertion ; but 
 this is wron<r. ^Vhat they need is intelliirent and 
 long-continued exercise of various kinds for the 
 breathinir or^'ans. 
 
 •'Indigestion, sleeplessness, nervous Indecision, 
 
114 KTIIK'S ol" JioXlNi; AM) MAM.V SI'OK'T. 
 
 palpitation of the heart, and irreii'ularity of the 
 ])o\vcls (lisapi^oar iiiidcr proper training," says an 
 a])lc physieian and athlete ; " but if they exist, 
 the regimen shouhl be entered upon with more 
 than usual caution." 
 
 IV. 
 
 Tin: FOOD OF ATHLETES IX TRAINING. 
 
 '* IIaki) work trains," says an authority (AVood- 
 gate), '' and diet keeps the frame up to its work." 
 This has been the principle on which training, of 
 ])east and man alike, has been carried out since 
 the benetits of " condition" were tirst appreciated. 
 
 Trainers usually besfin w^ith excessive emetics 
 and aperients, ''to clear the bh)od." There is no 
 particular harm in this, if they do not make the 
 man or crew work hard till " tone " is recovered. 
 Then comes rei^ular feedimr, i>()od in itself, but 
 with the usual order — "the less drinkinir the 
 better — rKjuids swell and soften the body." In 
 detiance of tin; i)livsioloa'ical fact that different 
 individuals need different quantities of liquid as 
 well as of solid food, this practice will be applied 
 generally. Of course it brings about a rapid re- 
 duction of flesh ; but it severely reduces strenirth, 
 nervous and physical, at the same time. 
 
 The true rule for drinkinu: while " in trainin^^' 
 
THE FOOD OF ATHLETES IX TRAINING. 115 
 
 is — first bar out seductive and injurious drinks, 
 and tlien drink when vou want ; but only drink 
 water. The "swelling" and "soft flesh" are 
 rank nonsense. 
 
 Trainers exclude most vesfe tables, as beinsr 
 "watery food," — another flagrant error. The 
 acids of vegetables are necessities for the blood, 
 for digestion ; and, besides, their strength as food 
 is verv o^reat. 
 
 Under all systems of trainino- and rules of diet, 
 it must never be forirotten that ' ' what is one 
 man's food is another man's poison."' 
 
 The Greeks of old fed their athletes on whcaten 
 bread, fresh cheese, and dried has : later they ad- 
 vanced to l^eef and pork : but the bread and meat 
 were taken separately, the former at breakfast, the 
 latter at dinner. Except in wine the quantity of 
 food and drink for Greek athletes was unlimited. 
 The exercises consisted, besides the ordinary 
 gymnastic instruction oi \h^ j^alodstra ^ in carrying 
 heavy loads, lift ins: weiirhts, bendins: iron rods, 
 striking at a suspended leather sack fllled with 
 sand or flour, taming bulls, etc. 
 
 The modern athlete, in training', eats meat at 
 least three times a day. The best systems are 
 those pursued at the great universities of 
 England and America. As an example, I give 
 here the Oxford system of training for the sunnner 
 boat-race : 
 
IK; ethics of boxing and manly sport. 
 
 A day's training at oxford. 
 
 Rise about 7 a.m. 
 
 j A short walk or 
 
 Exercise 
 
 Breakfast at 8.30 
 r.M. 
 
 Exercise in fore- 
 noon 
 
 \ iv snon waiK or ( 
 
 ( j.^ I Xot compulsory. 
 
 Of tea I 
 
 Meat, beef or niut- J 
 
 As little as possi- 
 ble. 
 
 ton ( 
 
 Bread or dry toast 
 
 Xone 
 
 Under done. 
 
 Crust only 
 I mended. 
 
 ( Crust only recom- 
 
 Dinner at 2 p.m. 
 
 Meat much the 
 same as at break- 
 fast 
 
 Bread 
 
 i 
 
 Crust onlv recora- 
 
 Exercise ^ 
 
 ) mended. 
 
 Vegetables, none., i ^'ot always adher- 
 
 I ed to. 
 
 Beer, one pint 
 
 About tive o'clock 
 start for the river 
 and row twice over 
 the course, the 
 speed increasing 
 with the strength 
 of the crew 
 
 Supper at 8.30 or 
 p.M - 
 
 Bed at 10 I'.m. . 
 
 Meat, cold 
 
 Bread, and perhaps 
 a little jelly or 
 
 water- cresses 
 
 I Beer, one pint 
 
THE FOOD OF ATHLETES IN TRAIXIXG. 117 
 
 Dr. T. K. Chambers, a renowned British scien- 
 titic authority, says of this system : 
 
 "It may be considered a t>i)ical regimen for fully develoi>- 
 ing a yoimg man's corporeal powers to fulfil tlie demands of 
 an extraordinary exertion, a standard which may be modified 
 according to the circumstances for which the training is 
 required."' 
 
 The Cambrido'e (Ens. land) system ditlers verv 
 slisrhtly from the above ; and in neither is any 
 exaofgerated severity of discipline enforced, nor 
 any rigid suppression of peculiarities or wish for 
 varietv. 
 
 The system of training pursued by the Harvard 
 University crews is generally the same as that fol- 
 lowed by the English universities. It may, how- 
 ever, be noted that the same degree of perfection 
 has not vet been attained by Harvard, nor is it 
 claimed 1)V the gentlemen who have this care in 
 hand. " The chief difierence to be found in fiivor 
 of Oxford or Cambridge, England," says a Har- 
 vard oarsman and athletic authority, '" is the 
 permanency of their principles. They do not 
 swing around the compass either at defeat or 
 victory." 
 
 The system at Yale, independently of the 
 varvins: stvles of rowino- resembles also that of 
 the English universities. Yale, however, in the 
 matter of trainino-, has the best-organized colleire 
 system in America. 
 
lis KTIIICS OF BOXIiNG AND MANLY SPOKT. 
 
 Tlie following extremely valuable contribution 
 to the physiological lore of training, undoubtedly 
 one of the ablest treatises ever prepared on the 
 special subject, has been written for this book by 
 a distinguished Boston physician, who has made 
 it a particular study, — Dr. Francis A. Harris, 
 ^Medical Examiner of Sutlblk County, Professor 
 of Surger}' in the Boston Dental College, Demon- 
 strator of ]\Iedico-Leoal Examinations in Harvard 
 Universitv, etc. : — 
 
 'i'lie <iuestion of the alimentation, or feeding of the athlete, 
 is one to l)e determined by the consideration of several factors 
 in the result to be obtained. 
 
 These factors are, in general, first, the development of the 
 body to such a degree, that, Avith the best muscular condition, 
 there shall also be the nicest possible balance between the 
 various systems, muscular and nervous. The human body is, 
 as it were, a sort of chemical engine; and, however perfect the 
 machine may be made, if the motive power be not kept sup- 
 plied, the machine is useless. 
 
 A second factor is the removal of the superfluous, and the 
 superfluous only. Athletes and their trainers are too apt to 
 carry the reduction of fat to a point below the requirements 
 of i)roper i^hysical health. Fat, beside other functions, sup- 
 plies heat to the body; and, for most chemical processes, a 
 certain temperature is requisite; and, in so far as the fuel 
 necessary for sustaining that temperature is taken away, so far 
 are the chemical changes interfered with. This is especially 
 true of the changes in man. Most men are trained too fine. 
 It is a matter of history, that, in the Oxford-Harvard race of 
 1S()0, two of th^ crew, by training till two others who joined 
 tliem weeks later were in condition, were so far below their 
 own ])est physical condition as to render the crew, as a \vhole, 
 
THE FOOD OF ATHLETES IN TRAINING. 110 
 
 not fit to do its best work, and caused a defeat, wliich, perhaps, 
 was unavoidable, greater than it otherwise would have been. 
 I am aware that this statement has been disputed; but, as one 
 present at the time, I am fii'uily convinced such was the case. 
 
 A third factor is the development of what is essential for 
 ])erfect condition to a degree consistent with a proper working 
 of all parts, — muscular, nervous, respiratory, and digestive. 
 
 All this involves the consideration of the following mat- 
 ters : — 
 
 1. The kind of food. 
 
 2. The quantity of food. 
 
 3. The methods of preparation. 
 
 4. The variety. 
 
 o. The conditions mider which the food is used, as to time, 
 relative to exercise and sleep, and the interval between meals. 
 
 0. The question of fluids ; and 
 
 7. Indirectly, the question of alcohol and tobacco. 
 
 The determination of the kind of food depends upon broad 
 physiological principles. Each trainer may, and generally does, 
 lia-ve a diet -list which he considers the only proper one. Yet 
 each is so far good, and so far bad, as it coincides with, or 
 departs from, the general principles of physiology. The human 
 machine, reduced roughly to its lowest common denominator, 
 is a mass made up of chemical elements; chiefly carbon, oxy- 
 gen, hydrogen, nitrogen, together with lime, sulphur, phos- 
 phorus, and iron. 
 
 The oxygen is, of course, chiefly suj^pliod from the air, and, 
 to a less degree, from water. Hence the necessity of good 
 respiratory apparatus, — hmgs that shall not only work well, 
 but shall have as great volume as possible. The oxygen is 
 rapidly consumed in the body. The greater the amount of 
 exercise, the greater the waste, or rather expenditure, of mate- 
 rial, including oxygen, and the greater the necessity for having 
 large reservoirs from which to draw. 
 
 Wind is as essential, perhax)s more essential than muscl»»: 
 for a man in rowing, or running, maj'^ have plenty of muscle to 
 go farther, but his exertions have expended more oxygen than 
 
1:^0 ETHICS OF liOXIXG AND MANLY 8POKT. 
 
 his luiigs cau replace, and the machine won't go. The battery 
 is run out. The hnigs can be developed, as well as any other 
 l)ortion of the body, by exercising them in their own functions. 
 Deep insi)irations while at rest, running, and the use of those 
 nuiscles (us those of the upper arms and shoulders) whose move- 
 ments tend to expand the chest, will so enlarge the capacity of 
 the lungs that great amounts of one of the most important 
 chemical foods of the body can be taken into the system. 
 
 The other elements are to be found in any ordinary list of 
 articles of diet; and, as a matter of fact, two or three articles 
 may supply them all, — meats; including beef, mutton, veal, 
 lamb, pork, poultry, and game; vegetables, including potatoes, 
 corn, spinach, onions, peas, and beans; fish; bread in its vari- 
 ous forms, oatmeal, eggs, milk, and fruit, make a list from which, 
 with the addition of condiments, all necessary supplies obtain- 
 able from food may be had. From such a list, however, selec- 
 tions are obviously to be made with advantage. 
 
 Xot alone is the food itself to be taken into the stomach; 
 but, to accomplish its desired end Avith the least difficulty to 
 the organism, the food must be of such kind as to be most 
 easilv and readilv ditcested and assimilated. 
 
 For that reason, of the meats ; beef, mutton, lamb, and game 
 are to be preferred, as well as the dark, rather than light, meat 
 of fowls. 
 
 Fish of the white-mcatcd variety. 
 
 Oysters raw, not cooked. 
 
 Potatoes and oatmeal suftice for starch. 
 
 Bread well cooked, and not of the finer grades of flour. 
 
 31 ilk is to be regarded as a solid food, and not a beverage. 
 It is very rich in nutriment, and is very readily digested ami 
 assimilated. 
 
 The quantity of food is, in a measure,- to be proportioned to 
 the amount of work done as well as to the individual according 
 to size. As to the amount to be taken, experience has shown, 
 thiit, for a hard-working man, thirty to forty ounces a day are 
 suthcient. But quantity depends on one other thing. That 
 food may be properly digested, a certain amount of distension 
 
THE FOOD OF ATHLETES IN TRAINING. 121 
 
 of the stomacli is uecessaiy; that is, for example, if all the 
 food necessary for t"«'enty -four hours could he condensed into 
 three holuses, or pills, these pills would not nourish the body 
 like the same food taken in the ordinary form. From, this, it 
 is easy to see that fish is a desirable article of food, as it satis- 
 fies the cravings of appetite; and, though taken in considerable 
 quantity, is so deficient in nutritive matter, as comjDared with 
 meat, that it does not largely tend to ref)lace the fat used up in 
 the body. It is true that a person, by change of diet from one 
 containing much starch (;:hat is, articles like potatoes, bread, 
 oatmeal, etc.) to one of meat chiefly, loses his fat. This loss, 
 however, is due to the natural consumption of the fat in con- 
 sequence of exercise, and the fact that it is not replaced by the 
 food taken. From the starchy foods come the sujar, and on 
 the sugar is largely dependent the formation of fat. 
 
 But, even at risk of repetition, I cannot too strongly urge 
 the use of good judgment in this matter of reduction of fat. 
 Fat is useful, it is essential, and it is too common a practice to 
 endeavor to get rid of it all. Yet, in so far as it is reduced 
 beyond its proper ratio to the rest of the body, just so far does 
 the body fall short of the perfect machine sought to be devel- 
 oped. As it is, however, at the start, generally in excess, the 
 diet, in the matter of fat-producing foods, should be restricted. 
 Xot over one pound of bread or potatoes, out of a whole diet 
 of forty ounces, should l)e eaten. 
 
 The method of cooking has much to do with the nutritive 
 qualities of a given food after it is eaten. Meats should be 
 roasted or broiled, rather than baked or fried or boiled. In 
 this way their juices are best retained. Starchy foods and fish 
 sliould be thoroughly cooked, while meats should be a little 
 underdone. 
 
 The list of foods mentioned above should fm-nish sufficient 
 variety; indeed, a very small portion of tlie list would furnish 
 all the essentials; but variety itself is an essential. The long- 
 continued use of a single article inspires disgust, and, in con- 
 se ]uence, a smaller amount of food is taken, and even that 
 amount less readily digested, as the fluids necessary to that 
 
12l> ETHICS OF IJOXINC} AND MANLY SPOUT. 
 
 process are not poure;l out as freely as for those things Avhicli 
 are appetizini;. It is not necessaiy that the mouth sliould 
 •• wat(M\" but it must not be (h-y. 
 
 The conditions under which food is taken are of crreat ini- 
 jK^rUince. It should not be taken, in any considerable quantity, 
 either directly before or directly after sleep. It should not be 
 taken either immediately before or after severe exercise. The 
 nervous system, after the complete rest of sleep, must liave a 
 little time to get in working order, to acquire momentum, as it 
 v.erv\ before it furnishes the motive-power for digestion; and, 
 on the other hand, if called on to do it at a time when sleep 
 i i required, it is apt to work imperfectly or not at all, and so 
 both digestion and sleep are interfered with. The same 
 principles apply to exercise. AMien the body is exhausted by 
 violent or long-continued work, it is not in condition to perform 
 the function of digestion; nor, if called from the performance 
 of this function to perform severe muscular exercise, can it do 
 so without, as it were, neglecting the work imperative to be 
 done in digestion. 
 
 In such a case the food passes undigested into the bowels ; it 
 acts as an irritant, and l)()wel troubles ensue as a consequence 
 of nature's attempt to get rid of what is really foreign matter. 
 
 Without laying down a rule to be absolutely followed in all 
 cases, it is safe to say that some such plan as this should be 
 followed: 
 
 liise at six; bathe; take about two ounces (a small cup) of 
 coffee, with milk, — this is really a stimulating soup. Then 
 light exercise, chiefly devoted to lungs; a little rest; the break- 
 fast of meat, bread, or oatmeal, vegetables, with no coffee; an 
 hoar's rest. Then the heaviest exercise of the day. This is 
 contrary to nde ; but I believe the heaviest exercise should be 
 taken before the hea\ie3t meal; a rest before dinner. This 
 meal, if breakfast be taken at seven, or eight, should be at 
 one, or two, not leaving a longer interval than five hours be- 
 tween the meals. At dinner, again meat, vegetables, bread, 
 perliaps a half-pint of malt liquor, no sweets. Then a longer 
 rest; exercise till five. Supper light, — bread, milk, perhaps 
 
THE FOOD OF ATHLETES IX TRAIXIXG. 128 
 
 with an egg. Half an hour later a cup of tea, and hed at 
 nine. 
 
 This is, of coiu'se, but a rough outline; but indicates the 
 general plan. 
 
 In the rest after dinner there must be no sleep. While 
 breakfast and dinner should be the important meals, the din- 
 ner should be the heavier, and should be in the middle of the 
 day. 
 
 The amount of fluid taken should be only moderate, especi- 
 ally when it is a question of reducing fat. By rendering the 
 solution of food in the stomach more dilute it promotes the 
 rapidity of absorption, and, in fact, increases the actual amount 
 of luitriment absorbed. Yet, water is, x>i'obably, the most im- 
 portant article taken into the stomach of man. A person can 
 endure hunger much longer than thirst; and the demand for 
 water will make itself felt more quickly and more imperatively 
 than the demand for food. It is ray belief, that, as a rule, in 
 training, too little water is allowed. Three quarts, rather than 
 three pints a day. There are good reasons for this. ^lany of 
 the refuse particles, left after the chemistry of the boch', are 
 carried out by the kidneys. If there is not supply of Avator 
 enough to hold these matters in solution, the effect of too con- 
 centrated secretion from those organs will make itself felt in 
 serious disturbance, if not in actual disease; and, when it is 
 remembered how much of the water is carried off by the lungs 
 and skin, — in breathing and in perspiration, — an additional 
 reason for caution in midue deprivation of water, is manifest. 
 
 Of course, if milk or beer is used, tliat, to a certain extent, 
 will diminish the necessity for water. 
 
 It should be stated here, however, that milk, if used in the 
 diet, is to be regarded rather as a solid food, than as a bever- 
 age, — a pint of good milk being nearly the equivalent in 
 nutritive properties to a poimd of steak. One reason that 
 milk is said to be hard of digestion by certain people is, that 
 after a hearty meal they drink milk for a bevera,ge, putting, as 
 it were, one steak on top of another; and wondering why the 
 stomach will not manage it all. Another reason why there 
 
IlM ethics of n()xi\(j and manly sport. 
 
 slioiUtl not be too great a deprivation of water is, that this loss 
 is so keenly felt as to almost eause sutfering, — certainly irrita- 
 tion, — and so disturbs the tranquillity and perfect working 
 of the nervous system as to destroy that balance which is so 
 necessary. 
 
 On this point, a word about sleep. The brain must have its 
 exercise and its rest as well as the muscles. It must be nour- 
 ished. Foods containing phosphorus (as fish) should be used. 
 During the intervals between muscular exercise it should be kept 
 moderately employed, and not too much stimulated. Heading, 
 chat, discussions not too exciting, and games not calculated to 
 arouse too great an excitement (that is, chess — not poker). 
 The man should have plenty of sleep. While some men can 
 go without much sleep, the average man, and especially the 
 man in training, should have eight hours. 
 
 In the nervous system is the motive-power of the machine; 
 and in so far as that is exhausted, or imi)aired, or neglected by 
 exclusive attention to the other systems, in so far will the ma- 
 chine fail to work. 
 
 As to alcohol and tobacco: it may safely be said that, on 
 general i)rinciples, they are both artificial demands, unneces- 
 sary, and therefore not beneficial. As, however, in these days, 
 a large proportion of men are habituated to their use, and the 
 system has become, ii; a measure, dependent upon them for 
 the performance of certain functions, that the imnuHliate and 
 entire abandonment of their use is not to be advised. The 
 amount of alcohol should be very nmch restricted, — only 
 what would be contained in a pint of malt liquor, at the most, 
 and that at meal-time, should be taken. Tobacco should, also, 
 be restri(.'ted, and gradually diminished till none at all is used. 
 The heart, which has been long accustomed to be whipped up 
 by alcohol, and soothed down (though irritated) by tobacco, 
 will not work so well till it has been gradually accustomed to 
 other treatment. 
 
 As all the digestive functions should be performed properly, 
 and as the diminution of water supply is likely to be consider- 
 able, certain vegetables, like spinach and onions, and certain 
 
FOOD AND EXERCISE IN TRAINING. 12.") 
 
 fniits, should be occasionally allowed, in spite of their sugar, 
 for laxative puq)oses, — a method much better than the resort 
 to more artificial means. 
 
 Whether severe training is good for a man, or not, is a mat- 
 ter of dispute. I cannot believe that it will increase longevity. 
 The average condition is better than intermittent, severe strain. 
 When one thinks what the heart is called on to do in severe 
 exercise and training, it is hard to see how the lasting power 
 of that organ can be increased by it, — that little organ, not 
 larger than the fist, with its delicate, translucent valves, yet 
 which, with proper care, will send a current of blood, one 
 eighth the weight of the body (that is, seventeen pounds in a 
 man weighing one hundred and forty) through that body every 
 twenty seconds, waking or sleeping, from birth, perhaps, for a 
 hundred years. This muscle has no chance to rest like the 
 others. When that rests, the machine is broken. It has to be 
 ready to Avork harder in sickness and accident. Isn't it asking 
 too much of it, in addition, to do the extra work in training, 
 and expect it to carry us to our three- score years and ten? 
 
 V. 
 
 A DAY S FOOD AND EXERCISE IN TRAINING. 
 
 The training of athletes will vary, of course, 
 with the nature of the contest ; but one may 
 give a generalized sketch of a day's exercise in 
 traininof, diiferino- more or less from the fore- 
 going systems. It will be observed that Dr. 
 Harris, in his suggestions, which ought to be 
 invaluable to athletes, materially differs from 
 
12«1 KTIIICS OF IJOXIXU AM) MANLY JSrOKT. 
 
 the Oxford svstcm of traininir. It iiiav ])e i^afclv 
 concliuk'd tliat Dr. Harris writes with a careful 
 regard to the ciroum5.tances of American life, 
 and that his rules are better suited to the needs 
 of American athletes. 
 
 An athlete, in training, devotes his whole time 
 to the reirular observance of rules. This regular- 
 ity is iK>t possible for persons employed in shops, 
 stores, and professions. They are sure to be 
 far from their running-ground, their boat, their 
 swimming-l)at]i. cVce. Still, there arc many oars- 
 men, and others, who have to work all dav — 
 even while training — and they must adapt then- 
 exercises to their needs and time. The one exer- 
 cise none can afford to neirlect is runnin«^, to 
 clear the wind. 
 
 Seven o'clock is a good time for an athlete in 
 traininijf to rise. He ouirht to set a ^ood drv- 
 rubbing, and then spunge his body with cold 
 water, or have a shower-bath, with a thorouirh 
 rubbing afterwards. He will then no out to ex- 
 ercise before breakfast, — not to run hard, as is 
 commonlv tauirht, but to walk brisklv for an 
 hour, while exercising his lungs in deei)-breath- 
 insr. 
 
 Few men can stand runninir before breakfast. 
 It produces nausea, spoils the breakfast, and 
 throws them out for the whole dav. The food 
 
FOOD AND EXERCISE IX TIcAIXIXG. 127 
 
 eaten at uioht has Ions: been consumed, and it is 
 obviously wrona' to make a violent effort while 
 the muscular and nerve oro:ans are in a state of 
 inanition. But the walk and the open air will 
 give a man an appetite for his breakfast. 
 
 Charles AVesthall, the pedestrian, who gave 
 nmch intelligent and experienced consideration to 
 traiuinir. savs : — 
 
 "The walk should be taken at such a pace that the skin 
 does not become moist, but have a good, healthy glow on the 
 surface, and the man be at once ready for his breakfast at 
 eight o'clock." 
 
 AVesthall recommends that, before this walk, 
 an Q^g in a cup of tea, or something of the kind, 
 should be taken. 
 
 The breakfast need not alwavs consist of a 
 broiled mutton-chop or cutlet; a broiled steak, 
 broiled chicken, or broiled lish, or some of each, 
 may ])e taken, with tea or coflee. (Dr. Harris's 
 reirimen is excellent throuahout.) 
 
 After breakfast, a o-ood rest for diirestion. 
 About half-past ten, a man training for a boxing- 
 contest might "punch the bag" (always an air- 
 bag) for tifteen or twenty minutes, and spar four 
 three-minute rounds briskly with his attendant. 
 For the last two weeks of his traininsf, this oui>ht 
 to be increased to eight or ten, or even tifteen, 
 three-minute rounds, and the time-keeper should 
 
l:>,s KTHK s ui' r.().\iN(; and manly si'Oht. 
 
 see that he jrets full time in each round. At no 
 time durinir the day ouirht a man in traininir to 
 loll ahout Jdlv. 
 
 Whether for boxinu:, rowin«:, wrestlinor, or swim- 
 niinir, there ouuht to be a re<2:ular runnin^^ exercise 
 before the mid-day meal. This exercise ought to 
 beirin moderatelv for time and distance, and in- 
 crease gradually ; the last quarter of the run 
 should always be at the top speed. 
 
 If the men are training: for rowins:, thev ouo^ht 
 to exercise in the boat twice every day. Let it 
 not be forgotten that constant exercise, spread 
 over a long period, is necessary to bring the 
 nuiscular s^'stem into condition vliich can he de- 
 pended nj)on. 
 
 "Muscle may be full and firm, yet, if it be inactive for the 
 greater part of its existence, it will not be capable of long and 
 sustained exertion. Look at the muscle of the breast of a fowl 
 or a pheasant: it is not deficient; it is large and plump; it 
 serves its imrpose when called upon. But, if we contrast it 
 with that of a grouse cr a m ood-i)igeon, what a difference may 
 be observed! The muscle of the latter bird is so dark from 
 arterializcd material and blood-vessels, that it looks black be- 
 side the ' white meat ' of the former. The one is incessantly 
 in motion, taking active exercise in quest of food and shelter; 
 the other scarcely moves about at all. Xow, we want to ap- 
 proach the condition of the grouse, not of the hen, to be capa- 
 bl«' not only of a violent and short, but also of a long-sustained, 
 effort; and, for this, many hours' exercise every day is needed." 
 — TT. Clasper. 
 
 Dinner may be far more varied than is usually 
 
FOOD AND EXERCISE IX TRAIXIXG. 12!) 
 
 allowed bv the trainer's " system.'" Any kind of 
 butcher's meat, plainly cooked, with a variety of 
 fresh vegetables, may be taken, with ordinary 
 light puddings, stewed fruit, but no pastr^^ A 
 o'ood time for dinner is one o'clock. 
 
 An American athlete, when thirstv, ouaht to 
 have only one drink, — water. The climate and 
 the custom in England favor the drinkins: of beer 
 or claret; but, beyond question, the best drink 
 for a man in training is pure water. After din- 
 ner, rest, but no dozins: or siesta. This sort of 
 rest only spoils digestion, and makes men feel 
 slack and '' limp." 
 
 After two-and-a-half hours' rest, with walkhig 
 exercise, the final work of the dav — runninof, 
 boxing, rowing, or hand-ball exercise, or all of 
 these — always more than one. There should be 
 two full hours of exercise at this period of the 
 day, varied in speed, care being taken, whether 
 in rowinsf, running', or boxins:, that not too much 
 is done at the top speed. " If a man or a crew 
 has been exercised at high pressure on one day, 
 he should be allowed to do less the following 
 evenmo^, and he will be all the better on the 
 third." — (McLaren.) When w^ork is over, a man 
 may have a bath, and be well rubbed down. (I 
 have seen a rouixh silk mitten, manufactured in 
 Boston, which is most excellent for the rubbiuir, 
 
I'M) ETHICS OF BOXING AND MANLY 8POIJT. 
 
 lH)th wvi and drv.) If tlie athlete be thirsty, let 
 him drink Avater, rinsing his mouth frequently. 
 Suj)pcr, at six o'clock, should not be a second 
 dinner; l)ut neither should it consist of " slops" 
 or irruel. The food recommended 1)V Dr. 
 Harris is excellent and sufficient. The athlete 
 ouLiht to be in l)ed bv ten o'clock, in a room 
 with open window, and a draught through 
 the room, if })()ssible, though not across the 
 bed. lie ought to sleep on a mattress, 
 warndv but li<>htlv covered, and vithout a pillow. 
 As explained later on, pillows are unnecessary to 
 all but certain sick people. They injuriously 
 atiect the ])reathing, weaken the muscles of the 
 neck, making the neck lose one or two inches in 
 irirth. and take a way the 2^reatest luxury of rest 
 and sleep. 
 
 Running, though indispensalde for clearing the 
 wind in the early weeks of traininir, should 
 usually be dispensed Avith at least two weeks 
 before a boat-race. " A crew," says W. K. 
 Woodgate, "that has rowed a slow stroke, and 
 has meantime got fit (into condition), by running, 
 will row a quick stroke with more uniformity 
 later on than a crew that has done no runninir, 
 but has got fit by fast rowing. The latter crew 
 has always been abroad when ' blown,' and so has 
 contracted faults. The former, when the time 
 
EXEIJCISES AND HOW TO PRACTISE THEM, lol 
 
 for quick vStrokes comes, is like machinery in 
 action, tit in wind, and has, therefore, neither 
 exhaustion nor irregularity to throw it out of 
 gear when the fast stroke is essayed." 
 
 It may not he out of place to say that men are 
 more often injured by the going out of training 
 than l)y the trainins: itself. A reckless and 
 sudden chans^e from asceticism to license is more 
 harmful than all the severities of traininsf. "To 
 make the conclusion of trainina' an excuse for in- 
 duloence and excess not only injures health of 
 body, but stultifies the lessons of practice, of self- 
 control, and fixed habit, ^\hich are amonii' the chief 
 moral recommendations of modern athletics." 
 
 VI. 
 
 VARIOUS EXERCISES AXD HOW TO PRACTISE THEM. 
 
 The best exercise for a man training' for a box- 
 ing-match is boxing ; the next best is running. 
 
 The best exercise for a crew trainins: for a row- 
 ing-race is rowimx ; the next best is runnimr. 
 
 The best exercise for a man trainins^ for a 
 s.vimming-match is swimming; the next best is 
 runnino:. 
 
\:\'2 KTHrCS OF HOXINC AM) MANLY SI'OKT. 
 
 And so with oilier contests: ruiinin<r is not 
 only second best, but is absolutely necessary in 
 each, for running excels all exercises for develop- 
 ing " the wind/' This is simply because the 
 muscular action of the runner enal)les him to 
 hold and increase his wind more easily than is 
 possible under the varied and violent arm and 
 chest motions of the boxer, the oarsman, or the 
 swimmer. 
 
 A boxer, in trainins: for a contest, ouirht not to 
 contine his sparring to one or two men. He 
 ought to s])ar with new and a])le men, and with 
 as man}' as })ossil)le. It is a radical and common 
 error to confine the exercise to one opponent, no 
 matter how Jiood he mav l)e. After a dozen 
 bouts together, two men know every stop on each 
 other's iranuit — even the variations are not sur- 
 prises. Xew men, new ways. The boxer or the 
 swordsman who uses himself onlv to a sinirle 
 o[)l)onent, is very apt to lack eontidence with a 
 stranirer. On the other hand, he who is used to 
 manv antaironists welcomes a new man with a 
 powerful sense of knowledge and confidence. 
 
 Another exercise in sparring, next best to the 
 opi)osition of a livinir boxer, is a hanirinii: ba2: — 
 not a sand-bai; or a flour-bair, as of old — but an 
 air-bag. 
 
 The heavy sand-bag (thirty or forty pounds 
 
EXERCISES AND HOW TO rilACTISE THEM, lo;) 
 
 weight) , which moved only a few inches even when 
 struck heavih', was o-ood, niaiulv, for one thino- 
 which, it is to be hoped, is out of date and unnec- 
 essary — the hardening of the knuckles and skin 
 of the hands. For practice in hitting, it was not 
 ijood. One miu-ht as well strike the wall. It 
 calls for no rapidity, no swift directness, no agile 
 " ducking," retiring, or stepping aside to escape a 
 return. 
 
 The air-bag (a leathern foot-ball is best) is as 
 (luick and as straight in return as a first-rate 
 boxer. To strike it hard, very hard (so that it 
 rebounds from the ceilins^ three or four times, 
 accordins: to the force of the blow and heiirht of 
 the room), is an excellent kind of solitary boxing 
 exercise ; so, also, is the rapid and continuous hit- 
 ting it with one hand. Besides this, it is interesting 
 exercise. A man has to icorh with a sand-bai>' ; 
 he his fun with an air-ball, and he can return to 
 it with pleasure and interest two or three times a 
 day. 
 
 For nmscle-hardenin<2: exercise, there is nothing* 
 better than the dumb-bell — onlij it must be a venj 
 small dumh-hell — not a verv larii'e one, as of old. 
 The best size is an iron, two-pound dumb-bell. 
 This is the size with which the strona'cst men 
 exercise nowadays. 
 
 It is admitted, at last, that the object of exer- 
 
134 ETHICS OF ROXING AND MANLV SPORT. 
 
 cise is not to strain but to strengthen. Heavy 
 dumb-bells strain ; light ones strengthen. 
 
 *' The effects of exercise," says an English med- 
 ical authority on trainino-, "are twofold: on the 
 one hand a stinudus is given to the action of the 
 heart and hini>s, which enal)les the blood to be 
 more thorouirhlv ox\i>'enated and more ra])idly 
 circulated ; on the other hand, there is an expendi- 
 ture of force accompanying the increased activity 
 of the orgtuiic changes. Exercise strengthens the 
 parts exercised, l)ecause it increases the nutrition 
 of those parts. AVhen tuiy organ or muscle is in- 
 active, the circulation in it becomes less and less; 
 the smaller net-work of its blood-vessels are empty 
 or but half filled: the streams gradually run in 
 fewer channels, and the organ, ceasing to be 
 thorouiihlv nourished, wastes away. When the 
 or^mn is active all its vessels are tilled ; all the 
 vital changes, on which depend its growth and 
 power, proceed rapidl}'. The force expended is 
 renewed, unless the expenditure has l)een exces- 
 sive, in which case there is a disturbance of the 
 mechanism, and depression, or disease, results. 
 . . . The advantage of exercise to a student, 
 politician, or any other brain-worker, is that it 
 lessens the over-stinudus of his l)rain, distributes 
 the blood more equally, calling to his muscles 
 some of those streams which would impetuously 
 be rushinir throuirh his brain." 
 
EXERCISES AND IIO^V TO PRACTISE THEM. 135 
 
 In other words, exercise with the arms, legs, 
 or trunk, relieves the congested brain as surely, 
 and, of course, far more healthfully than bleeding. 
 
 To return to the need and superiority of the 
 liirht over the heavy dumb-bell : exercise with 
 the latter is necessarily brief. The sinsfle heavy 
 (lumb-l)ell can be lifted from four to twenty times, 
 say, according to its weight. The whole body 
 is violently strained for the ])rief effort. Quite 
 often, if the liftino- be not carefully iri'aduated in 
 weio'ht, the in-rushino- blood l)ursts some of the 
 finer net-work of the vessels, or the delicate 
 coverins: of the muscles is rudely torn, and the 
 would-l)e athlete is an invalid for life. 
 
 The one-pound or two-pound dumb-bell strains 
 notliins: : it only adds to the swins: of the hands. 
 The exercise can be varied so as to develo[) 
 upper and lower limbs and trunk. It is par- 
 ticularly adapted to those who are not trained 
 athletes. Say, the arms are thin and weak and 
 soft, and you want to increase their size, 
 strenirth, and firmness. There are only a few 
 regular motions for this, and they can be learned 
 in a minute. The hands, grasping the dumb- 
 bells, ai-e hauiiina' by the sides : beirin by rais- 
 ino^ them, bendinir the elbow and touchin<>" the 
 front of the shoulder with the l)all of the thumb ; 
 down again, and up again : that is all. You re- 
 
irilJ ETHICS OF BOXIN(J AM) MANLY SI»OKT. 
 
 peat this inolioii twenty times, thirty, on to fifty 
 or sixty l)ef()re you are tired. 
 
 Then stop, — always stop any exercise when it 
 tires you : this is nature's advice. 
 
 But be^in in a minute or so, and go over it 
 ao-ain. You will i)ro1)a1)lv this time reach seventv. 
 Then clian<io the motion : extend the arms like a 
 cross, on a level with the shoulders, and double in 
 from the ell)ow, alternately, just touching the tips 
 of the shoulders with the hands. Keep this up 
 till vou are tired, and then iro back to the first 
 motion. 
 
 Tn a week you will be able to raise the hands 
 in the first motion hundreds of times, in a few 
 weeks a thousand times. 
 
 This means — what? It means that you keep 
 the umscles of the arms working actively for from 
 a quarter of an hour to an hour ; that the lately 
 dried-up blood-vessels are now full of warm blood, 
 feedinir the hot nmscles as a trench full of water 
 feeds a famished field. It means also that the 
 girth of the arm is one, two, or more inches 
 larirer than it was a few weeks airo ; that the fiesh 
 is firm and solid: and that arm, shoulder, and 
 hand are so strong that there is a new pleasure 
 even in swiniiinir an umbrella or shakincf hands 
 with an old tViend. 
 
 l*roceed in the same way with the muscles of the 
 
THE CIHSE OF THE CLOSED WIXDOW8. 137 
 
 feet, legs, sides, abdomen, back, and neck ; and 
 ill three months the Avorkl and life will have 
 almost as new a look and meaning for you as if 
 3'()u had been born over again. 
 
 Any low-priced treatise on athletics will teach 
 you the motions for the different muscles. 
 
 VIT. 
 
 THE CURSE OF THE CLOSED W^INDOWS. 
 
 Remembek, always, it is not the handling of 
 heavy weights that is beneticial, hut the numher 
 of times you i^erforin a tuotion. The object de- 
 sired is to draw the blood to the wasted or unde- 
 veloped muscles, and keep it there long enough 
 to feed the old, and to form new cells. The 
 l)lood remains in the muscles while they continue 
 exercisinc:. 
 
 I dwell on the use of dumb-bells because they 
 are so handy and so varied in excellence. Dumb- 
 bell exercise is in every one's reach. Twenty- 
 tive cents will l)uy a pair of two-pound iron 
 dumb-bells. You need no gymnasium other than 
 any upper room in your house, vitlt the vuidows 
 wide oj)en. Never exercise with closed windows. 
 
188 KTJllC.S OF li(JXIX(} AND MAXLV SPOUT. 
 
 KoinoiDhei' that the largest vein in your body 
 is open at one end ; and it is not filled with ])lood, 
 Imt air. — your wind-pipe. 
 
 It invites disease to till vour lunirs with had 
 air, when you breathe Jieavily under exercise, in- 
 haling all the floating threads and dust of a closed 
 room. This 0})en vein njakes a breathinir man 
 part of th(^ outer world ; the atmosphere is his 
 bellows. This is why we ought to love and value 
 the country, j'nd hate the citv. ^Ve are truly and 
 actually part of the place we live in : its life en- 
 ters with every insi)iration into our lives. We 
 are one with the reeking streets ; with the foul 
 exhalations of bar-rooms, with their stale drinks 
 and hi(h'()us spittoons; of smoke-filled cars; of 
 crowded halls; and, again, we are one with the 
 fresh morning air of the fields ; with the balsam 
 of the strong and beautiful pines ; with the sweet 
 breathings of cattle ; with the wholesome smell of 
 the fresh-dug earth ; with the frai^rance of the 
 meadows and the hedges and the trees ; with the 
 sound-washed atmosphere of the sparkling river. 
 
 Even in a physical sense, the word of the poet 
 is true: "lie who has Xature for a companion 
 must, in some sense, be ennobled by the inter- 
 course." 
 
 "You will find," says St. Bernard, "some- 
 thing far greater in the woods than you will find 
 
THE CLKSE OF THE CLOSED WINDOWS. 1^9 
 
 in books. Stones and trees will teach vou that 
 which vou will never learn from masters.'' 
 
 *' There is no riches above a sound bodv," savs 
 Ecclesiasticus, "and no joy above the joy of the 
 heart." 
 
 '•Life is only life when blessed with health," 
 says Martial. 
 
 "It is the misfortune of the vouns:," savs Svd- 
 uey Smith, " to be early thrown out of perfect 
 tune by the indiscreet eftbrts of their parents to 
 force their minds into action earlier than Xature 
 intended. The result is dissonance, want of har- 
 monv. and derana'ement of function. The nervous 
 system is over-excited, while the physical system 
 is neo'lected. The brain has too much work to 
 do, and the bodilv oro^ans too little. The mind 
 may be fed, but the appetite is lost, and society 
 is tilled with pale-foced dyspeptics." 
 
 '' The ancient Greeks," sa^'S Dr. Samuel Smiles, 
 "among their various wisdom, had an almost 
 worshipful reverence for the bodv as beins: the 
 habitation of the soul. They gave their l)ody 
 recreation as well as their mind." 
 
 "And what thinkest thou," said Socrates to 
 Aristodemus, "of this continual love of life, this 
 dread of dissolution, which takes possession of us 
 from the moment that we are conscious of exist- 
 ence?" — "I think of it," he answered, "as the 
 
140 K'lllKS (H- I!()\IN(i AM) .\JAM.V M'OIJT. 
 
 means employed hy thv. .same great and wise 
 Artist delil)erately determined to preserve what 
 he has made." 
 
 ''If we are asked," says a scientific authority, 
 "wliich of the many necessaries of life is ])est 
 entitled to the chief place we must surely reply, 
 oxviren. This i^as forms about one fifth of the 
 bulk of the atmos})herc, and our wants are sup- 
 l)lied by the act of l)reathin<r, so regularly and 
 ceaselessly performed by every one. It is pos- 
 sible to live for a long time without the protection 
 of a house or of clothing; it is even possible to 
 live for nianv davs without food ; ])ut if we are 
 deprived for only one or two- minutes of oxygen, 
 the consequences are serious, and may be fatal. 
 . Again, oxygen is so closely connected 
 with the great vital processes upon which our 
 growth and daily energy depend, that food itself 
 is useless unless accompanied I)}' a large supply 
 of it. Indeed, when the quantity of oxygen 
 which a man consumes in his lungs daily is calcu- 
 lated, it is found to be irreater in weiirht than all 
 the dry food he re(]uires during the same period. 
 Yet, again, if we wish a house and clothina' and 
 food, we nmst work for them ; but for oxviren 
 there is nothinir to i)av. It is free to all, and lies 
 around us in such al)undance that it never runs 
 short. Here, then, we see every means taken to 
 
THE CURSE OF THE CLOSED WINDOWS. 141 
 
 insure that all our demands for oxviren shall be 
 freelv and fullv met, and vet we are assured hv 
 medical authorities that a very large proportion 
 — some say one fourth — of all the deaths that 
 take place is caused, directlv or indirectlv, bv 
 oxviren starvation." 
 
 A\'hat is the reason that so manv must suffer 
 and die for want of this endless blessinir. — fresh 
 air? The chief reason, answers the same au- 
 •thoritv, is citv life. Instead of livin<r in the 
 countrv, where everv household miirht have a 
 large, free space of air around it, we draw together, 
 for the convenience of busmess. to iri*eat centres. 
 There the houses are crowded closelv toorether, 
 often piled one on the top of the other, so that, 
 instead of an overabundance, there is onlv a 
 limited quantity of air for each. This is made 
 unlit for the support of life by the very act of 
 breathing; the impurities are increased by the 
 waste products of manufactories ; and oxygen is 
 destroved bv everv tire and lanji) and «:as-liirht. 
 The winds and certain properties of the atmos- 
 l)here constantly remove much of the impure air, 
 and bring in a pure supply ; Init the crowding 
 to2:ether in manv parts of a town is so irreat, and 
 the production of poisonous matter goes on so 
 continuouslv, that instead of each breath contain- 
 ing its full proportion of oxygen, the place of 
 
142 ETHICS OF IJOXING AND MANLY Sl'OIfT. 
 
 that gas is taken up to some extent hy wliat is 
 ac'tuallv hurtful to life. AVhen this is the condi- 
 tiou of the atmosphere outside the dwelling, it is 
 necessarily much worse within it, for there the 
 displacement of impure air hv pure cannot take 
 l^lace so rapidly. The consequences arc as already 
 stated. Large i)arts of our town po})ulati()ns 
 never have sufficient oxviren : their lives are feeble 
 and full of suffering, and numbers die before their 
 time. Such focts are painful to contemplate ; but 
 a knowledge of them puts the wise man on his 
 iruard. and he mav do nuicli for himself. In the 
 choice of a house he will remember the advantage 
 of a great air-space around it, and of plenty of 
 space within it, so that l)edrooms may not be 
 overcrowded. Or, if a lariz'e house is bevond his 
 means, he will take care that the rooms are not 
 crowded with furniture, for every piece of furni- 
 ture excludes an ecpial ))nlk of air. When he 
 enters the house he will see that at all times as 
 nuicli fresh air from the outside is admitted, by 
 means of open doors and windows, as can be 
 allowed without inconvenience from cold : and as 
 often as possible he will have a l)low through, to 
 clear out all odd corners where foul air mav 
 liuirer. '• Pure air and irood food make ])ure 
 blood, and only pure blood will give good 
 health." 
 
FOR CITY DWELLERS AND CHILDREN. 143 
 
 YIII. 
 
 EXERCISE FOR CITY DWELLERS AND SCHOOL 
 
 CHILDREX. 
 
 But let us return to the city and the irvm- 
 nasi am. 
 
 Dumb-bells are first-rate. Xext, weiirhts and 
 pulleys : you can bay them for two dollars, and 
 set them up in any room where you may open the 
 window Avhen you want to exercise. They in- 
 crease the volume and power of the extensors of 
 the shoulder, arm, and forearm, — muscles rarely 
 used. 
 
 "There are many troubles which you cannot 
 cure by the Bible and the hymn-book," said 
 Henry Ward Beecher : " Init wliich you can care 
 by a good perspiration and a breath of fresh air." 
 
 A breath of fresh air ! What does it mean ? 
 It means the country, of course : but it means the 
 city, and your own room, with the window wide 
 open, if you cannot get to the country. The air 
 is God's ; and He cleans it eyen for the vitiated 
 city. 
 
 Most human beings breathe imperfectly ; and 
 without irood breathing health and stren^^th are 
 impossible. 
 
1 I I KTllirs OF liOXINC; AM) MANLY SPORT. 
 
 '' It is estimated," savs a recent clever writer 
 (H. 'I\ Finck), " that there are from seventy-five 
 to one hiuulred cubic inches of air ic/iich ahraf/s 
 remain in a jjkdi's lungti. About an equal amount 
 of ' supplemental ' air remains after an ordinary 
 expiration ; and onlv twenty to thirty inches of 
 ' tidal air,' as Huxley calls it, passes in and out." 
 
 You have seen in a river-l)end, where the deep 
 water is stagnant, a floatinsf \oz lie stationary for 
 weeks and months. It would lie there, in the 
 srreen scum, if let alone, till the freshet came in 
 the spriiiiz". There is a lot of that kind of still 
 air in the lunii:s, waiting: for a freshet — which 
 some placid people never experience (these are 
 the nice, pallid, delicate dyspeptics). 
 
 The unused and undisturbed air in the lunirs, if 
 oriirinallv breathed in from close and exhausted 
 rooms, can become as foul as the stairnant river- 
 pool, it nuist be expelled — and how? By deep- 
 hreatlii)iif . 
 
 *' There are few persons," says the author of 
 " Personal Beauty," " whose health and personal 
 appeai-ance would not be improved vastly if they 
 would take several daily meals of fresh air — con- 
 sistinir of twenty to fifty deep inspirations — in a 
 })ark or some other i)lace where the air is pure 
 and bracinir.*' 
 
 Decp-breatliing is a niiiihty means of preserv- 
 
FOR CITY DAVELLERS AND CHILDREN. 145 
 
 ino- and restorinir health — indeed, it ouirht to be 
 called the first means. The air is a great and 
 cheap doctor. 
 
 " The wise for cure on exercise depend; 
 God never made His work for man to mend." 
 
 ]\Ianv leaduiiT authorities are of opinion that 
 the best way to learn deep-breathing is to inhale 
 slowly as much air as you can get into the lungs 
 without discomfort, and then exhale again just as 
 slowly. A clever physician, however, and one of 
 the best athletes in America, told me a better way, 
 which I have tried and recommended with unfiiil- 
 ins: success. It is to inhale slowlv and full}', without 
 straining, and then shoot the air out of the lungs 
 with a sudden gust, by a collapse of shoulders 
 and chest. Then slowlv fill the lungs again 
 (through the nostrils), — and gush I out it goes 
 (through the mouth) with a sound like a small 
 locomotive. In the street, vou mav be noticeable, 
 by the noise, perhaps; but you can get through 
 your twenty or thirty puffs twice a day without 
 nuich trouble. 
 
 The effect of this practice is almost incredil)le. 
 Take two or three spells of thirty breaths each 
 day for one month ; and you will increase your 
 chest-measurement in that time from two to four 
 inches! And this is not like the trainer's in- 
 crease : it is permanent. And, besides, you will 
 
 I 
 
14(> ETIIIC8 OF JiOXIXG AND 3IANLY 8POKT. 
 
 hiive unconsciously contracted a habit of dccp- 
 breathing for the remainder of your life. 
 
 One of the misfortunes of New Enjiland is the 
 rarity of horselmck-riding as an exercise. *' The 
 saddle is the seat of health," says Dr. Smiles ; 
 "riding may be regarded as the concentrated 
 essence of exercise." 
 
 ^'Who is your doctor?" said some one to 
 Carlyle. "My best doctor," he replied, "is 
 a horse." 
 
 The Puritan finds it hard to l^elieve, thousfh, 
 that "idleness is not all idleness." Cicero said : 
 " Xo one seems to me to be free who does not 
 sometimes do nothing." And elsewhere he says : 
 " There should be a haven to which we could fly 
 from time to time, not of sloth and laziness, but 
 of moderate and honest leisure." 
 
 Every American, 3'oung, middle-aged, ay, and 
 old, ouirht to take from two to four weeks at 
 least, every summer, for rest and sport. Shoot- 
 inoj, fishinir, driving: tours, walkini; tours. We 
 can all enjoy one or more of these exercises. 
 George Stephenson knew the folly of trying to 
 take too much out of one's self. When he found 
 his friend Lindley exhausted and depressed by 
 too excessive application to engineering, he said 
 to him : "Xow, Lindley, I see what you are after 
 — you are trying to get thirty shillings out of 
 
FOR CITY DWELLERS AND CHILDREN. 14,7 
 
 your pound. My advice to you is — give it 
 up.'' 
 
 Children in school o-rowinir narrow-chested and 
 round-shouldered stooping over desks and books, 
 ouo'ht to be tauo'ht to breathe as well as to read, 
 and they ought to be kept at it as constantly. 
 And i:)rizes and honors ou2"ht to be aiven to the 
 girls and boys who can run best, swim best, 
 throw the farthest ball, and whose chest-measure- 
 ment, taken monthly by the teacher, is largest, 
 as well as to those pale-faced students in specta- 
 cles, who can demonstrate a problem in Euclid or 
 construe Greek at si^'ht — or rather at half-siaht. 
 
 The examination of the eyes of Boston public- 
 school children, l)y a distinguished oculist, a few 
 years airo, brouirht to liirht the shockino' fact that 
 the vision of tlie majority was defective. The 
 Hygiene Committee of the Boston School Board, 
 in a report dated Nov. 22, 1887, said : ''It has 
 been settled beyond question that school-life has 
 a damaging effect on the eyesight of children." 
 
 Listen to the cono-re^'ation in church on Sunday 
 morninsf, where there is nothing' to divert atten- 
 tion. From end to end of the church you will 
 hear an endless hackinsf and wheezins: from bron- 
 chial tubes in all stages of disease and decay. 
 Suppose you had a flock of sheep, and that you 
 came on them quietly some day, and heard such a 
 
14^ ETHICS OF BOXING AM) MANLY JSl'OUT. 
 
 foiighino; and wheezino- as this of the conirre<ration, 
 would you not shake your head? And, then, sup- 
 lK)se you learned that the 3'oung ones were o-row- 
 ing dim-sighted ? AVliat kind of farmer would vou 
 1)0 to go on treating those afflicted sheep on the 
 old condition that had caused their injury? 
 
 Plato reprehended a boy for playing at some 
 childish game. ''Thou reprovest me," said the 
 boy, *' for a very little thing."—" Custom," said 
 Plato, "is no little thiiiir." 
 
 And not only are we to be (unless we turn to 
 athletics for the cure) a race of bald-headed, round- 
 shouldered spectacle-wearers, but a race of uolv 
 dyspeptics, divided between lank-sides and pot- 
 bellies. What, with our horse-cars, crowded on 
 bright days, when every one should walk, with 
 our corseted women and irirls crushing- their 
 livers into their abdomen, and their hearts into 
 their lungs ; with our narrow-chested weaklings 
 with quavering stomachs, depending on the deadly 
 revival of the cocktail — may the Lord have pity 
 on our descendants ! 
 
 Beecher was riirht — there are some thinsfs vou 
 cannot learn out of a hynni-book half so well as out 
 of a tree. And there are other things you can 
 learn better than a precept can teach, out of a 
 sallow face, or a red nose, or (Udl eyes, or 
 peevish mouths, and miserable homes. You 
 
FOR CITY DWELLEKS AND CHILDREX. 149 
 
 can learn, for instance what rum does, what dissi- 
 pation does, what self-indulgence does, not only 
 on the morals l)ut on the personal appearance. 
 
 Vanity is a moral force as well as a moral weak- 
 ness : it depends on the direction and object. 
 
 AVhen vou cannot reach a vounix man's con- 
 science bv a temperance argument, you may 
 reach his vanity by leadino' him up to a shaky, 
 bleary, lyins:, home-cursins: drunkard, and tell 
 him that he is beginning to look like that! 
 
 Instead of lecturing' a youno; woman on the 
 folly of fashion, tell her, and prove to her, that 
 her beauty will be nuirdered ; that her eyes will 
 grow dim ; that she will die an old maid, sour 
 and wrinkled, if she continue to outrage the laws 
 of Nature by tyino' herself in the middle with 
 corset-strimrs like a livinir blood-puddina'. Hor- 
 rible taste ! Tell her to open her bed-room win- 
 dow, and let in the part of her that is outside, — • 
 the fresh part, the sweet air that belongs to her 
 heart, that her poor blood is rotting for. Tell 
 her that unless she does these thin2:s, and walks 
 and l)reathes and bends like an animal, as she is, 
 instead of ridins: on horse-cars and bua'ijies, and 
 mincins: o^^ hia'h-heeled shoes that distort her 
 feet, and ])reathini]: contamination in her hermeti- 
 cally-sealed bedroom, she will irct wrinkles round 
 her toothless mouth, and blue circles under her 
 
l/iO ETHICS OF BOXING AND MANLV SPOKT. 
 
 dull eyes, like all the other querulous, ill-tem- 
 pered and sour-fiiced maids and matrons who 
 crowd the horse-cars, and worry and abuse the 
 poor, tired girls in the stores. 
 
 Better burn all the school-books and school - 
 houses in America than 20 on another half cen- 
 turv conirestiniT the children's brains with memory- 
 cramniinir, blindino^ their siirht and crookinor their 
 backs with constant study. 
 
 Give us a rest ! Give us thne to play while we 
 are children ; for, God knows, we shall have work 
 enouirh, and too much, as men and women. 
 
 The whole system of American life, from child- 
 hood to old aire, miirht have been invented by a 
 distorted mind, bent on deirradinir the natural 
 beauty of the human form, and producing a race 
 of ugly, weak, near-sighted, selfish, vain, preju- 
 diced, ill-tempered, and unwholesome men and 
 women. 
 
 "A drunkard is always a liar," says an au- 
 thority ; and he might have added that a weak, 
 dyspeptic, devitalized man or woman is apt, if not 
 certain, to be a shirker, a snarler, a sensualist, a 
 sneak, and a coward, or more than one of these. 
 
 And to think of the endless, empty talk, talk, 
 talk of the future puling, bald-headed abnormality 
 of the cities ! For. with the decay of your real 
 man, surely swells the gaseous self-opinion of 
 
FOR CITY DWELLERS AXD CHILDREX. 151 
 
 voiir weakliiiij. What he loses in stamma, he is 
 sure to make up in gab. He will prate correc- 
 tion, but do none, either for himself or others. 
 He will preach labors and sacrifices he is afraid 
 and unable to practise. He will run not only .to 
 head, but to the sensual centres. Your big- 
 chested, bright-eyed, large-shouldered athlete is 
 never a vile sensualist. It is always your pot- 
 bellied, purple-fleshed, dew-lapped, soft-handed 
 creature, on the one hand, or your pallid, tremu- 
 lous, watery-eyed specimen on the other. 
 
 The only use in such men and women is to 
 manure the earth, to hold a warning up to his- 
 tory, and to be pushed out of the path of the 
 strong races, whom they tempt by their luxur}' 
 to become their conquerors and successors. 
 
 To make the future American all he ouo'ht to 
 be, physically, mentally, and spiritually, we must 
 build irvmnasiums as well as schools and churches. 
 AVe must honor the teachino; of health and strensftli 
 and beauty, as the Greeks did, as well as the teach- 
 iuij of books and sciences. We must cover our 
 incomparable rivers and lakes with canoes and 
 liixht outriir^^ed l)oats, as we are coverino: our bays 
 with white-sailed yachts. AVc must see that every 
 square fifty yards of clear ice in winter is covered 
 with merry skaters (the best of all exercises for 
 developing grace) ; and that the vile rinks for 
 
15-2 KTIIKS OF liOXIXC; AND MANLY SPORT. 
 
 roller-skating, with their atmospheres almost as 
 lihliy as their morals, are closed or torn down. 
 
 There ought to be a first, second, and third 
 l)rize in every school, public and private, for such 
 accomplishments as walkimr, swimminir, runnino-, 
 jumpino', boxinir, and climl)in2:. Our scholars 
 should 1)0 tauaht to cultivate body as well as 
 mind ; to breathe as well as to calculate ; to know 
 that strength is as sure to follow exercise as 
 knowledge to follow study. Then they will truly 
 know the meaning of the wise man (Johnson), 
 who said: " Such is the constitution of man that 
 labor may be said to be its own reward ; " and of 
 the eloquent man (Cicero), who said : "It is ex- 
 ercise alone that supports the spirits and keeps 
 the mind in viu'or." 
 
 IX. 
 
 CORPULENCE, DIET, AND SLEEP. 
 
 "Physic, for the most part, is nothing else 
 but the substitute of exercise and temperance," 
 says Addison. 
 
 " The only way for a rich man to be healthy is 
 by exercise and abstinence, to live as if he were 
 poor," says Sir W. Temple. 
 
CORPULENCE, DIET, AXD SLEEP 15,3 
 
 ( ( 
 
 A hale cobl:>ler," sa^s Bcckerstaff, " is better 
 than a sick kino-." 
 
 "111 these days," says Buhver Lytton, "half 
 our diseases come from the neglect of the l)ody 
 in the overwork of the l)rain. In this railway 
 aire the wear and tear of labor and intellect o-q on 
 without pause or self-pity. AVe live longer than 
 our forefathers ; l)ut we suffer more from a thou- 
 sand artificial anxieties and cares. They fatigued 
 only the muscles ; we exhaust the finer strength 
 of the nerves.'' 
 
 Corpulence is one of the penalties of under- 
 exercisinir, under-breathino", over-eatini>', and over- 
 drink ino'. 
 
 For the reduction of corpulence, the following 
 rules (Dr. T. K. Chtunbers) may 1)e ol)served 
 for a three weeks' course : — 
 
 "Kise at 7, rub the body well with liorse-liair gloves, have 
 a cold bath, and take a short turn in the open air. Breakfast 
 (alone) at 8 or S.oO on the lean of beef or mutton (cutting off 
 the fat and skin), dry toast, biscuit, or oat cake, a tumbler of 
 claret and water, or tea without milk or sugar, or made in the 
 Russian way with a slice of lemon. Lunch at 1 on bread or 
 biscuit, Dutch cheese, salad, water cresses, or roasted apples, 
 hung beef or anchovies, or red herring or olives, and similar 
 relishes. After eating, drink claret and water, or unsweetened 
 lemonade, or plain water, in moderation. Dine at any con- 
 venient hour. Avoid soup, fish, or pastry, but eat plain meat 
 of any sort, except pork, rejecting the fat and skin. Spinach, 
 haricots, or any other green vegetable may be taken, but no 
 potatoes, made dishes, or sweets. A jelly, or a l(>mon-watPr 
 
i;)4 ETHICS OF liOXIXG AND MANLY SPOHT. 
 
 ice, or a roast apple, may suffice in their place. Take claret 
 and water at dinner, and one glass of sherry or Maderia after- 
 wards. Between meals, as a rule, exercise nmst always be 
 taken to the extent of inducing perspiration. Kunning, when 
 practicable, is the best form in which to take it. Seven or eiuht 
 pounds is as much as is prudent to lose during the three weeks. 
 If this loss is arrived at sooner, or, indeed, later, the seveiv 
 parts of the treatment may be gradually omitted; but it is 
 strongly recommended to modify the general habits in accord- 
 ance with the principle of taking as small a quantity as possible 
 of fat and sugar, or of substances which form fat and sugar, 
 and sustaining the respiratory function. By this means the 
 weight may be gradually reduced for a few months with safety." 
 
 If ;i man in traininir, or in cveiy-day life, finds 
 that lio cannot get off his flesli, and so clear his 
 Avind, with the ordinary routine of exercise, cut 
 off his sugar and liis potatoes, just to try how it 
 acts. ''Witli some digestions, sugar makes no 
 difierence,'* says AV. ?>. AVoodford (-'Oars and 
 Sculls" ;) witli others an ounce or two of suirar in 
 a day makes a pound or so of fat, which, l)iit for 
 the sugar, would have turned into muscle. The 
 four or five lumps, or spoonfuls, that a man would 
 take at breakfast and supper would, with some 
 men, put on more fat in one day than a two-mile 
 run would take oflV 
 
 For a more permanent reduction of fat, there 
 is nothing that can he depended on except a well- 
 prescribed regimen, such as that of Bantinir, who 
 reduced his weight forty-six pounds, and his bulk 
 
CORPULENCE, DIET, AND SLEEP. 155 
 
 over twelve inches round the waist, *' and this 
 after having vainly tried all that medical aid could 
 do for him." Banting's plan consisted in abstaining 
 as much as possible "from bread, butter, milk, 
 sugar, beer, and potatoes, which had been the 
 main (and I thought innocent) elements of my 
 existence." At first this looks like sweeping the 
 table clean ; but we are reassured by the bill-of- 
 fare that remains. " For breakfast," savs Mr. 
 Bantino:, " I take four or five ounces of beef, 
 mutton, kidnej^s, broiled fish, bacon, or cold 
 meat of any kind, except j^orl: ; a large cup of 
 tea (without milk or sugar), a little biscuit, or 
 some dry toast. For dinner, any fish, except 
 salmon, eels, or herrings ; anv meat, except pork ; 
 any vegetable except potatoes ; some dry toast ; 
 fruit out of a pudding ; any kind of poultry or 
 game. For tea : fruit, a rusk or two, or toast, 
 and tea without milk or sugar. For supper : 
 meat similar to dinner." For alcoholic drinks, 
 Mr. Banting only ruled out champagne, port, 
 and beer. 
 
 Undoubtedly this regimen has been successful 
 in innumeral)le cases. Its author, indeed, de- 
 clared that it not only reduced his corpulency, 
 but cured him of deafness and other ailments.* 
 
 *A specialist writing on corpulence, says: — ^' A constant 
 free indulgence in vegetable foods favors the accumulation of 
 
l')!) ETHICS OF BOXING AND MANLY srOKT. 
 
 Sidney Smith, writino: to Lord Murray, said, 
 lialf })layfully, " If you wish for anything like 
 hai)piness in the fifth act of life, eat and drink 
 al){)ut one half of what 3'ou could eat and drink. 
 Did I eyer tell you my calculation about eatinir 
 and drinkinir? Ilayinir ascertained the weight of 
 what I could live upon so as to preserve my health 
 and strength, and what I did live upon, I found 
 that, between ten and seyenty years of asfe, I had 
 eaten and drank forty horse-wairon loads of meat 
 and drink more than would have preserved me in 
 life and health ! The value of this mass of nour- 
 
 fat. The same may be said of thick soups, sauces and spices, 
 puddings, pies, cakes, all sweets, milk, and even water, if 
 drunk to excess. Alcoholic and malt liquors are notorious fat- 
 producers. The majority of those people who use them contin- 
 uously and in considerable quantities, sooner or later show an 
 increase in fat. Here a question arises: Is the fat produced 
 by alcoholic liquors, such as whiskey, brandy etc., of the same 
 character as that put on by malt liquors? It woidd appear that 
 there is a difference. Malt liquors do not degenerate the system 
 of the indulger as does alcohol, which has rightly been termed 
 ' the genius of degeneration.' Malt liquors have nutritive prop- 
 erties, and they contribute to bodily support. The beer-drinker 
 is fat and florid, and within certain limits his fat is wholesome. 
 He has an excess of blood, and suffers from what is known as 
 plethora, while the tippler of alcohol, sooner or later, suffers 
 from aniemia, or poverty of the blood. The following is a mod- 
 ification of the various regimens which have been advised by 
 different physicians who have closely studied the disease. 
 This list is generally accepted by the profession. 
 
 "Foods which may be eaten: Beef tea, mutton broth, 
 
CORPULENCE, DIET, AND SLEEP. 157 
 
 ishment I consider to be worth seven thousand 
 pounds sterling. It occurred to me that I must, 
 by my voracity, have starved to death nearly 
 one hundred persons ! This is a frightful calcu- 
 lation, but irresistibly true ; and I think, dear 
 Murray, your wagons would require an addi- 
 tional horse each ! " 
 
 Says Shelley, the poet : — 
 
 "On a natural system of diet, old age would be our last 
 and oui* only malady; the term of our existence would be pro- 
 tracted; we would enjoy life, and no longer preclude others 
 from the enjoyment of it; all sensational delights would be 
 infinitely more exquisite and perfect ; the very sense of being 
 would then be a continued pleasure, such as we now feel it in 
 some few and favored moments of our youth. By all that is 
 sacred in our hopes for the human race, I conjure those who 
 love happiness and truth to give a fair trial to the vegetable 
 system. Eeasoning is surely superfluous on a subject whose 
 merits an experience of six months would set forever at rest. " 
 
 chicken soup, stewed oysters, beef, mutton, veal, ham, eggs in 
 any form, game, poultry, and fish of all kinds, onions, celery, 
 cresses, cabbage, tomatoes, radishes, squash, turnips, stale 
 bread sparingly, toast sparingly, gluten biscuit, only three 
 ounces of breadstuff per day. Grapes and oranges are allowed. 
 As much water as the system needs should be indulged. On 
 this point no rule can be given. Some people suffering from 
 obesity drink but very little water, less, even, than they actually 
 need. They should drink more freely. On the other hand, the 
 obese person who makes it a habit of drinking several quarts of 
 water a clay should lessen the quantity considerably. Tea or 
 coffee without milk or sugar is allowed. Sour wines may be 
 taken occasionally, but sweet wines are prohibited. If diges- 
 tion is reasonably good, none of the articles advised in the fore- 
 
158 p:tiiics of boxing and manly spokt. 
 
 How to insure sleep has become a matter of 
 speculation. Some think early rising is a sover- 
 eign remedy. 
 
 Early to bed, and early to rise, 
 
 Make a man healthy and wealthy and wise.' 
 
 There is no need to prescribe recipes for sleep 
 to a healthy, well-exercised man or woman. They 
 will fall asleep as naturally as they breathe. But 
 many persons, whose constitutions are out of gear, 
 adopt artificial methods. Says Dr. Smiles : — 
 
 "One tries to sleep by repeating the multiplication table; 
 another repeats some bit of well-known poetry, A missionary, 
 troubled with sleeplessness, repeated the Lord's Prayer until 
 Satan sent him to sleep to get rid of it; and he says that he 
 never found that recipe to fail. Another looks at an imagin- 
 ary point, and follows it far off in the distance, thus inducinir 
 the hypnotism of brain. Some, like Dr. Franklin, believe in 
 the air bath, and others in a pillow of hops." 
 
 going will prove burdensome. If there is much dyspepsia, and 
 it does not soon disappear under this diet, why, then, the suf- 
 ferer nuist refrain from eating what he knows by experience 
 aggravates his trouble. Eat slowly and chew the food thor- 
 oughly, is a golden rule for all to follow. 
 
 " To regulate the diet is by no means all a fat person must 
 do to become thin. He must exercise freely and judiciously. 
 Walking is good exercise, if one does enough of it and walks 
 properly. If he merely saimters along for four or five miles, 
 Avith his hands in his pockets, it will probably do him very 
 little good. lie will need to ' make a business' of walking — 
 swing his anns, and, in fact, work the whole upper part of his 
 body. There is a variety of apparatuses now on sale under the 
 names ' home exercises,' ' noiseless chest weights,' etc. One 
 
CORPULENCE, DIET, AND SLEEP. lo'J 
 
 The following is the method of producing sleep, 
 according to Dr. Biuns, in his "Anatomy of 
 Sleep " : — 
 
 ' How TO Produce Sleep. — Let him tiirn on his right 
 side; place his head comfortably on the pillow, so that it ex- 
 actly occupies the angle a line drawn from the head to the 
 j^houlder woiild form: and then, slightly closing his lips, take 
 rather a full inspiration, breathing as much as he possibly can 
 through the nostrils. This, however, is not absolutely neces- 
 sary, as some persons breathe always through their mouths 
 during sleep, and rest as sound as those who do not. Ha^•ing 
 taken a full inspiration, the Imigs are then to be left to their 
 own action; that is, the respiration is neither to be accelerated 
 nor retarded. The attention must now be fixed upon the ac- 
 tion in which the patient is engaged. He must depict to him- 
 self that he sees the breath passing from his nostrils in a 
 continuous stream; and, the verj' instant that he brings his 
 mind to conceive this apart from all other ideas, consciousness 
 and memory depart, imagination slumbers, fancy becomes 
 dormant, thought subdued; the sentiment faculties -lose their 
 susceptibility; the vital or ganglionic system assumes the sov- 
 ereignty; and, as we before remarked, he no longer wakes, but 
 sleeps. This train of phenomena is but the effect of a moment. 
 The instant the mind is brought to the contemplation of a 
 single sensation, that instant the sensorium abdicts the throne, 
 and tlie hji^noctic faculty steeiDS itself in oblivion.*' 
 
 of these can easily be set up in home or office, and very great 
 benefit will in a short time follow its use. These contrivances 
 are especially adapted to develop the upi^er part of the body. 
 Walk to develop the lower part. If one cannot afi'ord a ' home 
 gNTiinasium.' which costs from six to ten dollars, let him buy a 
 cord of wood, and saw on that for half an hour a day ; he will 
 find himself a much better man physically, as well as mentally, 
 in a very short time." 
 
1(50 ETHICS OF BOXING AND MANLY srORT. 
 
 Another method was that followed by Dr. 
 Southey. To James AVhite, he said : 
 
 " Follow my practice of making my last employment in the 
 day something miconnected with other pnrsnits, and you will 
 ))e able to lay your head upon a pillow like a child/' 
 
 The late Archbishop Whately, of Dublin, was 
 a hard brain-worker, and required a compensating 
 amount of sleep. He knew well that the brain 
 weakens under continued and protracted lal)or, 
 especially at night. Accordingly he adopted a 
 method of ensuring sleep and rest. One winter 
 day a medical friend accompanied Dr. Field to 
 the archbishop's house at Redesdale, Stillorgan. 
 The ground was covered with two feet of snow, 
 and the thermometer was doAvn almost to zero. 
 As the couple of doctors passed they saw an old 
 laboring man felling a tree, while a heavy shower 
 of sleet drifted pitilessly in his wrinkled face. 
 One of them thouii^ht, what a cruel master that 
 man nuist have. The other said, " That laborer, 
 whom }ou think the victim of prelatical des- 
 potism, is no otlier than the archbishop curing 
 himself of a headache. AVhen his Grace has 
 been reading and writing more than ordinarily, 
 and finds any pain or confusion about the cer- 
 ebral organization, he puts both to flight by 
 rushing out with an ax and slashing away at some 
 
HINTS FOR TKAINING AND GOOD IIP:ALTII. 1()1 
 
 ponderous trunks. As soon as he finds himself 
 in a profuse perspiration he gets into bed, wraps 
 himself in Limerick ])lankets, falls into a sound 
 slumber and gets up Imoyant." 
 
 X. 
 
 HINTS FOR TRAINING AND GOOD HEALTH. 
 
 Do not run before breakfast : if you want 
 exercise, walk. It is well even before a walk to 
 take a cup of tea or coffee. 
 
 Before cold bathins: in the mornins:, ^ brisk 
 rubbinof down with roua'h o'loves or towel will 
 increase the pleasure and efficacy of the bath. 
 After bathina* ahvavs a thorough rubbino-. (There 
 are rough-silk mittens made by George F. Brown, 
 of Boston, which are excellent for both wet and 
 dry rubljing.) 
 
 Take a Turkish bath once a fortnio-ht. 
 
 Moderation is the secret of o-ood trainini? and 
 good health — moderation in exercise, as well as 
 in eating, drinking, and sleep. 
 
 Never sleep on a pillow, unless you are sick, 
 and it is ordered for some special reason. Nature 
 never intended man, or any other animal, in sleep- 
 
1()2 i: lines of boxing and manly spout. 
 
 inir to raise the head liiixher than the shoulders. 
 Pillows interfere with the breathing, and weaken 
 the muscles of the neck. To sleep without a 
 pillow, on a perfectly flat mattress, is the luxury 
 of rest, because of the natural position. It soon 
 increases the orii'th of the neck from one to two 
 inches, by making the neck-muscles stretch and 
 fully do their work. It allows the chest to deep'::"} 
 its breathing; and it prevents, to a large degree 
 wakefulness and snorinir. The discomfort of 
 putting away the pillow lasts less than a week, 
 and once you have tasted the delight of a free, 
 level sleep you will never be induced again to 
 double your chin down on your breast, or your 
 ear over on your shoulder, by using a pillow. 
 All children should be told these reasons, and then 
 their pillows should be taken away. A horse's or 
 a dofif's shoulders are his/her than a man's ; but he 
 who wants to sleep well can learn from those 
 animals how the head should be laid. 
 
 Go to bed at ten and get up at seven. 
 
 Open your bedroom window, and, if possible, 
 make a drauijht throus^h the room, but not across 
 your bed. 
 
 Never exercise in a room with closed windows. 
 
 If you have no time for open-air exercise, go 
 through various muscular motions with dumb- 
 bells in your room, with the windows open, on 
 
HINTS FOR TRALN'ING AND GOOD HEALTH. 16o 
 
 rising and before lying down. Open-air exercise 
 is not indispensable to health.* 
 
 The test of moderation in exercise is fatigue. 
 Xever 2:0 on with any muscular exercise when 
 you are tired. 
 
 A celebrated physician asked an old man, 
 remarkable for his health, what regimen he used. 
 " I take only one meal a day," he answered. 
 "Keep your secret," said the physician; "if it 
 were known and followed, our profession would 
 be ruined." 
 
 *Mr. John M. Lafliii, of Xew York, the "model-man"' of 
 the Vienna Exposition, is an accomplished athlete, and a cham- 
 pion in many lines. For several years he stood in the Paris 
 Life School for Gerome and many other famons painters of the 
 hnman figure, and he has drawings made by them which show 
 him to be one of the few perfectly- formed men. He is six 
 feet two and one-half inches in height, with a forty-six inch 
 chest, seventeen -inch biceps, and everj' muscle of his body 
 equally develoi^ed. He has given lifelong attention to ath- 
 letics. He says : — 
 
 " The best of all-round exercises is rowing. It brings all 
 the muscles into play, particularly those least used in 
 ordinary light exertion. The sliding setit proved to be not only 
 a good thing for racing, but a great improver of rowing as an 
 exercise. It brings the muscles of the legs, loins, stomach, and 
 back into better action. For women nothing is so beneficial as 
 rowing. 
 
 " TTsing hea\7^ bells is worse than useless. You can get up 
 all the perspiration you want by swinging a one-pomid iron in 
 each liand in lively fashion for a minute or two. If you do not 
 perspire freely, or are subject to pains in the joints or muscles, 
 or your circulation is sluggish, you can attach a battery to the 
 
1()4 KTIIIC.S OF JU)XK\(J AM) IMANLV Sl'ORT. 
 
 ''There is no disease, bodily or mental," says 
 Shelley, " which adoption of vegetable diet and 
 pure water has not infallibly mitigated where- 
 ever the experiment has been fairly tried." I do 
 not recommend a vegetable diet, but these ex- 
 periences induce thought on the matter of healthy 
 food. 
 
 Eat no rich o-ravies, nor meat twice cooked ; and 
 eat nothimr fried that you can have broiled. 
 
 Stupid people say "sawing wood is good ex- 
 ercise." Remember that good exercise must be 
 
 bells. That is a new idea, and a very good one. An electric bat- 
 tery of considerable power can be enclosed in a box not much 
 bigger than a well-filled pocket-book. This is hung about the 
 neck by a cord, so as to fall upon the breast. Two wires con- 
 nect it with the dumb-bells, and when the bells are grasped, a 
 regulated current passes through the body, starts the circula- 
 tion, and wakes one up generally. The wearer can walk 
 around the room swinging the arms, striking in any direction, 
 and gettinsf exercise and electricity all at once. If that does 
 not start the perspiration nothing will. Another good appara- 
 tus, and a cheap one, is a striking-bag. It is easily made. 
 Put a ring in the ceiling; tie a stout cord to the ring, and at 
 the lower end of the cord fasten a foot-ball, to hang at about 
 the height of the chin. To the lower side of the foot-ball 
 attach a piece of rubber gas pipe, and make the end fast to a 
 ring in the floor. That prevents the. ball from flying all about 
 the room when struck, and brings it back quickly. Punching 
 that foot-ball is pretty lively work, and the best kind of exer- 
 cise for a boxer. Then the rubber straps with handles, which 
 can be obtained almost anywhere, give a great variety of exer- 
 cise, are inexpensive, and take up no room. With such appar- 
 atus a man or woman can have a gjannasium at home, and one 
 
HINTS FOR TRAIXLNG AXD GOOD HUALTH. ll>5 
 
 i"ecreation (re-creation, or renewal of vigor), and 
 there is no recreation in sawinsr wood, or anv 
 other la1x)rious occup;ition. 
 
 Remember that pleasure is a means as well as 
 an end. The exercise that has in it the element 
 of amusement is ten times as healthv as a listless 
 walk. 
 
 Xever attempt severe mental or bodily lalx)r 
 after a meal. 
 
 K possible take your heavy tasks, mental or 
 bodilv, in the forenoon. 
 
 hour out of twenty-four devoted to exercise and mbbing. will 
 keep anybody in good condition, and make him healthy and 
 cheerftiL if not wealthy and wise. Swimming is one of the 
 best of exercises, hut unfortunately the opportunities for indulg- 
 ing in the sport are limited. It is good for the arms, legs, back, 
 and almost all parts of the frame, and it increases the lung 
 power better than anything else. 
 
 '* One need not train like an athlete, and a man does not 
 Te«iuire a physique like mine, to be jjerfectlj' healthy; but if 
 men and women could be kept healthy for a few generations, 
 physical development like mine would be the rule, not the 
 exception. Xine-tenths of the diseases that now keep the 
 doctors busy would be absolutely unknown. No healthy man 
 ever got pnetmionia, no matter what the exposure. Ther>e is 
 no case on record of a sailor having pneumonia. This is 
 because a sailor s lungs are kept in good order by pure air. and 
 he gets plenty of exercise. The amount of exercise necessary 
 to keep the body in good condition is less than you might sup- 
 pose. Fifteen minutes a day, rightly employed, will do won- 
 ders. A person ought to exercise a few minutes in the morn- 
 ing, and then take a sponge-bath in salted water, followed by 
 vigorous rubbing with hair gloves or a coarse toweL The 
 
1{M\ KTIIICS OF BOXINa AM) MANLY SPORT. 
 
 Everv niorniiig. in the ()i)en air, till the lungs 
 twontv times slowly with fresh uir (inlialin": 
 through the nostrils), and expire suddenly 
 throuiih the mouth. This will strengthen the 
 lungs, renew the resident air, induce a habit of 
 deep-breathing, and enlarge the chest. 
 
 The best of all exercises for physical develop- 
 ment is all-round glove-boxing, practised with 
 skill and temper ; the next best is long swinnning, 
 with the over-hand stroke and an occasional 
 chana'e of hands ; then follow these exercises 
 
 movements of the muscles start the imimrities to the surface, 
 and the bath cleans the pores. The exercise ought to be light. 
 I don't believe in exertion that taxes the muscular strength. 
 Ileenan and all those old-time athletes thought they must use 
 hundred-pound dumb-bells and trot around with great lead 
 soles on their shoes. That made them heavy and slow, and 
 exhausted their strength needlessly. One-pound dumb-bells 
 are heavy enough for anybody, and Indian clubs should not 
 ■weigh more than four or five pounds at the outside. Gymnasts 
 should not use lieaA'y weights at all. What is needed to 
 develope muscle is movement, action — not strain. You don't 
 train a trotter by hitching him to a loaded coal-cart, and mak- 
 ing him drag that around the track. Ilanlan doesn't get into 
 a whaleboat for a scull race. The lifting of hea^'y weights is 
 bad for a man, and the men who trained themselves to lift a 
 ton killed themselves. Over-training and over-exercising of 
 any kind is injurious, and that is why college boat-racing is 
 not always a good thing. The weakest man in the boat must 
 work too hard. A man is only as strong as his weakest point, 
 and you put too much strain on him and he will give away at 
 tliat point. That is why I advocate light exercise for health. 
 The exerciser should never get tired." . 
 
HINTS FOR TRAINIXG AND GOOD HEALTH. IGT 
 
 which I phice in the order of their excellence : 
 river-canoeing (double paddle), shell-rowing, 
 hand-ball, lawn-tennis, fencing, walking, and all 
 kinds of irvmnasiuni work. 
 
 During exercise, especially in walking, keep 
 the abdominal muscles well under the will, so 
 that the abdomen may be drawn in, and kept in, 
 for any length of time. The abdominal muscle 
 is the test of condition. Some people never con- 
 trol it ; and from youth to asfe the belly leads 
 the man. When the abdominal muscle 2:ets the 
 better of a man, he has said good-by to his 
 athletics. 
 
AiNCIENT IRISH ATHLETIC GAMES, 
 EXERCISES, AND WEAPONS. 
 
 I. 
 
 THE MUSEUM OF THE ROYAL IRISH ACADEMY, 
 
 DUBLIX. 
 
 The gladiatorial shows of Rome had corrupted 
 and brutalized the world, for, with the exception 
 of Ireland, the entire Western world was within 
 the Roman Empire. After Ital}', the countries 
 most famous for their amphitheatres, were Gaul 
 (France), Xortli Africa, and Spain. 
 
 To the honor of Greece, it was the only Roman 
 province where the brutalities of the arena were 
 never shown or permitted. 
 
 In ancient as in modern times, the Irish, as a 
 nation, were devoted to athletic games and skill 
 with weapons, and had won extraordinary distinc- 
 tion for feats of arms, agility, and strength.* 
 
 * Professor Forbes, of the University of Edinburgli, some 
 years ago instituted an extensive series of observations of the 
 size and strength of tlie students attending the University. He 
 found that the Irish students were the tallest and strongest 
 nion. Professor Quetelet, of the University of Brussels, insti- 
 tuted similar investigations, covering a number of years, testing 
 
 (169) 
 
170 ETIIIC8 OF J30XING AND MANLY SFORT. 
 
 The games and athletic exercises of ancient 
 Ireland ouirht to have a laru^e volume devoted to 
 them. They are unlike those of all other nations, 
 though least unlike tho:?e of Greece. They pos- 
 sess extraordinary archaeological and ethnological 
 value. 
 
 It is sincerely to be hoped that some student 
 of Irish antiquities will soon follow in the 
 lighted footsteps of Prof. Eugene O'Curry, Dr. 
 O'Donovan, and Sir William Wilde. 
 
 the quality of Belgians, Englishmen, Scotchmen, and Irishmen. 
 He found the average height of the Belgian to be sixty-eight 
 inches, of the Englishman sixty-eight and one half, of the 
 Scotchman sixty-nine, and of the Irishman seventy inches; 
 that the average weight in pounds of the Belgian was one hun- 
 dred and fifty pounds, of the Englishman one himdred and 
 fifty-one, of the Scotchman one hundred and fifty-two, and of 
 the Irishman one himdred and fifty-five pounds; and that the 
 average strength as indicated by a blow given to the plate of a 
 spring dynamometer, in pounds, was, of the Belgian, three 
 hundred and thirty-nine pounds, of the Englishman four hun- 
 dred and three pounds, of the Scotchman, four hundred and 
 twenty-three pounds, and of the Irishman, four hundred and 
 thirty-two pounds. 
 
 "The Irish are thus," says Sir Kobert Kane, L.L.D., "the 
 tallest, strongest, and heaviest of the four races." And Sir 
 Robert Kane adds, "Mr. Field, an eminent mechanical engi- 
 neer of London, had occasion to examine the relative powers 
 of British and Irish laborers to raise weights by means of a 
 crane. He communicated his results to the Institute of Civil 
 Engineers in London. He found that the. utmost efforts of a 
 man, lifting at the rate of one foot per minute, ranged in 
 Englishmen from eleven thousand five hundred and five to 
 
MUSEUM OF THE ROYAL IRISH ACADEMY. 171 
 
 « 
 
 O'Curry's great work *' On the Manners and 
 Customs of the Ancient Irish " is a mine of infor- 
 mation for the archivoloizical scholars of all times 
 and nations : as are the works of Dr. Petrie, 
 Prof. Sullivan, Dr. P. ^y. Joyce, Lady ^Vilde, 
 Prof. Whitle}' Stokes, and others. 
 
 It may be well to sav here that a wonderfully 
 interesting collection of the ancient weapons, 
 mentioned in this article, may be seen in Ireland. 
 
 twenty-fom- thousand two liiuidred and fifty-five pounds, 
 and in Irislunen from seventeen thousand three himdred and 
 twenty-five to twenty-seven thousand five hundred and sixty- 
 two pounds. I have no reason to doubt that these figures rej)- 
 resent the existing conditions of these respective populations. 
 Those experiments were carefidly made at the time, and the 
 results were as given."' 
 
 Sir John Davies, an eminent Englishman, who was Attor- 
 ney-General of Ireland in 1616, in his " Historical Tracts,"' 
 says, '• The bodies and minds of the Irish people are imbued 
 with exti^aordinaiy abilities by nature."" 
 
 At the present day the most famous athletes of the world 
 are of Irish birth or extraction. They hold the highest j^laces 
 on record in almost everj' branch of athletic sport, both ama- 
 teur and professional. Bicycle-riding alone seems to be the 
 athletic exercise least attractive to men of the Irish race, at 
 least in America; though Con. D^\•5•er, an Irishman, is the 
 champion amateur bicycle-rider of all the Australasian 
 colonies. 
 
 In swimming, for one hmidred and five hundred yards, 
 J. Haggerty, an Irishman, beat Chas. Beckwith in London, in 
 May, 1S8T, and won the world's championship. The best 
 under- water swimmer in the world is T. W. Reiily, who won 
 the championship at Stockport, England, in Jidy, 1S87; in 
 
^^■2 KTIIirS OF l'.()\I\(} AM) MANLY SPOUT. 
 
 Sir AA'illiam Wilde says: ''The largest, most 
 varied, most highly-decorated collection of bronze 
 weapons existing is to be found in our museum 
 [Royal Irish Academy, Du])lin], along with 
 numerous specimens of the moulds in which they 
 were cast, discovered on the very spot where the 
 ancient workman had lit his furnace." 
 
 America, the three best swimmers are T. Riley, R. P. Magee, 
 and C. Dunlevy. 
 
 Edward Ilanlan, an Irish-Canadian, of Toronto, was the 
 sculHng champion of the world, till lie was beaten in Australia 
 in November, 1887, by W. Beach, an Irish- Australian. 
 
 In coUar-and-elbow wrestling, J. 11. McLaughlin is the 
 champion of the United States; and in Graeco-Roman wrest- 
 ling, the United States championship is disputed by Wm. Mul- 
 doon and Denis Gallagher; while John Connor who held the 
 championship of the Australian Colonies, yielded it up in May, 
 1887, to T. Cannon, another Irish- Australian. 
 
 The champion high-jumper of Australia is J. W. Byrne, 
 who also holds the record for the hop-step- and -jump (forty- 
 three feet eight and one-half inches) ; but the champion of the 
 world for a hoi>step-and-jump is J. Purcell, of Ireland, who, at 
 Limerick, in June, 1887, cleared forty-eight feet three inches. 
 On the same ground, September, 1887, J. S. Mitchell threw the 
 sixteen-pound hammer one hundred and twenty-four feet and 
 one half inch, the best amateur throw ever made. He also 
 threw the fifty-six-pound hammer thirteen feet and one half 
 inch high. 
 
 The Shamrock Lacrosse Club, all Irish-Canadians, holds the 
 championship of Canada for years past. 
 
 The hand-ball championship of the world is held by Phil, 
 Casey, of Brooklyn, N. Y., who beat the former champion, J. 
 Lawler, of Dublin, Ireland, in August, 1887. 
 
 G. Tracy, of Halifax, is champion amateur half-mile runner 
 
"MUSEUM OF THP: ROYAL HUSH ACADEMY. 173 
 
 This effectively disposes of the verdict of Pro- 
 fessor Lindenschmidt, of Mayence, who asserted, 
 in one of his earlier works, that " all the bronze 
 articles found north of the Alps were imported 
 from Etruria." 
 
 Again, sa3^s Sir William AVilde ("Ancient 
 Races of Ireland"') : "Ireland possesses not only 
 the largest native collection of metal weapon- 
 
 of Canada (Halifax, 1887, two minutes one and three-fifths 
 seconds). 
 
 In boxing, there is no need to say that the Irisli race has the 
 best men in tlie world. John L. Sullivan is the hea\*^'- weight 
 champion of the world. Jem Smith, an Anglo-Irishman, is 
 the heavy-weight champion of England, and next to him is 
 Charles Mitchell, also of Irish jDarents. In America, John, or 
 "Jake,"' Kilrain stands next to Sullivan, and John Dempsey 
 is the middle-weight champion of the world. Jem Carney, an 
 Anglo-Irishman, is the light-weight champion of the world. 
 
 Among the greatest walkers, for speed and distance ever 
 known in America, are Daniel O'Leary, John Ennis, and 
 Patrick Fitzgerald. The champion walker of Australia, Scott, 
 is an Irishman. LaAvrence Foley, an Irishman, is the cham- 
 pion lieaA-j-- weight boxer of Australia: and Irish- Australians 
 are the leading athletes in cricket, foot-ball, and rowing clubs. 
 The best runner Australia ever had. Bob Watson, was an Irish- 
 man; and among the most famous professional oarsmen of 
 Australia are the names of Ilickey, Punch, Rush, Clifford, and 
 Matheson, all Irishmen, or sons of Irishmen. 
 
 Among base-ball players of the highest order in America, 
 the names of Irish- Americans have the foremost places, and 
 they are too numerous to mention. Michael J. Kelly is the 
 leading player of America. There is, in fact, no branch of 
 athletics in which Irishmen, or the sons of Irishmen, do not 
 hold the first places against all the world. 
 
174 ETHICS OF BOXING AND MANLY SPORT. 
 
 tools, usually denominated 'celts,' of any country 
 in the world, but the second larirest amount of 
 
 * — ' 
 
 swords and battle-axes. And, moreover, these, 
 and all the other ancient metal articles of Ireland, 
 show a well-defined rise and development from 
 the simplest and rudest form in size and use to 
 that of the most elaborately constructed and the 
 most beautifully adorned." 
 
 The time is approaching Avhen this marvellous 
 collection of antiquities will be a centre of world- 
 interest, especially to those of Irish or Celtic 
 extraction. An Irish-American traveller from 
 Boston, last year, a scholar and observer, declared 
 on his return that the most interestinsr and in- 
 structive day he had spent in any European 
 country was that on which he had visited the 
 Museum of the Royal Irish Academy. 
 
 II. 
 
 THE MOST ANCIENT WEAPONS USED IN IRELAND. 
 
 The weapons and armor of the ancient Irish 
 were, in the main, like those of the Greeks, with 
 a greater variety in the length and shape of both 
 spear and sword, 
 
 "In the year of the world 4465," translatincr 
 
ANCIENT AVEAPONS USED IN IKELAND. 175 
 
 from the ''Book of Leinster," " died the monarch 
 Luo'haidh Laiahiie, of the line of Eber, after a 
 reisfii of seven years. He was the first that made 
 bronze and bronze spears in Erinn." 
 
 "The stone man," savs Prof, ^y . K. Sullivan, 
 Ph.D., Secretary of the Roval Irish Academy, 
 •' appeared before the bronze man, and the latter 
 before the iron man. A^'herever a bronze spear, 
 or other implement of the same nature, was found, 
 a Celt had passed there ; an iron weapon was a 
 sure mark of the footsteps of an Anglo-Saxon, or 
 some other branch of the a'reat Teutonic stem." 
 
 Without entering on the rich question of the 
 analyses of bronzes, it is enouirh to state that 
 ancient weapons of true bronze, and of bronzes 
 more or less mixed with tin and lead, have been 
 found in Ireland in great abundance. The spears 
 of the Tuatha De Danann (1200 b. c), however, 
 are described as " sharp, thin, and hard,'' which, 
 prol)ably, means that they were of iron. 
 
 From the earliest records, relatimr to the bat- 
 ties between the Firbolgs (Ireland's primitive 
 people) and the Tuatha De Danann (the battle of 
 Mairh Tuireadh, between the Firbolo-s and the 
 Tuatha De Danann, was fought b. c. 1272), we 
 learn that the accoutrements of a Fn-bolir warrior 
 going to the field were "a hooked shield"; two 
 croisecks, or thick-handled spears, for thrusting; 
 
i7() ETHICS or liOXING AND MANLY SPORT. 
 
 a sword ; a club, or mace (see page 
 191); and a square helmet: while a 
 chief of the Tuatha De Danann used a 
 shield, a sword, and two spears. 
 
 The craiseclL of the Firboli^; was a 
 l)ointless spear, rounded and sharpened 
 on the fvowicCi^G^ and fastened to its pole 
 by rivets. The spear of the Tuatha De 
 Danann was " thin-pointed and sharp," 
 and the sword "hard and sharp." 
 
 Whence the Tuatha De Danann came 
 to Ireland has not been settled. They 
 were a highly-civilized peo})le. They 
 
 conquered the Fir- 
 bolirs, and ruled Ire- 
 land for two cen- 
 turies, till conquered 
 in their turn l)v the 
 ]\Iilesians, who came 
 from Spain. (An- 
 cient Irish annalists 
 call them Scythians.) 
 All these weapons 
 were made of fine 
 bronze, as were all 
 the weapons of the 
 Irish down to about 
 FiRBOLo cRAisECH. tiic Lliristian era. dan. swuud. 
 
ANCIENT WEAPONS USED IN IRELAND. 177 
 
 The ancient Irish, also, used slighter, pointed 
 spears (the slegh and the Jaiglivi) for both thrust- 
 ing and throwing ; some splendid bronze speci- 
 mens of these are preserved in the Museum of 
 the Eoyal Irish Academy. 
 
 No. 3. —BRONZE SWORD. 
 
 (Similar weapon used by ancient Romans, Scandinavians and Irish.) 
 
 The weapons mentioned as having been used in 
 the first battle of ]\Iagh Tuireadh (b. c. 1272) are 
 the craisech, or pointless spear; the Jiarlanna, or 
 curved, pointless blade (see Xo. 31, page 209) ; 
 swords and maces ; the nianais, or broad thi'ust- 
 ing spear (see pp. 18 G, 187 and 217) ; the sler/h, or 
 pointed casting-spear (see pages 226 and 227). 
 Later, we find the fogha, or short spear; the 
 saighead-bohj, or belly-dart ; and the lic-taihne, 
 or sling-stone (see page 196). 
 
 Besides this latter curious missile (doubtless 
 exactly like that with which David killed Goliath), 
 the Irish used a round stone for throwing, which 
 they carried in a strap inside their shields. 
 
 In the vear B. c. 307 there was added "the 
 broad green spear," undoubtedly of green bronze 
 (see Xo. 32, page 216) ; and in b. c. 123, at 
 the battle of Ath Comair, we find the lia lamha 
 lakh, or champion's hand-stone. (See next page.) 
 
178 ETHICS OF BOXING AND MANLY SPOKT. 
 
 ( i 
 
 It is reiiiarku])le/' savs 
 Professor O'Curry, " that 
 in none of the more an- 
 cient historical or romantic 
 tracts of Ireland is there 
 any allusion whatever to 
 bows and arrows ; and what 
 is moreremarkal)le and im- 
 portant, there is no model 
 found for them among the 
 other stone and metal weap- 
 ons which have come down 
 from the ancient times, 
 either in Erinn or an}' of 
 the neighboring countries. 
 jS"o barbed instrument in 
 ordinary stone or bronze 
 has yet been discovered ; 
 nor has there been ever 
 found in Erinn, as far as 
 we know, a flint arrow- 
 head in company with any 
 one or more bronze spears, 
 
 or CHAMPIONS IIA.ND-STOXE. J.^.tS, OrSWOrds." 
 
 The sword, spear, javelin, and shield continued 
 m use in Ireland for at least two thousand vears. 
 They were the only weapons of offence and de- 
 fence in St. Patrick's time (a. d. 432), and they 
 were the arms of the Irish in the Danish Invasion 
 
 No. 4. 
 
 LIA LA-MUA LAKII. 
 
ANCIENT WEAPONS USED IN IRELAND. 
 
 179 
 
 (about the year 820), when the first 
 notice is made of the use of battle-axes 
 and bows and arrows in Ireland. 
 
 Chaucer bears witness that the Irish 
 
 No. 5 No. 6. No. 7. 
 
 TUATHA DE DANANN SWORDS.— Described as " hard and sharp." 
 
 allies of Bruce, on the field of Bannockburn 
 (a. D. 1314), knew the use of bow and arrow, 
 for, in apology for the English defeat, he writes ; 
 
 "To the Scots we would not yield, 
 But Irish bowmen swept the field." 
 
180 ETillCS OF BOXING AND MANLY SPORT. 
 
 A very interesting Irish ^veapon, specimens of 
 which are found in irreat al)an(lance all over the 
 countrv, in stone and bronze, is conniionlv called 
 a " celt," or " ])alstave." This weapon was obvi- 
 ously a battle-axe, — though it is not easy to find 
 
 No. 8. . No. 9. 
 
 BROXZE BATTLE-AXES, CALLED "CELTS.". 
 
 the manner of fastening the handle to those with- 
 out eyes, — while again, others have a straight 
 socket, as if they had been used as spear-heads. 
 These latter (Xos. 13, U, and 15, p. LS2) are 
 probably Tuatha de Danann weapons, while the 
 others (Xos. 8, H, 10, 11, 12, and IG, pp. 180, 
 181, and 183) are of Firbolg origin. 
 
ANCIEXT WEAPONS USED 1\ IllELAND. 181 
 
 The axes Xos. 11 and 12 (page 181), represent 
 the weapon called a "palstave," by British anti- 
 qi>arians, and a 2:>cicdstab , hy German writers; but 
 this is certainly wrong, as the name implies a 
 pointed instrument, and not an axe. The old 
 ^QVHQpdlstaJir was a harpoon, 
 
 No. 10. No. n. No. 12. 
 
 BRONZE BATTLE-AXES, OR " CELTS, 
 
 1^ » 
 
 Figures 8 to IG embrace all the forms of battle- 
 axe used in ancient Ireland, except the sjjardha, 
 which was a spear and axe combined, and closely 
 resembled the piked axe of the last two centuries. 
 
 The royal seal on page 184 (Xo. 17) is interest- 
 
182 ETHICS OF BOXING AND MANLY SPOKT. 
 
 ing on several accounts besides that for which it 
 is used here, which is merely the shape of the 
 king's sword. It will he seen that this weapon 
 corresponds in blade with the ancient 1)ronze 
 sword (Xo. 3, page 177), and with the still 
 more ancient blades of the Tuatha De Danann 
 
 No. 13. No. 14. No. 15. 
 
 BROKZE BATTLE-AXES, OK "CELTS." 
 
 (Xos. 5, 6, and 7, page 179). The latter swords, 
 judging from the rivet-holes, had, probably, cross- 
 hilts. 
 
 The history of this antique seal is very interest- 
 ing. The following, from the "Proceedings of 
 the Royal Irish Academy," Vol. IV., pp. 484-5 
 (25th Fe])ruary, 1850), will suffice:— 
 
 (( 
 
 Sir William Betham oxhibited an impression of an ancient 
 seal, lately found near Beverley, in Yorkshire, on which is rei> 
 
ANCIENT WEAPONS USED IN IRELAND. 183 
 
 resented a mounted cavalier, with a very long sword drawn in 
 his hand, round which is the following inscription : — 
 
 'S. BRIEX REGIS. DE KESEL. EOGAIN.' 
 
 No. 16. 
 FIRBOLG BATTLE-AXE.— BronZB. 
 
 "Brian O'Neill was King of Cineal Eoghain (Kinel Owen, 
 or TjTone) from a. d. 1241 to 1260, when, along with many 
 others of the Irish chieftians, he was slain iu the battle of 
 
184 
 
 ETHICS OF liOXIXG AXD MANLY SPORT. 
 
 Druim Dearg (i. e., of the lied Hill, or Rid<,'o, now Down). 
 His liead was cut off, and sent to England to King Henry III. ; 
 and probably this seal fell into the hands of the English vic- 
 tors, who carried it to England, and this accounts for its being 
 found in Yorkshire." 
 
 No. 17. 
 AVOIENT lUISH SEAL. 
 
 Found in Yorkshire, Enoland. 
 
 Sir Eichard Cox, in liis - Ilibeniia Anglicana '' 
 (p. (39), states that this l)attle was f()u«rht in the 
 streets of Down. I lis words are : " :ManY of tlie 
 Irish chiefs were slain, namely, Brian O'Xeill, the 
 chief of Ireland [Macgeoghan's translation calls 
 him Alnr/ of the Irhh of Ireland], and fifteen 
 chiefs of the family of O'Cathain (O'Kane) were 
 slam on the field." 
 
THE AVEAP02S-IEATS OF CUCHULLIN. 185 
 
 III. 
 
 THE WEAPON-FEATS OF CUCHULLIX. 
 
 CucHULLix, or CucliLillain (literally the hound 
 of ChuUin) , was the renowned champion of his 
 time (a. m. 4480). He was not only the ablest 
 soldier, but the best hurler in Ireland ; and after 
 his visit to a famous war-college in Alba, or 
 Scotland, the head of which was, strange to 
 say, a woman, named Scathach, he became the 
 ofreatest " all-round" athlete in the Celtic world. 
 Scathach taught him various feats (^cleasa) of 
 championship, which are thus enumerated in a 
 very ancient Gaelic tale called " The Courtship of 
 Emer, and the Education of Cuchullain : " 
 
 ^^Ubhall-cleas^ the ball-feat; faebhar-cleas, the small, sharp- 
 edged shield-feat; Torand-cleas, the thunder-feat, which was 
 performed with the war-chariot; faen-cleas, the prostrate feat, 
 which I cannot explain; cleas-clitenech, the dart-feat; ted-cleas, 
 the rope-feat; the cleas-cait, the cat-feat, of which I know 
 nothing; the coriech n-errid, or champion's salmon-sault or 
 leap; the imardior n-delend, or proper carrying of the chariot- 
 eer's whip; the leim-dar-n-eimh, the leap over a fence (?); the 
 fiUiud erred nair, the whirl of a valiant champion; the gae- 
 bolga, or feat of throwing the belly-dart; the hai-braisse, liter- 
 ally sudden death (?) ; the roth-clcas, wheel-feat, something like 
 casting the sledge of the present day; the othar-cleas, invali- 
 
186 ETHICS OF BOXING AND MANLY SPORT. 
 
 dating feat, as well as I can understand the term; the chasfor 
 analaiUi, literally 'the feat of the breathings;' the hruid-gin^, 
 
 No. 18. No. li). 
 
 MANAIS — nEAUTlFlL BRO>Zn SPEARS, TUATIIA DI3 DANAXN. 
 
 (See page 177.) 
 
 litej-ally 'gnashing of the month/ as well as I can miderstand 
 it; the sian-cnuradh, or champion's war-whoop; the helm co 
 
THE WEAPON-FEATS OF CUCHULLIN. 187 
 
 fcnnns, cutting off an opponent's hair with the sword; the 
 taith-beim, 'vertical stroke,' which fixed an antagonist to the 
 ground; the fodh-beim, ' sod-blow,' by which the sod was cut, in 
 contempt, from under the feet of an antagonist by a stroke of 
 the sword [hence, undoubtedly, the common Irish phrase, "cut- 
 ting the ground from under his feet"] ; the dreimfri foghiiist, 
 
 No. 20. No. 21. No. 22. 
 
 MANAIS — TUATHA DE DANAJTN SPEAKS, BRONZE. 
 
 (See page 177.) 
 
 climbing a rock; the fonaidhm niadhfor rinnibh slecjh, 'coiling 
 of a champion around the blades of upright spears ; ' and the 
 carhad-searrdha, the feat of the armed or scythed war- 
 chariot." 
 
 Surely, the man who " hekl the record," in 
 modern sporting parlance, for all these feats, de- 
 
188 ETHICS OF BOXING AND MAXLY SPORT. 
 
 served to be called the champion of Ireland. 
 The Gaelic tale from which this detail is taken, 
 also states that the feats of championship which 
 distinguished the Knights of Emania (the ancient 
 capital city of Ulster, where stood the majestic 
 Craehh-EJniadh, or House of the Royal Branch) 
 were limited to three, namely: the feat with 
 darts, the feat with ])alls, and the feat with edged 
 weapons, {fcehhar-deas) such as knives, swords, 
 and sharp-edged shields. 
 
 Many, if not all, of these feats, were not re- 
 garded as feats of arms intended for actual use in 
 coml)at, hut were merely ornamental accomplish- 
 ments and proofs of skill. 
 
 In the Brehon Laws (the great Celtic code 
 observed by the Irish people from the earliest 
 historical days down to the year IGOO) is particu- 
 larly enacted the education of the different social 
 classes, under the law of *' Fosterage and Tutor- 
 age *' ; and here we learn that the sons of kimrs 
 and chiefs were taught " riding, swimming, chess, 
 draughts, or backgammon ; with the use of the 
 sword, spear, and all other weapons offensive and 
 defensive." 
 
MILITARY ATHLETES OF IRELAND. 189 
 
 ly. 
 
 MILITARY ATHLETES OF ANCIENT IRELAND. 
 
 There is no reliable authority for the existence 
 of any national military organization or profession 
 of fighting-men in Ireland, other than chiefs, 
 down to the reiirn of Conn " of the hundred 
 battles," who w^as monarch at Tara from a. d. 
 123 to 157, in which year he was slain. Still, 
 it is stated that Conn himself came to the throne 
 from the command of the celebrated national 
 militia, popularly know^n as the Fianna Eireann, 
 of whom Finn Mac Cumhaill, and his father, 
 Cumhall, w^ere the most famous commanders. 
 
 This militia of ancient Ireland is highly inter- 
 esting in the history of athletics. Its members 
 w^ere tested athletes to a man, and their prepara- 
 tion and competition for enlistment were most 
 arduous and remarkable. 
 
 The name Fianna (hence the modern Fenians) 
 is explained in an antique glossary preserved in a 
 volume of Brehon Laws. This is the translation 
 from the Gaelic : — 
 
 ^^ Fianna, a Venatione, id est. It was from the hunting 
 which they practised they were so named. Or, Fianna, that is 
 
190 ETHICS OF BOXING AND MANLY ^POIIT. 
 
 fineadlia (families) because it was in tribes they were fornu'il. 
 Or, Jianua, that is fehineailha (chami)ions) because they were 
 the champions of tlie Monarch of Erinn." 
 
 In a poem, written in Gaelic, ])y a bard named 
 Cineadh Ollartairan, in 975 a. d., while tlie 
 remains of the ro^'al palace at Tara were still 
 distmct and intact, and while the written history 
 of that famous hill was still clear and abundant, 
 there is a description of a spacious barrack, at 
 Tara, where seventv-five hundred of the Fkuina 
 Avere Iodized . 
 
 The foUowinii- are the stanzas of this most curi- 
 ous poem, which refer to the barrack at Tara : — 
 
 " The great house of thousands of soldiers, — 
 To generations it was widely known; 
 A beautiful fortress of brave men; 
 Seven hundred feet was its length. 
 
 It was not filled with the foolish and ignorant, 
 Xor over-crowded with the wily and arrogant; 
 It was a large work to plan its divisions: 
 Six times five cubits was its height. 
 
 The King had his place there, the King of Erinn, 
 Around whom the fairest wine was distributed. 
 It was a fortress, a castle, a wonder; 
 There were three times fifty compartments in it. 
 
 Three times fifty champions with swords 
 (No weak defence for a fortress), 
 That was the number, among the wonders, 
 Which occupied each compartment." 
 
 The whole of this highly interesting poem is 
 
MILITARY ATHLETES OF IRELAND. 191 
 
 published in Dr. Petrie's ** Antiquities of Tara," 
 a work that ouo'ht to be found in all our larire 
 American libraries. 
 
 In A. D. 1024, died a poet named Cuan O'Loth- 
 chain, who had also written about the oreat 
 
 No. 23. 
 BRONZE MACE. (See page 176. 
 
 barrack at Tara. Here is the stanza relatins: to 
 it: — 
 
 " I speak farther of the fortress of the champions; 
 
 (Which was also called the fortress of foolish women) ; 
 The house of the champions was not a weak one, 
 With its fourteen opening doors." 
 
 The best account of the Fianna Eireann is 
 given b}^ the Kev. Dr. Geoffrey Keatin^^, in his 
 
Iii2 ETHICS OF BOXING AND MANLY SPORT 
 
 well-known abstract of the History of Ireland, 
 (written in the native Gaelic, about the year 
 1030, and translated into Enirlish about one 
 hundred and thirty years airo). 
 • Dr. Keating had l)efore him numerous invalua- 
 ble Irish records and books of great antiquity, 
 many of which have since been destroyed or carried 
 off by the English conquerors, whose policy has 
 always been to obliterate every record of Ireland's 
 national greatness and ancient culture, and cast 
 discredit and ridicule on what could not be con- 
 troverted. I may here quote a striking para- 
 graph from Prof. O'Curry's work on "The 
 Manners and Customs of the Ancient Irish." (Vol. 
 2, page 354) : — 
 
 "It is very unfortunate that the important poem liere 
 referred to [an ancient GaeUc poem mentioned in the ' Ogygia,' 
 describing an Irish scliool of war in tlie third century] is not to 
 be found in any of tlie MS. collections known to us ; it is only 
 known to exist among those locked up in England in the cus- 
 tody of Lord Ashburnham, by whom Irish scholars are not per- 
 mitted to examine treasures properly belonging to our own peo- 
 ple; but the legal ownership of which is at present, unhappily 
 vested in a stranger, unsympathizing alike with our pursuits as 
 Irishmen, and with those of the Uterary world at large. In this 
 poem there is, probably, much calculated to throw light on the 
 subject of education in ancient Erinn." 
 
 Prof. O'Curry's work was pul)lished in London 
 in 1873; and this precious Irish MS., locked up 
 by an ignorant English lord, has never seen the 
 light to this day. 
 
MILITARY ATHLETES OF IRELAND. 193 
 
 Dr. Keatinir wrote from books existino^ in his 
 time. He says, quoting from the ' ' Leahhar-na-h- 
 Ua Chom/hJiala,'' or •• Book of Xavan*' : — 
 
 '"The Monarch of Eriiiii (Cormac MacAirt) appointed an 
 army over tlie men of Erinn. and over it he appointed three 
 times fifty royal Feinlan otficers, and he gave the command 
 of the Tvhole and the High 8tev/ardship of Erinn to Finn Ua 
 Baiscne.'' 
 
 The Fianna had a tixed stipend ; l)ut from May 
 to Xovember they had to support themselves by 
 huntioir. Their life was one of extreme absti- 
 nence and exercise. Their duty in peace times 
 was that of a national police : "to check thieves, 
 to enforce the payment of taxes, to check outlaws, 
 and all other evils which mav affect the countrv." 
 
 After a Ions: chase, before eatino", thev invari- 
 ably bathed, " and then began to supply their 
 sinews and thews (by gentle exercise), until they 
 had in this manner put off from them their fatigue, 
 after which they ate their meal." 
 
 There were several conditions which everv man 
 who was received into the Fianna was obliged to 
 fulfill : — 
 
 '"The first condition ^vas, that he should not accept any 
 fortmie with a wife, but select her for her moral conduct and 
 her accomplishments. 
 
 •" The second was, that he should noi insult any woman. 
 
 '• The third was, that he should not refuse any person ask- 
 ing for food. 
 
194 ETHICS OF BOXING AND MANLY SPORT. 
 
 " The fourth was, that he should not turn his back on (that 
 is, fly from) any less than nine foemen," 
 
 " Additional conditions Finn Mac Cumhaill attached to the 
 military degrees, which every man was obliged to accept before 
 he was received into tlie Fianna. 
 
 " The first was, tliat no person was admitted into them at the 
 great meetings of Uisneach, nor at the fair of Tailten, nor at 
 the feast of Tara, until his father and mother and relatives 
 gave security that they would never avenge his deatli on 
 another person, in order tliat he should not expect any one to 
 avenge him but himself, and no matter what evils he miglit 
 conunit, that liis friends were not to be sued for them. 
 
 "The second condition was, that candidates should have 
 read the Twelve Books of Philosophy, or Poetry. 
 
 " The third condition was, that no man was received into 
 the Fianna until a wide pit had been dug for him, in which he 
 was to stand up to his knees, with his shield in one hand, and 
 a liazel stake, the length of the champion's arm, in the other. 
 Xine warriors armed with nine slcjlis (or spears), came to within 
 the distance of nine ridges (of ground) of him, and these used 
 to throw their nine spears all at once at him; and sliould he be 
 wounded despite the shield and the hazel staff, he was not 
 received into the order of the Fianna. 
 
 " The fourth condition, no man was received into the Fianna 
 until his hair was first plaited, and until he was then chased by 
 selected runners through a forest, the distance between them at 
 the start being but one tree. If they came up with him, he 
 could not be taken into the Fianna. 
 
 " The fifth condition, no man was received into the Fianna if 
 the weapons trembled in his hands. 
 
 " The sixth condition, no man was received into the Fianna 
 if a single braid of his hair had been loosened out of its plait 
 by a branch in the wood (as lie ran through it). 
 
 " The seventh condition, no man was received into the 
 Fianna whose foot had broken a Avithered branch in his course. 
 (This to insure light and watchful runners.) 
 
 " The eighth condition, no man was received into the Fianna 
 
THE CHIEF GAME OF ANCIENT IRELAND. 195 
 
 unless he could jump over (the branch of) a tree as high as his 
 head, and stoop under one as low as his knee, through the 
 agility of his body. 
 
 " The ninth condition, no man was received into the Fianna 
 imless he could pluck a thorn out of his heel with his hand 
 without coming to a stand. 
 
 " The tenth condition, no man was received into the Fianna 
 imtil he had first sworn fidelity and obedience to the king (or 
 commander) of the Fianna." 
 
 This famous body of military athletes continued 
 to 1)6 the national guard of Ireland till they were 
 annihilated, at the battle of Gabhra, by Cairbre 
 and his forces, a. d. 284. 
 
 V. 
 
 HURLING : THE CHIEF GAME OF ANCIENT 
 
 IRELAND. 
 
 The chief game, or sport, of the ancient Irish 
 was hurling. For over a century past, even this 
 game, and others, like football, wrestling, boxing, 
 etc., have been discountenanced by the English 
 rulers, whose object has ever been to unman and 
 deirrade Irishmen until io-norance of conflict, even 
 in sport, had robbed them of self-confidence and 
 fitted them for the position of hopeless subjection 
 designed for them. But within a few years, all 
 
V,H) ETHICS OF BOXING AND MANLY SPOliT. 
 
 over Ireland, the ancient games have been re- 
 vived ; and now there is a hurling club in almost 
 every i)arish in Ireland. 
 
 Tailten and Carman (now AYexford, or near 
 the present town of ^Vexford) were the two prin- 
 cipal places in ancient Ireland most celebrated 
 for irames. 
 
 No. 24. No. 25. 
 
 STUIC, OR IRISH WAR-HORN. HC-TAILME, OR SLING-STONE. 
 
 (See page 177.) 
 
 Hurling, iomain (pronounced imman), was the 
 great out -door game of the ancient Irish. lo- 
 manu'idhe (pronounced iommcnee) was the hurler, 
 or driver ; for it siirnifies that, also. The nfoal was 
 called baire (pronounced as spelled). The hurl 
 
 i 
 
THE CHIEF GAME OF ANCIENT IRELAND. 197 
 
 was caman (pronoancecl as spelled ; the a loiipf) . 
 All throuo'h ancient Gaelic literature there is con- 
 stant mention of hurlins^. 
 
 The following is a description of a game of 
 hurlino', from one of the best of the Ossianic tales, 
 *'.Tlie Pursuit of Diarmuid and Grainne," trans- 
 lated and pul)lished in Dublin, in 1880, by the 
 Society for the Preservation of the Irish Lan- 
 o^uao^e : — 
 
 " There arose a dispute bet^'een two women of the Tuatha 
 De Danann, that is, Aoife, the daugliter of Mananan, and 
 Aine, tlie other daugliter of Mananan, the son of Lear, viz. : 
 Aoife had become enamoured of the son of Lughaidh, that is, 
 sister's son to Fionn Mac Cumliaill, and Aine had become 
 enamoured of Lear, of Lith Fhionnchaidh, so that each woman 
 of them said that her own man was a better hurler than tlie 
 other; and the fruit of the dispute was tliat a great goaling 
 matcli was set in order between the Tuatlia De Danann and 
 the Fenians of Erin, and the place wliere the goal was played 
 was on a fair plain by Loch Lein, of the rough pools. 
 
 "The Fenians of Erin and Tuatha De Danann answered 
 that tiyste. . . . We, the Fenians of Erin, and they were for 
 the space of three days and three nights playing the goal from 
 Garbhabha na bh-Fiann, which is called Leamhaw, to Crom- 
 ghleann na bh-Fiann, which is called Gleann Fleisge now; and 
 neither (party) of us won a goal. Xow (the Avhole of) the 
 Tuatha De Danann were all that time, without om* knowledge, 
 on either side of Loch Lein, and they understood that if we, 
 the Fenians, were united (all) the men of Erin could not win 
 the goal of us. And the council which the Tuatha De Danann 
 took, was to depart each again, and not to play (out) that goal 
 with us." 
 
 The first thing we hear about both Cuchullain 
 
198 ETHICS OF BOXING AND MANLY SPOKT. 
 
 and Finn, the ij^reat chiefs, is in connection with 
 hurling, when they w^ere mere chihh-en. 
 
 Mr. T. O'Xeill Russell, in an interesting letter 
 to nie on this subject, says : — 
 
 " I find from a very old man from the county Clare, that in 
 his time, ' and ever and ahvays afore him,' great games of 
 hurley, between counties or parishes, were played with twenty- 
 
 No. 26. 
 MILITARY FORK. Distinctly Irish weapon (iron; drawing one-third 
 
 the actual size). 
 
 one men on each side, — mor-sheisir air lar, mdr-sheisir air 
 (j-cul, a's 7ndr-!<heisir air fuadach ; that is, 'seven (literally a 
 big six) in the middle.' " 
 
 " In the ' liook of Rights,' it is recorded, that comain, or 
 hurleys, are mentioned among some of the presents from the 
 
THE CHIEF GAME OF AXCIEXT IRELAXD. 199 
 
 Arcli King to his clients. Foot-ball and liand-ball do not 
 seem to have been practised ; and I do not remember to have 
 
 No. 27. 
 MILITARY FORK. (Iron; one-third actual size.) 
 
 seen any mention of boxing or wrestling;* but the former 
 sm-ely was known, for in the 'Death of Cuchullain,' in the 
 
 * The following extract from a very ancient Gaelic book, 
 " The pm^suit of Diarmuid and Graiiine,' shows that wrestling, 
 
'200 ETHICS OF BOXING AND MANLY SPORT. 
 
 'Book of Leinster,' that chieftain is said to have given cne of 
 his assailants a blow of his fist, which knocked out his brains." 
 
 ''Xext to hurling, the great out-door sport of ancient Ire- 
 land was horse-racing. Tailteu and Carman were the places 
 for it. There is much mention of horse-racing, a 'sport for 
 kings '; but I am glad to say that there is no mention of betthi;/ 
 at horse-races at all; but the Irish are mentioned as betting at 
 chess, and betting heavily, too. 
 
 "As for hunting, Irish MSS. are full of it. The game most 
 mentioned — in fact, the only game mentioned — is the deer. 
 The usual way of hunting was with hounds. There are the 
 names of more than a hundred hounds given in one of the 
 Ossianic poems I have. The boar is, to my knowledge, only 
 once mentioned, and that is in the 'Boyish Exploits of Finn,' 
 where he is said to have killed a fierce, wild boar, and presented 
 his first wife with its head. Chariot -racing was much prac- 
 tised. I do not remember any book in which there is any 
 particular account of it ; but I remember to have seen it 
 mentioned in many places. Swimming is often mentioned. 
 Another of Finn's hoyiah exploits was to drown nine boys who 
 enticed him to swim with them in order that tlicu might drown 
 Mm. There is, also, some mention of boat-racing, but not 
 very much. So nuich was the deer limited, that, in many parts 
 of Ireland, a hunt is still called fiach instead of seilgj pro- 
 
 at least, was practised ; and that the ' cross-buttock ' was as 
 well known in ancient as in modern Ireland : '" — 
 
 "Then, said Dubh-Chosach, that he, himself, would go to 
 fight with Diarmuid. . . . Then he and Diarmuid rushed 
 upon one another, like wrestlers, straining their aims and 
 their sinews. And this is the fashion of the sore strife that 
 took place between them : They threw their weapons out of 
 their hands, and ran to encounter each other, and lock their 
 knotty hands across one another's graceful backs. Then each 
 gave the other a mighty twist; but Diarmuid hove Dubh- 
 Chosach upon liis shoulder, and hurled his body to the earth, 
 and bound him firm and fast upon the spot." 
 
THE CHIEF GAME OF ANCIENT IRELAND. 201 
 
 noimced .s7ie//r/. FiacJi does not mean liiint; it means simplj 
 a deer; but. at last, it came to mean a hunt, because a deei 
 was the animal usually hiuited. 
 
 No. 28. 
 ANCIENT CHESSMAN. 
 
 A king — found with several others in a bog, in the county of Meath, 
 Ireland. Preserved in the Royal Irish Academy. 
 
 "The great in-door game, — in fact, the only one men- 
 tioned, — is chess; Flthchill {T^ronoimceA Fichill ; feat-Jichille, 
 a chessman). Innumerable are the mentions of this game in 
 Oaelic MSS. There is every reason to think the game was 
 played just as it is now; but the pieces were very large, made 
 of bronze; some of them have been found. You will see a 
 drawing of one in the ' Book of Rights.' [See Figure Xo. 28.] 
 
 " You must bear in mind that we know only very little yet 
 about ancient Ireland, and cannot know all until all the 
 
202 KTIIICS OF BOXING AND MANLY SPORT. 
 
 MSS. are translated. One thing is certain: there was very 
 little drunkenness amongst the ancient Irish; to my knowledge, 
 there is only one mention of it, in a tract called the ^ Mciccra 
 Ulladh,' or ' Drunkenness of Ulster,' when Cucluillain, and 
 some more of the ' boys ' of the period, got drunk, and for a 
 long time, too; for they never stopped luitil they reached Kerry, 
 having set out from Armagh ! Whiskey is never once men- 
 tioned in the old MSS. They seem to have known no drinks 
 but wine, ^on ; and lann^ ale." 
 
 YI. 
 
 THE ANCIENT GAMES AT TAILTEN AND CARMAN. 
 
 The Corinth jind Olympus of ancient Ireland 
 were Tailten and Carman, where the national 
 fairs were periodically held. 
 
 "The great fairs anciently held in Ireland," 
 says Prof. AV. K. Sullivan, of the Koyal College 
 of Science, " were not, like their modern repre- 
 sentatives, mere markets ; but were assemblies of 
 the people to celebrate funerals, games, and other 
 religious rites, during })agan times ; to hold par- 
 liaments, promulgate laws, listen to the recitation 
 of tales and poems ; engage in, or witness, con- 
 tests and feats of arms, horse-racimr, and other 
 popular games. They were analogous, in many 
 ways, to the Olympian and other games of 
 ancient Greece." 
 
THE ANCIENT GAMES. 203 
 
 "The Taltenian sports," says Ware, "were a 
 sort of warlike exercises, sometliins: resemblinor 
 Olympic games ; consisting of racing, tilts, tour- 
 naments, or something like them, and other exer- 
 cises. They were held every year at Tailten, a 
 mountain in Meath, for fifteen days after the 1st 
 of Auofust. Their first institution is ascribed to 
 Lugaidh Lam-fadha, the twelfth king of Ireland, 
 who beo^an his reis^n a. m. 2764, in 2fratitude to 
 the memory of Tailte, the dauohter of Mas^h-Mor 
 (a prince of some part of Spain), who, having 
 been married to Eochaid, king of Ireland, took 
 this Lugaidh under her protection, and had the 
 care of his education in his minority. From this 
 lady both the sports, and the place where they 
 were celebrated, took their names. From King 
 Lugaidh, the first of August was called Lugnassa, 
 or the memory of Lugaidh, nassa signifying 
 memory in Irish." 
 
 There is an ancient Gaelic tract on the orio'in 
 of the names of places in Ireland, which is called 
 the ^'^ Dindsenchas.'^ From it we learn that the 
 fair of Tailte, or Tailten, was instituted to com- 
 memorate the name of Tailtin, the daus'hter of 
 Magh-]VIor, king of Spain, and wife of the Irish 
 King Eochad Garbh, who built the "mound of 
 the foreio^ners" at Tara. According' to the ^^Dind- 
 senchas" the fair of Tailten was instituted 3500 
 
204 ETHICS OF BOXING AND MANLY SPOIJT. 
 
 years B.C.; according to the *• Annals of the 
 Four Masters," a. m. 3370. These dates, what- 
 ever be their real value, certainlv indicate the 
 great antiquity of the fair. 
 
 One of the irreatest fio:ures in the history of 
 Ireland, ancient or modern, is l)uried at Tailten ; 
 namely, Ollamh Fodhla (pronounced Olav Fo- 
 lah), who is recorded to have become monarch of 
 Ireland a. m. 3882, and to have died in the year 
 A.M. 3922, after a reign of forty years. He was 
 the fortieth monarch of Ireland. The original 
 name of this prince was Eochaidh ; but, from his 
 great learning, he obtained the distinction of Ol- 
 lamh (chief poet, or doctor) before he became 
 king ; and, afterwards, he was called Ollamh 
 Fodhla, which was one of the ancient names of 
 Erinn.* 
 
 Mr. Michael C. O'Shea, of Boston, a Gaelic 
 scholar of deep research, "fives the followinir in- 
 teresting note relating to ancient athletic exercises 
 in the county Kerrv : — 
 
 " Inshigeelach, a town in the county of Cork, Ireland, 
 means intervale, or river-margin, of gymnastics, and is so called 
 from a broad and level piece of river margin, in close vicinity, 
 on which gj-muastic sports were practised in former times; and 
 the last of the princely O'Donoghues of Ross Castle, on the 
 
 * Ollamh Fodhla was the founder of the "Senchus More," 
 or " Great Law," the title of the Brehon Laws (translated by 
 
THE AXCIENT GA3IE.S. 205 
 
 shore of the lower lake of Killamey, was titled Donald na 
 Xgeelach, Donald of the Gymnastics, from his wonderful gjTii- 
 nastic skill, which gained him the reputation of a necromancer, 
 or man of superhuman powers. He is the Merlin of the legen- 
 dary lore of the ancient Kingdom of Kerry, a chief who never 
 died, hut rode his silver-shod steed into the lake, and still 
 appears once in eveiy seven years, riding over its surface, view- 
 ing his ancient domain." 
 
 Teltown (the ancient Tailten) i.s one of the most 
 famous spots in Ireland ; next to Tara, probably 
 it is the most ancient, if not the most notable. 
 The historv of Tailten, Pao-an and Christian, 
 would be the history of Ireland in symbol, — its 
 fairs, games, laws, sports, poetry, marriages, etc. 
 By the way, it is worth notino- that " a Teltown 
 marriage," often spoken of in ^leath to-day, lasted 
 iiist a year and a day. Sir AVilliam AVilde 
 ("Beauties of the Boyne and Blackwater,") 
 describes this sino-ular old-time Irish marriao:e, 
 which took place at the fair of Tailten : — 
 
 " On the northeast side of the great fort {Bath Diihh) the 
 most remarkable of the Teltown ceremonies took place — the 
 marriages or betrothals. Upon one side of the great embank- 
 ment were ranged the boys, and on the other the girls ; the 
 
 0* Donovan and O'Cm-ry). He organized a triennial parliament 
 at Tara, of the chiefs, priests, and bards, who digested the laws 
 into a record called the " Psalter of Tara." He founded 
 schools of history, medicine, philosophy, poetry, and astronomy, 
 which were protected by his successors. Kimbath (4.j() r..c-.) 
 and Hugony (300 B.C.), also, promoted the civil interests of the 
 kingdom in a remarkable and somewhat similar manner. 
 
206 ETHICS OF BOXING AND MANLY SPORT. 
 
 former ogling, the latter blushing. Having had a good view of 
 each other they passed down to Avliere there is a deep hollow in 
 the land, called Liuj-an-Eany , where they became separated by 
 a high wall. In this wall, say the local traditions, there was a 
 door with a small hole in it, through which each girl passed her 
 middle finger, which the men on the other side looked at. If 
 any of them admired the finger, he laid hold of it, and the lass 
 to whom it belonged forthwith became his bride. The marri- 
 age held good for a year and a day. If the couple disagreed 
 during that time, they returned to Tailten, walked into the 
 centre of Kath Dubli, stood back to back, one facing the north 
 and the other the south, and walked out of the fort, a divorced 
 couple, free to try their luck again at Lug-an-Eanyy 
 
 This very ancient site of the palace of Tailten, 
 one of the four royal residence^ of Ireland, in 
 early times, is situated on the northern bank of 
 the ])oyne, about midway between Kells and 
 Navan. It is in the centre of the most fertile land 
 in all Ireland, and probably in all Europe. The 
 ancient earthworks of fort and rath are still 
 there — will be there while the earth lasts. The 
 remains of trench, em1)ankment, and foundation 
 are greater, even, than those of Tara, at least 
 those now existinii: there. 
 
 In *' The Annals of the Kingdom of Ireland 
 by the Four ^Masters " there is a notice of Tailten, 
 savinir : — 
 
 "In tlie year of the world 3370, in the reign of Lugh 
 Lamhfhada, the fair of Tailten was established, in commemo- 
 ration and remembrance of his foster-mother, Tailte, the 
 daughter of 3Iaghmor, King of Spain, and the wife of Eochaidh, 
 son of Ere, the last King of the Firbolgs." 
 
THE AXCIEXT GA31ES. 207 
 
 The fair of Tailten (Teltown) continued down 
 to the time of Roderick O'Connor, the hist mon- 
 arch of Ire hind, and was hekl annually on the 
 1st of August, w^hich month derives its name, in 
 the Irish language, from this very circumstance, 
 l)eing called Lugh-nasadh, or Lugh's fair — the 
 Lammas day-— to wdiich man}' ancient rites and 
 ceremonies still attach throughout Ireland. 
 
 " Ui)on the occasion of the fair of Tailten," 
 says Sir AMlliam AVilde (" Beauties of the Boyne 
 and Blackwater," p. 150), " various sports and 
 pastimes, a description of Olympic games, were 
 celebrated, consistinij of feats of strength and 
 agility in wrestling, boxing, running, and athletic 
 manly sports, as well as horse-races and chariot- 
 races. Besides these, the people were entertained 
 with shows and rude theatrical exhibitions. 
 Among these latter are enumerated sham battles, 
 and also aquatic fights, which were exhibited 
 upon the artificial lakes, the sites of which are 
 still pointed out." 
 
 The most satisfactory account preserved of these 
 meetings, is that of the fair of Carman. This 
 account is preserved in the fragments of poems 
 in the precious old "Book of Leinster" (a work 
 known to have been compiled from ancient MSS. 
 in the year 1150), which is one of the treasures of 
 the library of Trinity College, Dublin. The 
 
208 ETHICS OF JiOXING AM) MANLY Sl'OKT. 
 
 ancient Book of Ballyniotc, preserved in the li- 
 brary of the Koval Irish Academy, also contains 
 a description of the fair of Carman. 
 
 The complete ol)lilcrali(?n of the ancient Car- 
 man, and the i^rowth of another city, or a city 
 with another name in its place, is accounted for 
 by the fact that that part of Ireland was the 
 stronghold and for many generations the home of 
 the Danish invaders. AVexford is one of the few 
 cities that the Danes have named in Ireland ; and 
 nearly all the other places bearing Danish names 
 in Ireland are also on the east coast. 
 
 Considering how prominently the Danes fig- 
 ured in Irish history, this is a singular fact. 
 AVorsae (page 71) gives a table of 1373 Danish 
 and Xorweaiiin names in the middle and northern 
 counties of England, names ending in thovpe, htj^ 
 tkwaite^ icifh, (off, heel', noes, ey, dale, force, fell, 
 tarn, and haucjh. 
 
 Dr. Joyce's " Irish Names of Places," Vol. I, 
 page 105, says: — 
 
 "We have in Ireland only a few Danish terminations, as 
 
 ford, which occurs four times; cy^ three times; sie)\ three 
 
 times; and ore, whicli we find in one name. We have only 
 
 fifteen Danish names in Ireland, almost all confined to one 
 
 particular district.* 'This,' says Dr Joyce, ' appears to me to 
 
 * " The only names I can find that are wholly or partly Danisli 
 are Wexford, Waterford, Carlingford, Strangford (Lough), Old- 
 
THE ANCIENT GAINIES. 
 
 209 
 
 afford a complete answer to the statements wliich we see some- 
 times made, that the Danes conquered the comitry, and their 
 chiefs ruled over it as sovereigns.' " 
 
 Nus. -1) and 30. 
 
 <^^'KAISECH, with FJrbolg- fasteuing 
 and Tuatha De Dauauu point. 
 
 (See page 177.) Xi). 31. 
 
 FlUnoLC FJARLANXA, 
 OK CL'llVEU POINTLESS BLADE. 
 
 The truth is, the Danes never had any perma- 
 nent settlement in Irehind except in a few seaport 
 towns ; and even there they had not mucli owner- 
 ship of land, but were sea-traders and merchants. 
 
 erfleet, Carnsore, Ireland's Eye, Lambay, Dalkey, Howth, 
 Leixlip, and Oxmantown . . The termination ford is tlie 
 northern word Jiord, or inlet of the sea." (Joyce, "Irish 
 Names of Places.") 
 
210 ETHICS OF BOXING AND MANLY SPOIH , 
 
 The famous fair was held at ancient Carman 
 every three years. The Gaelic poem, or poems, 
 in which it is descri])e(l, haxc heen transhited 
 by IVof. Eugene O'Curry, ]\I. K. 1. A. ; and the 
 evidence goes to show that the fragments were 
 originally ])art of one continuous poem. 
 
 This poem is of profound imi)()rtance for the 
 ancient liistorv of Ireland, which is loni*- (Uie to 
 the world. .Vll such expressions as this article, 
 though written with a special niotive, will extend 
 the knowledge of these wonderful antiijue literary 
 treasures, will tend to show their value to readers 
 of the Irish race and others, and help toward their 
 future studv bv the scholars of the world. The 
 archaeologist, the philologist, the ethnologist, of 
 centuries to come, will tind in ancient Erinn such 
 treasures as almost no other country has yet to 
 deliver up to the generations. 
 
 Carman Avas one of the seven chief cemeteries 
 of Erinn, the others being Tailten, Cruachan, the 
 r>rugh of the Boyne, Cuile, Tallacht, and Teamar 
 of Dunn Finntain. 
 
 The poem on "The Fair of Carman" begins 
 with Greek-like abruptness : — 
 
 " Carman, why so called? Answer: Three men whu eunie 
 from Athens, and one Avoman with them, /. r., the three sons 
 of Di1)ad, — Dian, Duhh, and Dothur, were their names, — 
 and Carman was their mother. By charms and spells and in- 
 cantations the mother blighted every xilace." 
 
THE ANCIENT GAMES. 211 
 
 *' The grave of Carman, by whom was it dug ? 
 Will you learn, or do you know ? 
 According to all our beloved forefathers, 
 It was Bres, son of Gladen. Listen : — 
 
 " Four- score and five full hundreds, 
 Is the number true of years, 
 From Carman of demoniac spells, 
 To the birth of Jesus after humanity. 
 
 " And the peoj^le of Leinster celebrated this fair by their 
 tribes and by their families, down to tlie time of Cathair Mor. 
 There were seven races there, and a week for considering the 
 laws and the rights of the province for three years. It was in 
 the kalends of August they assembled there, and it was on the 
 sixth of August they used to leave it; and every third year 
 tliey were wont to hold it; and two years for the preparations." 
 
 Besides the markets of cattle, merchandise, 
 arms, etc., there were poems read, hiws revised, 
 contests by bards, seven horse-races, and various 
 kinds of military shows and athletic contests, 
 chiefly with arms. 
 
 Another description of this ancient Irish as- 
 sembly, or fair, is given in the Gaelic poem 
 contained in the ancient " Book of Bally mote," 
 translated by Prof. Eugene O'Curry, M.R.I. A. 
 
 *' Five kings and thirty, without sorrow, here. 
 
 Of the Leinstermen, before the faitli of Christ, 
 
 Their pride over Erinn had spread, 
 
 From thy sweet-sounding harbor, O Carman ! 
 
 " The Leinstermen continued to hold this fair, 
 By their tribes and by their families, 
 From Labraidh Loingsech — theme of poets — 
 To powerful Cathair of red-spears." 
 
'2\2 ETHICS OF BOXING AND 3IA^•LY SPORT. 
 
 The poem spocitics the positions allotted to the 
 kiiiiis and the izreat chiefs, to witness the irames 
 :ind exercises of the fair. 
 
 " In the Kalends of August, \\ ilhoiit fail, 
 Tliey assembled in every third year, 
 They arranged seven well-fought races, 
 In the seven days of the week. 
 
 '• Here they proclaimed in clear words 
 
 The privileges and laws of the province; 
 
 Every rule of our severe law. 
 
 In eveiy third year they adjusted. 
 
 " Corn, milk, peace, ease, and prosperity, 
 "Waters full and in abundance, 
 Ixighteous rules and loyalty to kings. 
 With troops to guard Erinn ^^ ere its care. 
 
 " The hospitality of the Ily-Drona, 
 
 And the steed contests of the men of Ossaiy, 
 
 And the dash of spear-handles 
 
 From the entire host, were its termination.'' 
 
 From the poem contained in the ancient "Book 
 of Leinster" (Prof. O'Curry's transhition) is the 
 following description of the fair of Tailten : — 
 
 *• The Leinstemien held this, the fair, 
 Both as tribes and liouseholders. 
 
 Here they i>roclaimeil, boldly and loudly, 
 
 The privileges of every law, and their restraints. 
 
 " To sue, to levy, to controvert debts. 
 To abuse steeds in their career 
 Is not allowed here l)y contending racers, 
 Nor elopement, oppression, or arrest. 
 
THE ANCIENT GAMES. 213 
 
 "No man goes into the woman's assembly; 
 No woman into the assembly of the men ; 
 No abduction here is heard of; ■ 
 
 jN"or repudiation of husbands, or of wives. 
 
 " Whoever transgresses the Law of the Kings, 
 
 Whicli Benen so accurately and permanently wrote,* 
 Cannot be spared upon family composition, 
 But he must die for his transgression. 
 
 " Here follow its great privileges, — 
 
 The rights and enjoyments of the fair. 
 Trumpets, harps, wide-mouthed horns, 
 Cusighs, timpanists, without fail ; 
 Poets and groups of agile jugglers." 
 
 The poem goes on to enumerate the features of 
 the great fair ; the reading of poems, histories, 
 etymologies, precepts ; the annals of feasts and 
 fairs; "The History of the Hill of Mighty Tea- 
 mar" (Tara) ; the stor^^ of the noblest women; 
 of courts, enchantments, conquests, kings ; the 
 
 * The law of Benen is the famous Irish "Book of llights " 
 {^^ Lcahhar na g-Cearf'), published by the Celtic Society, 
 Dublin, in 1847. It gives an account of the rights of the 
 monarchs of all Ireland, and the revenues payable to them by 
 the kings of the several provinces, and of the stipends paid 
 by the monarch to the provincial kings for their services, etc. 
 This Benen, or Benean, was St. Benignus the disciple of St. 
 Patrick, and his successor as Bishop of Ard Maclia (Armagh). 
 He resigned his bishopric in 465 ; died on the 9th of November, 
 4(58, and was buried in Armagh. It is probable that the laws 
 and tributes mentioned in " The Book of Eights" were taken 
 from records of great antiquity, and were digested and, per- 
 haps, put into metre by St. Benignus. 
 
214 ETHICS OF HOXING AND MAXLY 8POKT. 
 
 successions and battles of kings ; the victories of 
 saints of Leinster. 
 
 Then follows this impressive outline of the field 
 and the fair of Carman : — 
 
 "O Leinsteriuen of the tombs, pray listen! 
 Twenty-one raths of lasting fame, 
 In which hosts are laid under ground ; 
 A psalm- singing cemetery of renown 
 Is there by the side of noble Carman. 
 
 "Seven mounds without touching each other, 
 For the oft-lamenting of the dead; 
 Seven plains, sacred, without a house, 
 For the sports of joyous Carman were reserved. 
 
 "• Three markets were held within its borders: 
 A market for food; a market for live cattle; 
 The great market of the foreign Greeks, 
 In which are gold and costly clothes. 
 
 " The slope of the steeds; the slope of the cooking; 
 
 The slope of the assembly of embroidering women. 
 . • . • . .<*. • . 
 
 " There comes of not celebrating this feast, 
 
 Baldness, cowardice, early grayness; 
 
 A king without wisdom, without wealth, 
 
 Without hospitality, without truthfulness." 
 
 This remarkable poem, coming down to us 
 from remote antiquity, is one of the many proofs 
 Ireland has to offer of the earlv civilization and 
 refinement of her people. There are invaluable 
 stores of ancient Gaelic learning and poetry still 
 concealed in the nuiseums and li])raries of Europe. 
 " These old poems show," says Prof. 0"Curry, 
 
HEROIC COMBAT IX AXCIEXT IKELAXD. J 15 
 
 " the nature of the Assemblies, or Fairs, of Ire- 
 laud, and how the irrave business of leofishition 
 was performed on appointed days, in the midst 
 of others set apart for pleasure, or reserved for 
 mercantile pursuits." 
 
 Charles O'Conor, of Belanagare, a famous 
 authority on Irish literary antiquities, says : — 
 ''Placed in the extremity of Europe, secluded from 
 the rest of the world, unconquered, unmixed, and 
 never afl'ected bv the concussions of the fall of 
 the Koman Empire, the Irish must have pos- 
 sessed primeval institutions, which these MSS. 
 are the best calculated to unfold." 
 
 YII. 
 
 AX HEROIC COMBAT IX AXCIEXT IRELAXB. 
 
 The most interestiuir literarv relic of ancient 
 Ireland is, prol)ably, the heroic poem called the 
 ''Tain Bo Chuahrpie'' (-The Cattle-Prey of 
 Cooley"), wliich is preserved in the Leabhav na- 
 h-Uidhri and in the '*Book of Leinster.*' It is 
 assigned to a period in or about the year 600, 
 A.D. ; at least one specimen of the same kind of 
 ancient verse, in the ''Duidsenchaf<j" was written 
 
21() ETHICS OF BOXING AND MANLY SPOKT. 
 
 a])()iit A.I). .VJO, ])y Aineririn, chief poet to 
 I)i:irniait, .sou of Fergus Ccirl)he()il. 
 
 " These couipositious i)rove," says Prof. 
 
 N«). 32. 
 "BROAD <;keen srEAii" 
 Bronze. (See page 177.) 
 
 */ 
 
 No. 33. MANAIS, or BROAD 
 
 FIRBOLG DAGGER, THRUSTING .ssPEAK. 
 
 called COLG. 
 
 (See page 177.) 
 
 O'Curiy, " that the uiost enchautiug forui of 
 Irish uiusie is purely native, independent of any 
 Saxon, Danish, or Xornian aid." 
 
HEPvOIC COMBAT IX ANCIEXT IKELAND. 217 
 
 The ^'Tdin Bo Chauihjne''' contains many de- 
 tailed and picturesque accounts of personal con- 
 flicts, weapons, dress, armor, etc., and, in this 
 respect alone, it is interesting' to glance at the 
 history of the noble poem. 
 
 Saint Ciaran, the founder of the church at 
 Clonniacnoise, in ancient Westmeath, and who 
 died in the year 548, transcribed this poem with 
 his own hand into a book called ^^Leahharna-li- 
 UidJu'i,'' which book remained at Clonniacnoise 
 for hundreds of years afterwards. The poem was 
 ai2:ain transcribed from St. Ciaran's ]MS. about the 
 year 1100, and in the year 1873 it was trans- 
 lated into Enirlish and pu])lished bv the Royal 
 Irish Academy, in the lil)rary of which the vellum 
 transcription of the year 1100 is still preserved. 
 
 The ''Tain Bo Chua'dgne^'^ is also preserved in 
 the " Book of Leinster," an almost contemporary 
 manuscript, four hundred large pages of which 
 still remain in beautiful preservation. The "Book 
 of Leinster" was transcril)ed about the year 1150, 
 by I)ishop ]\IacGorman, of Kildare, who died in 
 IKiO. At this day, therefore, it is at least seven 
 hundred and thirty-eight years old. It contains a 
 splendid copy of the ''Tain Bo CJiuailgne.'' So 
 that we have this superb literary specimen of 
 ancient Irish poetry from two distinct sources 
 giving an assured copy of the poem as it existed 
 
218 ETHICS OF BOXING AM) AIANLV 8POKT. 
 
 in St. Ciarau's time, before the year 548, — or 
 over thirteen centuries ago. 
 
 Let me here interi)()hite a word ahout the 
 artistic })r()diiction of these and other ancient 
 Irish books. AVith reference to the execution of 
 the letterinij and decoration, ^Ir. Diirbv AVyatt 
 ol)serves that in delicacy of handlinir and minute 
 l)ut faultless execution, the whole ranire of pahv- 
 ograpli}' offers nothing equal to the early Irish 
 manuscripts, especially " The Book of Ivells," the 
 most marvellous of them all. One cannot wonder, 
 therefore, that Giraldus Cambrensis, when living 
 in Ireland, in the reiirn of Ilenrv II., on bein<r 
 shown an illustrated Irish manuscript, exclaimed : 
 " This is more like the work of anijels than of men.'' 
 
 Sir AVilliam Wilde, himself a Protestant, writ- 
 ing of the destruction of Irish art ('* Sketches 
 of the Irish Past") , says : — 
 
 "The gorgeous missals and illuminated gospels, instinct 
 with life, genius, holy reverence, and patient love, were des- 
 tined to be replaced soon after by the dull mechanism of print; 
 while Protestantism used all its new-found strength to destroy 
 that innate tendency of our nature, which socks to manifest 
 religious fervor, faitli, and zeal by costly offerings and sacri- 
 fices. The golden-bordered holy-books, the sculptured crosses, 
 the jewelled shrines, were crushed under the feet of Cromwell's 
 troopers; the majestic and beautiful abbeys were desecrated 
 and cast down to ruin, while beside them rose the mean and 
 ugly structures of the reformed faitli. . . . Since that 
 mournful period there has been no revival of art in Ireland. 
 
HEROIC COMBAT IX ANCIEXT IKELAXD. 219 
 
 " The relics of a civilization three thousand years old may 
 still be gazed upon by modern eyes in the splendid and unri- 
 valled antiquarian collection of the Royal Irish Academy. The 
 golden circlets, the fibulas, torques, bracelets, rings, worn by the 
 Tuatha De Danann, are not only costly in value, but often so 
 singularly beautiful in the working out of minute artistic 
 details, that modern art is not merely unable to equal them, 
 but unable even to comprehend how the ancient workers in 
 metal could accomplish works of such delicate, almost micro- 
 scopic, minuteness of finish." (Sir William Wilde, "Ancient 
 Dublin/ •) 
 
 I have said this much al)Oiit those ancient and 
 precious Irish books to introduce a description of 
 a fii>ht between two Irish chieftains, which is 
 related in the Tain Bo CJiiiailgne. 
 
 The poem is a picture of the time, an evidence 
 of the extraordinary development of Irish civil- 
 ization at a period when every country in Europe 
 north of Italy was in absolute barbarism. Even 
 at the time of its transcription by St. Ciaran, 
 nearly thirteen and a half centuries auo, litera- 
 ture had not been ])orn in England ; indeed, that 
 cBuntry was in the rudest condition, just emerg-- 
 ini*' from the darkness of an utterlv unsocial state. 
 
 I quote and condense from the book of the 
 Tain, entitled " The Fiii'ht of Ferdiad : " 
 
 "And then it was discussed by the men of Eiriu who shoidd 
 go to combat and do battle Avith Cuchulaind at the early hour 
 of the morrow. [Cuchulaind, or Cuchullain, had challenged all 
 Queen Medb's warriors.] What they all said was: that it was 
 Ferdiad, son of Daman, son of Dare, the valiant warrior of 
 
220 ETHICS OF BOXING AND MANLY SPORT. 
 
 the iiieu of Doiunaml. For their nioile of combat was equal 
 and aliko. They liail learned the science of ai-nis, l)ravery, and 
 valor with the same tutors: with Seathach, and with Uathaclu 
 and with Aife. And neither of them had any advantage over 
 the other, except that Cuchulaind had the feat of the gae-hoh/ 
 (the cast big of the belly-dart)/' * 
 
 Messaii'o after mcsstiii'c was sent to Ferdiad, 
 askin<2: him to come and tiirlit Cuchulaind. I^ut 
 ''he knew wherefore thev wanted him — to tiiiht 
 and combat with liis own friend and companion 
 and fellow-pupil, Cuchidaind, and he came not 
 with them." 
 
 Then (Jiieen ^ledh (Cleave or ]\Iab) sent the 
 druids to urge, and the satirists to sting, Ferdiad ; 
 and, more out of fear of the bitter poets than 
 the j)riests, the warrior yielded. 
 
 " The subject of the strange belief in ancient Ireland, in 
 the power of a poet,'' says Prof. Eugene O' Curry, " would be 
 one of great interest to investigate." By their satires they 
 were supposed to be able to bring fatalities on men. Laidcenn, 
 a poet of the fourth century, we are told, satirized the men of 
 Leinster, " so that neither corn, grass, nor foliage could grow 
 for them during a whole year." The belief in this occult power 
 of the poet was general in all the ancient history of Ireland. 
 
 * The (/al-huh/", or {/ac-hob/a (the belly-dart) is unicjuc 
 among the weapons of Ireland. There is a connnon phrase 
 often heard in Ireland, "Put the (jai-bohj on him" (meaning 
 a masterful strolce), which 1 have heard vulgarized in Ameiiea 
 into, "Put the kye-hosJi on him." It is strange to trace such 
 a phrase back to a mysterious weapon used tliousands of yeai"s 
 ago in Ireland. 
 
 "This was the character of that dart," says the ancient 
 
HEROIC COMBAT IN ANCIENT IRELAND. 221 
 
 But Ferdiiid was resolved not to fiaht Cuchu- 
 laind without hiirli reward : 
 
 "Aiul when he arrived he was received with honor and 
 attendance, and he was served with pleasant, sweet, intoxicat- 
 ing hquor, so that he became gently merry. And great rewards 
 were promised liim for making the fight, namely: a chariot, 
 with four-times-seven cumals; the outfit of twelve men of 
 clothes of every color; and the extent of his own territory of 
 the level plain of Magh Aie, free of tribute, to the end of time ; 
 and Findebar, the daughter of the King, as his wedded wife, 
 and the golden brooch which was in Medb's cloak in addition." 
 
 Js'^ 
 
 Queen Medl) ursfed Ferdiad to the fio'ht with 
 promise of this great reward ; l)ut Ferdiad refused 
 to i>o without further ixuarantee. He answ^ered : 
 
 '• I will not accept it without guarantee; 
 For a champion without security I will not be. 
 Heavily will it press upon me to-morrow, 
 Terrible Avill be the battle. 
 Hound, indeed, is the name of Culand; 
 He is fierce in combat." 
 
 Tdui Bo Chitailrjne : " It was upon a stream it should be set, 
 and it was from between the toes it should be cast. It made 
 but the Avound of one dart in entering the body ; but it pre- 
 sented thirty inverted points against coming back; so that it 
 could not be drawn from a person's body without opening it." 
 
 "Concerning this weapon," says Prof. O'Cmiy ("Ancient 
 Irish," p. 310, vol. 11), " if we only knew of it from the exag- 
 gerated description of the manner in which it tore its way 
 through Ferdiad' s questionable armor, its existence at all might 
 be very well doubted; but, in another ancient tale, we have 
 very fair authority to show that Cuchulaind had unwittingly 
 
222 ETHICS OF boxixg and manly spout. 
 
 Again Medl) offered treasures, and made prom- 
 ises of glittering reward. Ferdiad was resolitte : 
 
 "I will not go -without securities 
 To the contest of the ford. 
 It will live in fame until the judgment day. 
 I will not accept though I die, 
 Though thou excitest me in lansruacfe."" 
 
 Then Medl) agreed to Ferdiad's terms, and lie 
 
 agreed to tight six champions on the morrow, or 
 
 killed Ills own son Conlaech with this very weapon, in an onli- 
 nary combat on the shore, near Dundalk." 
 
 Like the Tathlum, or sling-ball, with which the champion 
 Balor .vas killed in the battle of the Northern Mayh Tuirewlh^ 
 the gae-bolr/a has been assigned an Eastern origin by a very 
 ancient Irish poet. His poem, in Gaelic, opens thus : — 
 
 " How was the gae-holga discovered? 
 
 Or by whom was it brought hither 
 
 From the Eastern parts of the world ? 
 " Inform those who are ignorant 
 
 That this weajjon originally came hither 
 
 From liolg Mac IJuain, in the East, 
 
 To Cuehulaind, in Muirtheimhne." 
 
 The poet goes on to relate that the champion Bolg Mac 
 Buain fomid, on the sea-shore, the bones of a monster called 
 the Curruid, and "made the wild spear from the bones of the 
 kingly monster." 3Iac Buain gave the gae-bohj to Mac Inbar; 
 who gave it to Lena, his friend; who gave it to Dermeil; who 
 gave it to Scathach, the teacher of the war college of Alba 
 (.Scotland); who gave it to lier daughter Aife (Cuchulahid's 
 mistress); who gave the weapon to Cuehulaind. 
 
 " Cuehulaind brought the fjae-boUj 
 Into Eriun, with all its barbs ; 
 By it he slew Conlaech of the shields, 
 And Ferdiad afterwards." 
 
 Sucli is tlie account of the origin and history of tlie famous 
 fjae-bolff, as preserved in an extremely old Gaelic poem. 
 
HEROIC C031BAT IX ANCIENT IRELAND. 223 
 
 combat with Cuchulaind, whichever he thought 
 easier. 
 
 Fergus, a warrior, proceeded in his chariot 
 to Cuchulaind's residence, to inform him of the 
 airreement. " Thine own friend," he said, *' and 
 companion, the fellow-pupil, the co-feat and co- 
 deed and co-valor man, Ferdiad, is coming to 
 tight with thee." 
 
 ''I am here," answered Cuchulaind ; *'I do not 
 desire to fight my friend ; but, I trust, as I have 
 not yielded before any other man of Eiriu, I shall 
 not yield before him." * 
 
 " Should we happen to meet at the ford, 
 I and Ferdiad of never- failing valor, 
 It shall not be a separation without history; 
 Fierce will be oui* conflict. 
 
 " I pledge my word and my vow, 
 
 Though we may be much alike in combat, 
 That it is I who shall gain the victory." 
 
 Both champions prepared for the conflict, as- 
 sisted by their friends. In the morning, Ferdiad 
 ordered his horses to be harnessed. AVhereupon 
 his charioteer tried to persuade him not to fight 
 Cuchulaind : — 
 
 "It were better for thee to stay; 
 Thy threats are not gentle. 
 To encounter the chief hero of Ulster, 
 It is a meeting of which grief will come. 
 
 * Throughout this poem the name of the country is spelled 
 Eiriu, not Erinn. 
 
224 KTIIICS OF JiOXIXG AND MANLY SPOUT. 
 
 Long will it be remembered : 
 
 AVoe is he who goeth that journey." 
 
 Fei'diad would not be persuaded. He had 
 made guarantee to fiuht, and he wouhl. He an- 
 s\V(n'ed the eharioteer : — 
 
 ' ' What thou sayest is not right ; 
 
 A brave champion should not refuse: 
 
 It is not our inheritance : 
 
 Be silent, then, my servant: 
 
 We will be brave in the field of battle; 
 
 Valor is better than timidity; 
 
 Let us go to the challenge." 
 
 Ferdiad, in his chariot, arrived first at the ford, 
 uhieh irave him the choice of weapons. Whik? 
 he waited, he lay down on the cushions, and 
 slept. 
 
 Meanwhile, Cuchulaind had ordered his chariot 
 to 1)c })repared, sayini^ : "He is an early-rising 
 chami)ion who cometh to meet us to-day." 
 
 AVhen Cuchulaind sprang into his chariot, there 
 shouted roimd him BocanacJtfi, and Bananachs^ 
 and Geniti Glindi, and demons of the air; for the 
 Tuatha De Danami were used to set up their 
 shouts around him, so that the hatred and fear 
 and abhorrence and terror of him should l)e the 
 greater in every battle. And soon the awful rat- 
 tle and roar of his chariot was heard comins: ; and 
 Ferdiad's servant awoke his lord. " Good, O 
 Ferdiad," he cried, "arise; here they come to 
 
HEROIC COMBAT IN ANCIENT IRELAND. 225 
 
 the ford." And aofain the fateful charioteer fore- 
 bodes darkly for his master : — 
 
 " Woe to liim who is on the hillock, 
 Awaiting tlie hound of valor! 
 I foretold last year 
 
 That there would come a heroic hound — 
 The hound of Emain Macha — 
 Tlie hound of a territory, the hound of battle. 
 I hear, I have heard ! " 
 
 Ferdiad reproached his charioteer as unfaithful, 
 and as havinir received bribes from Cuchulaind. 
 
 Then they saw the chariot of Cuchulaind ; " the 
 beautiful four-peaked chariot, with a green pavil- 
 ion, drawn bv two fleet, broad-chested, hiah- 
 flanked, wide -hoofed, slender- le<r£red, broad- 
 rumped horses ; one of which was gray, the 
 other black." 
 
 ** And Cuchulaind reached the ford. Ferdiad 
 came on the south side ; Cuchulaind en the north 
 . side of the ford." The champions saluted each 
 other ; Cuchulaind said he was sorry to have to 
 meet his friend in battle. Ferdiad replied, search- 
 ins: for a reason for disairreement, that when thev 
 were pupils in the war-schools of Scathach and 
 Uathach and Aife, Cuchuhiind had been his at- 
 tendant, to tie up his spears and prepare his bed. 
 
 "It is true, indeed," said Cuchulaind, " but it was then as 
 thy junior 1 did this for thee; and this is not the story to be 
 told hereafter. For there is not in the world a champion I 
 would not fight this day." 
 
22G ETHICS OF BOXING AND MANLY SPOKT. 
 
 Then they inveighed bitterly against each other ; 
 till at last they came to the question of how they 
 should tiiiht. But once more the tenderness of 
 
 So. 35. No. 3G. 
 
 SLEGH. 
 
 Sharp-pointed Tuatha De Danann Spears. (See page 177.) 
 
 their old friendship overcame Cuchulaind, and he 
 implored Ferdiad to Avithdraw from the combat : — 
 
 " Findabar, the daugliter of the king, — 
 
 The reward which has been proffered thee, — 
 
 To numbers before thee has been falsely promised, 
 
 And many like thee has she wounded. 
 
HEROIC COMBAT IN AXCIENT IRELAND. 227 
 
 " Break not with me thy vow not to combat, 
 Break not thy bond — break not friendship, 
 Break not thy pledged word. 
 
 " Unto fifty, champions has Findabar been proffered, — 
 By me they have been sent to their graves." 
 
 No. 37. No. 38. JS'o. 39. 
 
 SLEGH. 
 
 Tuatlia De Danann Spears. (See page 177.) 
 
 And he urges Fercliad by all the dear old ties 
 between them not to enter on the combat : — 
 
 " We were heart-companions, 
 
 We were comrades in assemblies. 
 We were fellows of the same bed, 
 Where we used to sleep the deep sleep. 
 To hard battles, 
 
226 ETHICS OF BOXING AND MANLY 8rOIIT. 
 
 In countries many and far distant, 
 Together we used to practice, and go 
 Through each forest, learning with Scathach." 
 
 *' O Cuchuliiind of tlio l)oautiful feats," said Fcr- 
 diad, " thouiih we have studied arts of e(|iial 
 science, and thouiih I have heard our bonds of 
 friendship, of nie shall come thy first wounds ; 
 remember not thy championsliip. O Hound ! it 
 shall not avail thee, — O Hound! it shall not 
 avail thee." 
 
 Then Ferdiad cut short the discussion by ask- 
 inij with wdiat arms thev should fisfht. ** Thine 
 is the choice of arms, till night," said Cuchulaind, 
 " for it was thou that first reached the ford." 
 
 Ferdiad chose javelins — light spears for throw- 
 ing. They took their shields, and " their light 
 turned-handled spears, and their light little quill 
 spears, and their light ivory-hafted spears." 
 " They used to fly from them and to them like 
 bees on the wing on a fine day." Each continued 
 to shoot at the other with these missiles from 
 morn till middav, until all their missiles were 
 blunted on the shields. Neither was wounded. 
 
 Then they desisted, to change their weapons. 
 *' Thev cast away their missiles into the hands of 
 their charioteers." Ferdiad now chose " straight, 
 smooth, hardened spears, with their hardened 
 flaxen strin^i^s in them ; " and the finht continued 
 
HEKOIC COMBAT IX AXCIEXT IRELAND. 229 
 
 till nightfall, Avheu thev ceased. "They threw 
 their arms to the charioteers. Each of them ap- 
 proached the other forthwith, and each put his 
 hands around the other's neck and sfave him 
 three kisses." 
 
 Their horses grazed in the same paddock that 
 niirht, and their charioteers sat at the same fire. 
 The warriors lav on beds of rushes ; and the 
 healers came with herbs and plants of healing, to 
 cure their wounds. Of every herb and healhi<z 
 balsam applied to the wounds of Cuchulaind, he 
 sent part over the ford to Ferdiad, and he did like- 
 wise with the food and drink brought to him. 
 
 Xext morninof they came airain to the ford, and 
 this day Cuchulaind had the choice of weapons ; 
 and he chose the ' ' great broad spear for thrust- 
 inir/' to be used from their chariots. 
 
 All dav the iiirht lasted, and at niirht the horses 
 were wearied and the charioteers dispirited. 
 Airain they desisted, and asrain embraced and 
 parted for the night, " their horses in the same 
 field and their servants at the same fire." 
 
 This night Ferdiad sent to Cuchulaind part of 
 all the rich food and drink and healing herbs sent 
 liim by the men of Eiriu. Xext day they met 
 ai:ain, and Ferdiad chose heavy swords for the 
 weapons. "We are nearer to the end of the fight,'* 
 said Cuchulaind, " than the throwinir of the first 
 
230 ETHICS OF BOXING AMI> MANLY SPOKT. 
 
 No. 40. 
 
 ANCIENT BBONZE SHIELD.* 
 
 * "A very beautiful bronze sbield, found in a bog forming a 
 peninsula or island in Lough Gurr, in the county of Limerick. 
 The Iloyal Irish Academy having purchased this beautiful 
 shield from M. Lenihan, Esq., of Limerick, it is now in the 
 national museum. It is a flat disc two feet three and three- 
 quarter inches in diameter. It has six concentric rings formed 
 by al)out two hundred small hollow bosses about an inch in 
 diameter; and in the centre a large somewhat flattened boss, 
 six inches internal diameter, called by the French Ombilir 
 <V Umbo, and by the (rermans the Schildnabel. The rim is an 
 inch and three-quarters in width. The handle is fastened 
 
HEROIC COMBAT IX .IXCIEXT IRELAND. 231 
 
 No. 41. 
 
 AXCLE>"T BRONZE SHIELD. 
 
 across the back of the central boss. On the back of the shield, 
 in the third circle from the rim, are two bits of bronze so 
 riveted that the heads of the rivets form two of the small 
 obverse bosses. These bits of bronze sened to sling the shield 
 over the shoulders. [Figures 40 and 41 represent the face and 
 back of this shield.] The central boss or mnbUicus of some 
 Irish sliieltls must have been formed by a spike which could 
 be thrust into the face of an enemy. This was, perhaps, the 
 Gilech cuach coicrindi or flesh mangling cup-Gilech or cup- 
 spear, which was on the speckled blow-dealing shield of Laeg- 
 haire Baadacfi." — O'Curnjs ''Manners and Customs.'''' 
 
'2'6'2 ETHICS OF BOXING AM) MANLY SPOKT. 
 
 day or the thriLstinir of the second, by the hewing 
 of to-day." They fouirht from behind their " long 
 o^reat shields," and l)()th men were many times 
 and deeply wounded, when the darkness fell. 
 When they gave their weapons to the charioteers 
 they were mournful and silent ; the}' did not em- 
 brace each other : their horses were not in the 
 same field that night ; their cliarioteers were not 
 at the same fire. 
 
 "Then Ferdiad arose early next morninu', and went forward 
 alone to the ford of battle. For he knc'w that that day would 
 decide the fight ; he knew that either of them should fall on 
 that day there, or that they both would fall." 
 
 "And it was then he put on his battle-suit of combat, before 
 the coming of Cuchulaind. And that suit of combat was 
 [as follows] : He put on his apron of striped silk, with its 
 border of spangled gold, next his white skin. He put on his 
 apron of brown leather, well sewn, over that, on the lower part [of 
 his body]. He put on a flat stone outside over this apron; and 
 again, outside this, a deep apron of purified iron, through fear 
 of the gae-bolg (the belly-dart), on that day. He put his 
 crested helmet on his head, in which were forty gems, carbun- 
 cles, in each compartment, and it was also studded with crystals, 
 cruan, and rubies from the East. He took his shaq>-pointed 
 strong spear into his right hand. He took his cur^'ed sword 
 upon his left side, with its golden hilt and pommels. He took 
 his large bossed shield on the slope of his back.'' 
 
 When Cuchulaind came to the ford the fii>ht 
 began with missive weapons (javelins,) and con- 
 tinued till noon. And when midday came, the 
 ire of the men became more furious, and they 
 
HEROIC COMBAT IX ANCIENT IKELAND. 2o3 
 
 drew nearer to each other. And then it was that 
 Cuchulaind sprang from the l)rink of the ford, 
 and huns: on the boss of the shield of Ferdiad 
 for the purpose of striking him on the head over 
 the upper rim of the shiekl. And Ferdiad gave 
 the shiekl a blow of his riuht elbow and cast 
 Cuchulaind from him like a kid from the brink 
 of the ford. Cuchulaind sprang from the brink 
 and airain clun^: to the boss of the shield, and was 
 airain flunir off, Ferdiad strikins: the shield with 
 his left knee. 
 
 Then Laeir, the charioteer of Cuchulaind, 
 reproached his master, v;ho, with a mighty spring, 
 again leaped at Ferdiad, caught the boss of his 
 shield, and was flung headforemost into the 
 middle of the ford. 
 
 A dreadful close-fio'ht followed, in which the 
 very shields were unriveted and bent, and the 
 Bocanachs and Bananachs and wild people of the 
 irlens and demons of the air "screamed from the 
 rims of the shields and the hilts of the swords, 
 and hafts of the spears." The champions fought 
 with heavy swords, and at length Ferdiad buried 
 his blade in Cuchulaind's body, making a deep 
 but not deadlv wound ; and still he rained on 
 Cuchulaind his irreat strokes. 
 
 "Cuchulaind could not endure this; and he 
 asked Laes:, son of Rianirabra, for the gac-ljolg." 
 
'2:>\ ETHICS OF BOXING AM) AIANLV SPOUT. 
 
 •• W'hon Fordiad licard the gae-bolg men- 
 tioned, he made a stroke of the spear downward 
 to proteet his h)wer body. Ciiehulaind thrust 
 his si)ear over Ferdiad's shield and wounded him, 
 and then (juiekly settinir the irne-bolor between 
 the toes of his feet, he east it at Ferdiad. It 
 piereed the wrought-iron apron, l)roke the stone 
 beneath, and entered his ])odv, ' so that every 
 cavity of him was tiHcd with ])arbs/" 
 
 " That is enough, indeed," said Ferdiad : " I fall 
 of that." 
 
 Cuchulaind ran to him, raised him tenderly, 
 and carried him across the ford, in order that 
 there should be no question of his victor v. Then 
 hiying him down, he swooned beside him. AVhen 
 he recovered, he lamented over the corse of his 
 foe man. Laeg came and strijiped Ferditul. 
 
 *'Good, O my friend Laeg," said Cuchulaind, 
 *'open Ferdiad now, and take the oae-boh'- out 
 of him, for 1 camiut afford to he U'lthoul nuj 
 weapon.'' 
 
 Laeg came and opened Ferdiad, and took the 
 gae-bolg out of him : and Cuchulaind laid his 
 red weapon by the white side of Ferdiad, and 
 lamented anew : 
 
 "O Ferdiaii: sorrowful is thy fate! 
 That I shouhl see thee so gory and jiale; 
 Having njy weapon yet unwashed, 
 And thou a blood-streaming man. 
 
HEliOlC COMBAT IX ANCIENT IRELAND. '2do 
 
 Sad is the deed wliicli has come of it : 
 We the pupils of Scathach, 
 I, all wounded and red with gore, 
 Thou, thy chariot no longer driving." 
 
 " GoodjO Ciicliulaind,"saidLaeg, *'letii.s leave 
 this ford DOW. Too long are we here." 
 
 " We shall leave now, indeed, O my friend 
 Laeij," said Cucliulaind ; "but every other combat 
 that I have made was to me as a game and a sport 
 compared with this fight with Ferdiad ! " 
 
 It is impossi1)le in hvief space to convey the 
 richness of imagery, the su])tle character-sketch- 
 ing, and the minute detail of this noble and 
 ancient poem. The future has brilliant crowns 
 for Erinn besides those she may win politically. 
 The re-establishment of her literary and artistic 
 genius, the- verification of her ancient and unceas- 
 ing claim, the proving her root to have its deep 
 hold in the earliest known fields of the human 
 race, — this is part of the duty and rcsponsi])ility 
 that rest, on the shoulders of the Irish race of 
 the present. 
 
230 ETlllCtS OF liOXl>G AND MANLY SrOKT. 
 
 VIII. 
 
 A GLANCE BACKWARD AND FOilWAKD. 
 
 The retrospect induced by the study of these 
 Irish aiiti(|uities may well lead the modern reader 
 to a consideration of Ireland's native resources 
 and })ower to become once more a areat nation. 
 The charges of those who declare that her present 
 })Overty and unrest are natural and inevitable, are 
 easily disproved by the records of })ast and })rcs- 
 ent. In all ages of her history, Ireland was re- 
 markal)le as a land of abundant wealth. Vener- 
 able Bede says of ancient Ireland, that " for 
 wholesomeness and serenity of climate, Ireland 
 
 far surpasses Britain The Island 
 
 abounds in milk and honey, is not without vines, 
 and is famous for the chase of lish, fowl, stags, 
 an I roes." * 
 
 Three hundred years asfo the illustrious Eiia- 
 lish i)oet, Spenser, Avho had lived many years in 
 Ireland, thus described the country: ''And sure 
 it is a most beautiful and sweet country as 
 anv under heaven, beinir stoied throuahout witli 
 many goodly rivers, replenished with all sorts of 
 
 *Ecd. Hist. bk. i., c. 1. 
 
A GLANCE BACKWARD AXD FORWARD. 237 
 
 ri.-li al)uiulantlv : si:)rinkled with many very sweet 
 islands and iroodlv lakes, like little inland seas, 
 that will cany even ships upon their waters ; 
 adorned with sfoodlv woods ; also filled with 
 cjood ports and havens : beside the soyle itself 
 most fertile, tit to yield all kind of fruit that 
 <hall be committed thereto. And lastelv, the 
 climate most mild and temperate." * 
 
 Two hundred and tiftv years airo. Sir John 
 Davies, another eminent Englishman, wrote about 
 Ireland as follows : •• I have visited all the prov- 
 inces of that kimrdom in sundry journeys and 
 circuits, wherein I have observed the sood tern- 
 perature of the air, the fruitfulness of the soil, 
 the pleasant and commodious seats for habita- 
 tions, the safe and larg-e ports and havens lying 
 open for traffic into all the west parts of the 
 world : the lomr inlets of many naviirable rivers, 
 and so many great lakes and fresh ponds within 
 the land, as the like are not to be seen in any 
 part of Europe ; the rich tishings and wild fowl 
 of all kinds : and lastly, the bodies and minds of 
 the people endued with extraordinary abilities by 
 nature." f 
 
 In Browne's "Essays on Trade," published in 
 
 *" View of the State of Ireland.*' 
 
 t •• Historical Tracts," bj- Sir John Davies, Attorney-Gen- 
 eral of Ireland. 
 
238 ETHICS OF JiOXlXU AM) MANLY STOliT. 
 
 London in the year 1728, this is the report on 
 Ireland: "Ireland is, in respect of its situation, 
 the number of its commodious harbors, and the 
 natural wealth which it produces, the fittest island 
 to ac(]uirc wealth of any in the European seas ; for 
 as by its situation it lies the most connnodious 
 for the West Indies, Spain, and the Northern and 
 Eastern countries, so it is not only supplied by 
 nature with all the necessities of life, but can 
 over and above export large quantities to foreign 
 countries, insomuch that had it l)een mistress of 
 its trade, no nation in Europe of its extent could 
 in an ecpial number of years acquire greater 
 wealth." 
 
 " Ireland," says Newenham, writing eighty 
 years ago on industrial topics, "greatly surpasses 
 her sister country, Enu^land, in the as^s^reiiate of 
 the endowments of nature. . . . England, 
 abounding in wealth beyond any other country 
 in Europe, cannot boast of one natural advantage 
 which Ireland does not possess in a superior 
 decree." * 
 
 "With respect to the soil," says M. Carey 
 ("Vindicije Ilibernicjxi," Philadelphia, 1823), 
 Ireland is blest in the hi<2^hest detrree. Arthur 
 Younsr, an Enirlish traveller, who devoted half 
 
 **' Viewof the Natural, Political, and Commercial Circum- 
 stances of Ireland," by T. Newenham, London. 1809. 
 
A GLANCE BACKWARD AND FORWARD. 
 
 239 
 
 his life to agricultuml investigations, has pro- 
 nounced sentence on this point, from which there 
 is no appeal. He says, comparing England and 
 Ireland, that natural fertility, acre for acre, over 
 the two kingdoms, is certainly in favor of Ire- 
 land."* 
 
 "There is probal:)ly not a country in the world," 
 says Newenham, "which, for its extent, is one- 
 half so abundantly supplied with the most pre- 
 cious minerals and fossils as Ireland.'' f 
 
 It is not too sanguine to express the hope 
 
 * '• Tour in Ireland." Edit. 1780. 
 
 t " There is not a county in Ireland which does not contain 
 some valuable mineral or fossil; several of them, it is now 
 ascertained, abound with treasures of this sort; and these, for 
 the greater part, are most happily situated for the exportation 
 of their products, either in a rude or manufactured state." — 
 NeirenJiam. 
 
 Ireland contains the following thirty different sorts of 
 minerals and fossils, the figures prefixed denoting the number 
 of counties in which they have been discovered, viz. : 
 
 2. 
 
 Amethysts. 
 
 2. Garnites. 
 
 4. Pebbles. 
 
 1. 
 
 Antimony. 
 
 7. Granite. 
 
 2. Petrifactions. 
 
 15. 
 
 Coal. 
 
 1. Gypsum. 
 
 1. Porphyry. 
 
 1. 
 
 Cobalt. 
 
 10. Iron. 
 
 1. Silicious sand. 
 
 17. 
 
 Copper. 
 
 1. .Jasper. 
 
 3. Silver. 
 
 1. 
 
 Chalcedony. 
 
 16. Lead. 
 
 6. Slate. 
 
 8. 
 
 Crystals. 
 
 2. Manganese. 
 
 1. Soap-stone. 
 
 9. 
 
 Clays of various 
 
 19. Marble. 
 
 1. Spars. 
 
 
 sorts. 
 
 1~). Ochres. 
 
 2. Sulphur. 
 
 5. 
 
 Fuller's -earth. 
 
 2. Pearls. 
 
 2. Talc. 
 
 1. 
 
 Gold. 
 
 
 
 (1 
 
 ' The gold mine a1 
 
 : Croghan, in the 
 
 county of Wicklow, 
 
 )eg£ 
 
 in to attract attention about the year 
 
 1795. According to 
 
240 ETHICS OF BOXING AND MANLY SPORT. 
 
 tli:it at last the sun is rising tVoin the h)n<i- nit>'ht 
 of Ireland's sufi'erinir and heroic struiriz:le for a 
 nation's rights. It moans nuuh for civilization that 
 a people so originally gifted as the Irish shonld 
 have tree scope to express its national genins in 
 all the forms of art, leann'ng and freedom. The 
 ancient glory can be renewed, with increased lustre. 
 An island must ])ecome famous for wealth, even 
 among the wealthy, that is so full of natural 
 
 a calculation made on the subject, the sum of £10,(X)0 was 
 paid, at the rate of £3 15s. per oimce, to the count n- people, 
 for the gold which thej^ collected. Before the government took 
 possession of the mine, there was foimd one piece of gold 
 which weighed twenty-two ounces, and which is believed to be 
 the largest ever found iji Europe. From the conunencement 
 of the works to June 1801, there, were foimd 590 ounces of 
 gold." — yev-enham. 
 
 "Mr. Lawson, an English miner, stated in evidence before 
 the Irish House of Commons, that the iron-stone at Arigna 
 [the iron-field of Arigna is six square miles in extent] lay 
 in beds of from three to twelve fathoms deep; and that it 
 could be raised for two shillings and sixpence the ton, which 
 is five shillings cheaper than in Cumberland; that the coal in 
 the neighborhood was better than any in England, and could 
 be raised for three shillings and sixpence the ton; and that it 
 e-tended six miles in length, and five in breadth. He also 
 stated that fire-brick clay, and free-stone of the best qualities, 
 were in the neighborhood, and that a bed of potter's clay ex- 
 tended there two miles in length, and one in breadth. Mr. 
 Clarke, on the same occasion, declared that the iron-ore was 
 inexhaustible. And our distinguished countryman, Mr. Kirwan, 
 whose opinions on mineralogical subjects few will attempt to 
 refute, affirmed that the Arigna iron was better than any iron 
 made from any species of single ore in F^n^lamV—Newfinham. 
 
A GLANCE BACKWARD AND FORWARD. 241 
 
 resources, of precious and useful minerals, gold, 
 siKxr, iron, copper, zinc, antimony, coal, of 
 ni;irl)le, porphyry and A^arious building stones, of 
 artistic and useful clays, of rare glass-sand, of 
 inexhaustil)le fisheries, of incomparable water- 
 power, of singular fertility of soil, of rare native 
 popular intelligence and versatility of mind ; and, 
 added to all these, with a position unequalled for 
 commercial advantages, set down in the high- 
 road of the world's traffic, the first land in Europe 
 from the AVest, where every traveller across the 
 Atlantic would land, and whence every traveller 
 for the outer world would embark. 
 
 When the world was young, Ireland proved 
 her capacity l)y leading in the civilization of 
 Xorthern Europe. Even the broken leaves 
 and branches of her native customs and litera- 
 ture, preserved in this article on ancient weapons 
 and games, are proof to the eye and the mind, 
 over-riding the aspersions of illiteracy and pre- 
 judice. 
 
 In her unexampled struggle of seven centuries, 
 during the latter three of which the nation has 
 been prostrate, bound, and gagged, the native 
 arts and industries and varied learning: have died 
 or have been destroyed l)y the stui)id conqueror. 
 The language of the Celt has l^een suppressed ; 
 ])ut he has learned the tongue of his oppressor, 
 
242 ETHICS OF BOXING AND MANJ.Y SPORT. 
 
 and enriched it with memories and imas^inins^s of 
 his own. 
 
 And in the latest day, Ireland is stron<2:er and 
 more hopeful than when the long fiirht began. 
 She is conquering her enemy by the highest 
 form of victory — by conversion. 
 
 The illustrious Enirli^hnian, who is leadinir the 
 liiiiher morality and intelliirence of his country- 
 men, ^Ir. Gladstone, says: "Under the most 
 cruel pressure of tyranny and torture, in every 
 form, without beino: invested with sufFraire or 
 power, the Irish people has maintained its own 
 vitality and the integrity of its traditions. . . . 
 AVe must reverse the judgment which the civili/.ed 
 Avorld has formed, to the effect that England, 
 great and pure, and bright in most of the recol- 
 lections of her history, has one dark, blurred and 
 blotted space on that page which describes her 
 dealiniT'S with the sister island, and which, instead 
 of beinsj, as it ouirht to l)e, an honor to the 
 irreatest of free countries, would be a dishonor 
 to the most despotic and enslaved. Irishmen 
 will hope, must hope, ought to hope, and in the 
 train of that hope will come victory ; and in the 
 train of victory, liberty ; and in the train of liberty, 
 peace ; and in the train of peace, the restitution 
 of that good name to England, which will then, 
 indeed, be relieved from the last blot resting 
 upon it." 
 
CANOEING ON THE CONNECTICUT. 
 
 The canoe is the American 1)oat of the past and 
 of the future. It suits the American mind : it is 
 liglit, swift, safe, graceful, easily moved ; and the 
 occupant looks in the direction he is going, in- 
 stead of behind, as in the stupid old tubs that 
 have held the world up to this time. 
 
 AVho, among the hard workers of our eastern 
 cities, needs two months' vacation, and can only 
 get away from the desk or office for two weeks ? 
 
 AVho feels the confined work tell on his lungs, 
 or his eyes, or shudders at that trenmlousness of 
 the shoulders and arms which precedes the break- 
 niij^-down from over-work ? 
 
 All this can be cured by the sun and the wind 
 and the delicious splash of the river on face 
 and breast and arms. Those are they to whom a 
 canoe is a srodsend. Thev can set more health 
 and strength and memorable joy out of a two- 
 weeks' canoe trip than from a lazy, expensive and 
 
 (24:1) 
 
244 ETHICS OF BOXl.NU AM) MANLY SPORT. 
 
 sea-sick V()ya<j:e to Europe, or three months' 
 dawdki at a fashional)le watering-phicc. 
 
 Boats are for work; canoes are for pleasure, 
 l^oats are artilicial ; canoes are natural. In a boat 
 you are always an oar's-lenirth and a irun wale's- 
 height away from Nature. In a canoe you can 
 steal up to her bower and peep into her very 
 bosom. 
 
 AVliat memories are stored away in the canoe- 
 ist's mind ! My friend, Dr. Ramon Guiteras, and 
 I have canoed together in many rivers, in the 
 same little liacine boat (though we now believe 
 that it is preferable to have only one man to a 
 canoe) , and we can enjoy rare hours of reminis- 
 cence, recallino: delightful scenes and amusino- in- 
 cidents from this or that excursion. And let two 
 canoeists, strangers, meet : their talk is an end- 
 lessly-pleasant comparison. 
 
 Going on this trip on the Connecticut, when 
 Ave took our boat to the Boston and Maine depot, 
 in Boston, we found another canoe in the bao-o-ao-e 
 car. I happened to know one of the gentlemen 
 who was tying it up, Mr. Morris Meredith, an 
 experienced canoeman ; and with him was a veteran 
 of many rivers, Mr. Frank Hubbard, of Boston. 
 What a chat of hours we had ! "What rapids we 
 ran over again ! What tender touches of memory 
 when some river scene familiar to all was brouirht 
 
CANOEING OX THE CONNECTICUT. 245 
 
 up ! And how unselfishly these two canoemen 
 (who were iroinir on a two- weeks' cruise on Lake 
 Chaniplain) tore their chart in two, and irave 
 us that part which included the Connecticut 
 River. 
 
 AVhen Dr. Guiteras and I started from Boston, 
 we intended to take water at AVhite-River Junc- 
 tion ; ])ut, when we reached that place, we found 
 the river full of lo2:s, — the larijfest quantity ever 
 cut in one year iroins: down this season. But the 
 "end of the logs " was onl}" a few miles above 
 the White River; and we were told that, by go- 
 ing farther up, we should have it all clear as we 
 came down, and miaht follow the loirs toHolvoke. 
 
 So we took our little boat farther up, till we 
 came to a favorable spot for launching, and there 
 we slid her into the river from a marvellous 
 white sand-bank, which ran into the deep, slow 
 stream, and from which we took our first glorious 
 " header" into the Connecticut. 
 
 All along the river, down to Middletown, hun- 
 dreds of miles away, we found, at intervals, this 
 remarkable kind of sand-bank on which one may 
 take a race, and dive directly into deep water. 
 And vet the bank is not straight, under water, 
 but a rapid incline, easy and pleasant for landing. 
 
 What need of details? Miles in a voyage are 
 of no more account than years in a life : they may 
 
24(3 ETHICS OF boxing and manly sport. 
 
 be filled with commonplace. Men live by events, 
 and so they paddle. 
 
 AVc had ten, fifteen, twenty days ahead, if 
 necessarv I AVe were rich in this. Hundreds of 
 miles of beautiful water, splendid days, a new 
 moon, a well -stored locker, and a ])oat that 
 danced under us like a duck ! So we started, 
 dripping from the embrace of the sweet water. 
 
 "We paddled about fifteen miles, when we saw a 
 tempting nook, a pine grove above a sand-bank, 
 with a dashing stream ; and, not far withdrawn, 
 a comfortable farm-house, where we might l)uy 
 milk and eirirs and bread. As we had started 
 late, we landed for the night, and one set off for 
 the farm-house, while the other made ready for 
 supper. 
 
 We had a copious larder. We carried too 
 many things, observers said. So we did , Init we 
 both liked many things when we stopped for 
 meals. Our table was the sand-bank, with a 
 rubber blanket spread. Olives, cheese, sardines, 
 bacon, Liebiir's extract of beef, — these looked 
 well. Then came the farm supplies, — quarts of 
 rich milk, a dozen eggs, two loaves of bread, and 
 a lot of cooked green peas, thrown in by the 
 farmer's wife ; a bottle of good claret. AVhat a 
 dinner and supper in one ! Then coflee, then a 
 cigar, then the philosophies, — quiet talk as we 
 
CANOEING ON THE CONNECTICUT. 247 
 
 sat lookino^ at the river with the darkness cominsr 
 down, the frosfs soundins: resonant notes over on 
 the New Hampshire side, and the white light of 
 the young moon trembling up over the dark pine 
 hills. Then we wrapped ourselves in our blank- 
 ets, and slept till morning. 
 
 We had no tent ; we two had discovered that 
 we needed no tent in July or August, though we 
 do not advise others to follow our example. For- 
 tunately for us, we wake in the early morning 
 with the same feelinof of refreshment, — our lunirs 
 full of the delicious air, and our faces wet with 
 dew. On this first morning, I leaped up at sun- 
 rise, shoutino^ : "This is the wav^ Nature meant 
 men to live and sleep and wake ! " 
 
 I shall never fors^et that first o'lorious morninij:. 
 For an hour before risino', I had lain awake look- 
 m^ out at the river, and listenina' to the strange 
 country sounds around me. All over the grass 
 and low bushes, the spider's webs w^ere stretched, 
 Sflisteninii: with dew. What a wonderful night's 
 industry ! Those webs were nearly all, or quite 
 all, new. The little niijht-toilers had woven them 
 over our olive bottle, over the 2:un, over our- 
 selves. The field above us was white as snow 
 with this incomparable cloth-of-silver. 
 
 As I lay and looked at one of those webs close 
 to my face, I saw a strange thing. A little gray- 
 
21<S ETHICS OF nOXING AND MANLY SPORT. 
 
 aml-])lack spider niii up a tall grass hlade, rested 
 a iiioiuent, and then ran off, through cnii)ty air, 
 to another Idade, six inches off. I looked closer; 
 surely he must have a fine line stretched between 
 those points, I thought. Xo ; the closest scrutiny 
 could lind none. I watched hitn ; he was soon 
 oil' airain, straiirht for another ])()int, a foot above 
 tile irround, runnin<r on clear space, and turninir 
 down and hanging to it, like a monkey, but still 
 iroinix ahead. I called Guiteras, and he came and 
 saw and examined, and smiled in his wise way 
 Avhen he don't know. We could not see the little 
 fellow's cable, or railway, or bridge. He was as 
 nuich finer than we as we are finer than mas- 
 todons. 
 
 And the birds, in that first rich morning speech 
 of theirs, full of soft, bub])lin2: iov, not siniiinir, 
 but softly and jdmost silently overflowing. Two 
 little fellows flew rapidly down to a twig near us, 
 and beiran bub])le-bubblinD: as if in a <>;reat flutter 
 and hurry ; and immediately they flew^ far and 
 high, as for a long journey; at which my philo- 
 sophic friend moralized : 
 
 "Those little fcHows are like some canoeists 
 who wake up, and don't wait for breakfast ; but 
 l)ul)ble-])ubble, hurry-hurry, get-afloat, we-have- 
 a-long-way-to-go ! Now, ice don't do that." 
 
 Indeed, we do not. This is what we do. We 
 
C^VXOEIXG ON THE CONNECTICUT. 21 ) 
 
 light our little alcohol stove, and l)oil two quarts 
 of the rich milk, into which we put our prepared 
 cotlee (Sanford's, — a great and precious coni- 
 p(>und, which we heartil}' recommend to all men 
 fond of outing). Then Ave plunge into the river 
 for a iT^ood swim, aettinix the first of the sun as he 
 comes over the hill. The sand-l)ank is soft to 
 land on ; and so up we go to the meadow above, 
 for a four-round bout with boxino-.o-loves ; and, 
 when this is done, we are in good trim for break- 
 fast. 
 
 Here let me say that we were never sorry when 
 we selected a white sand-bank or a pine grove to 
 sleep in ; the latter to be preferred, on account of 
 the. soft pine needles, the healthy fragrance, and 
 the absence of mosquitoes. If the sand-bank is 
 chosen, lirst scoop out a hollow for the hips and 
 shoulders; spread the rubber l)lanket, and then 
 the woollen blanket ; turn the latter bag-like up 
 from the feet, and draw the rul)ber over all. 
 Then vour couch is as soft as a feather-bed, and 
 a hundred times healthier. 
 
 After breakfast, two hours of easy paddling, 
 during which we keep the gun ready, and usually 
 kill about a half dozen birds to enrich our dinner. 
 Then follow two hours of hard paddling, which 
 prepares us for dinner and a rest. After this, 
 two hours of easy paddling, and two hours of 
 
2')0 ETHICS OF BOXING AND MANLY SPOKT. 
 
 h:ird paddling. Then supper; after ^vhich, a 
 slow and easy, meditative paddle in search of 
 pine jrrove or sand bank. This was our reirular 
 daily programme, and its worth was shown l)y 
 our excellent condition when we reached the end 
 of the river. 
 
 Events hy the way — how shall I recall them, 
 crowded as they are ? We were upset : it was in 
 this wav. AVe had carried our boat round a fall, 
 where the logs ran so furiously that nothing else 
 had a chance to run. At about eight o'clock in 
 the evenin2: we floated her, below the falls, in- 
 tending just to paddle down till we found a place 
 to sleep. AVe did not know, from the dusk, that 
 the rapids extended for miles below the falls. 
 AVe soon found the water extremely strong" and 
 swift, full of eddies and whirls, and mixed up 
 with tumbling and pushing logs. It was the 
 ujrliest race we had seen or did see on all the 
 river. AVe swept down like an arrow for about 
 half a mile, and then a thunder-storm of ex- 
 traordinary violence and continuity burst. The 
 night l)ecame pitch-dark. AVe could only see 
 the l)lack river, runninir like a wolf at the gun- 
 wale, and the liirhtnim; ziirzagsring the nii2:ht 
 above. Suddenly, we realized that the logs on 
 our left were stationary, while those in the stream 
 on our right were tearing down like battering- 
 
CAXOEIXG OX THE CONNECTICUT. '2ol 
 
 rams. So long as you go with the logs they are 
 irentle as friendly savaires. just rul)1)ino: vou softlv 
 like liviniT thinirs, and movable ^\ itli a tinirer. 
 But get fast, and let them come down on you, 
 and the ribs of a boat will smash like a match- 
 box under their brutal drive and the iasrired libres 
 of their tapered butt-ends. The logs on our left 
 were stationary ; but the ra[)id water boiled up 
 'between them. AVe ran swiftlv alon<x two a'reat 
 logs — then suddenly stopped. An immense log 
 had been forced up and across its fellows, and as 
 its fiirther end was driven swiftlv forward, its 
 heavy butt came straight for the canoe. Dr. 
 Guiteras got the first blow, on the head and 
 shoulder, which rather keeled us. Then the Io<r 
 took me fairlv on the chest, and over and down 
 we went. For some seconds, Guiteras's feet 
 bavins: ixot fast somehow in the boat forward, he 
 was in a bad wav ; but he soon kicked free, and 
 we swam at our ease with the boat down the 
 river. 
 
 To men who can swim well enouirh not to lose 
 their presence of mind by a sudden u})set, there 
 is little danirer in canoeimr — i:)ro])ablv no more 
 than in ridinir. It is well, thouirh, to know what 
 to do when vou find vourself rollimr into the 
 water. When you come up, the canoe is, of 
 course, bottom-side up. By catching hold of her 
 
2^j2 ethics of boxing and 3Ianlv .spout. 
 
 keel, she is easily righted. If there bo two 
 swimmers, they should take the two sides, hold- 
 ing her with one hand and swimming with the 
 other. They can i)ass through any kind of sea 
 in this fashion, safely, and even with pleasure. 
 W there be onl}' one in the canoe, he ought to 
 hold her by the stern or painter ring with one 
 hand, and swim with the other. If he attempt 
 to hold her by the side he will surely upset her 
 again. It is good drill to upset your canoe in 
 safe water half a dozen times, and 2:et used to it, 
 as we did on the day following our ducking. 
 
 We lost, strange to say, only a few insignificant 
 articles. Everything in the locker was safe, and 
 even dry, includinir our watches. The irun had 
 not rolled out. 
 
 To go into further detail would s:'ive the affair 
 more weight than it deserves. I shall only say 
 that in our difficulty Ave were kindly and courage- 
 ously helped by Mr. Woodman, a farmer on the 
 shore, for whom we shall long keep a friendly 
 feelinix. 
 
 This was our only mishap of a serious nature. 
 Of course, we got into many tight places ; canoe- 
 ists must expect it. But w^e emerged without 
 turning a hair, and w^e paid for all our troubles 
 with endless interest and enjovment. 
 
 We laughed at all thinirs that came : at a 
 
CANOEING ON THE CONNECTICLT. 253 
 
 memory of last year ; at simple questions by the 
 country lads, who sat with us at times while we 
 feasted, but who never would join us, being shy 
 and proud ; at a certain stupid kind of bird that 
 waited every day to be shot ; we laughed infinitely 
 at the loirs, when we learned their ways : we 
 named them, patted their rouoii backs, or rubbed 
 the old bald ones ; we leaped out and rode on 
 them, and tried to walk on them like the logmen, 
 and always tumbled in, and came up blowing and 
 lauorhins:. 
 
 This reminds me of a story. We had stopped 
 near a camp of logmen, and they paid us a visit. 
 Among them was a big brawny fellow, who evi- 
 dently was full of conceit, and who, we were 
 quietly told, had been bragging all the season of 
 his prowess as a boxer. It was Sunday evening, 
 and he was dressed as a heavv swell, cloth trou- 
 sers, silver watch, a " biled "' shirt, etc. AVhen 
 the loof<rers saw the boxinsr-o'loves, they wanted 
 their heavy man to spar. Guiteras (the best 
 heavy-weiiiht ever known at Harvard and the 
 Cribb Club) was willing to set-to with him. But 
 the big fellow "didn't feel well to-day"; he 
 would only smile in a superior way. 
 
 At last we sfot afloat and shoved oft'. Then the 
 big fellow jumped up and ran out on some logs in 
 the river, and bared his arm to the shoulder. 
 
254 ETHICS OF BOXING AND MANLY SPORT. 
 
 "Look at that!" he shouted, as his biceps 
 crci)t up to his shoulder like a cat. 
 
 At that moment, he slipped o(V the log and dis- 
 appeared in the deep water, starched shirt, watch, 
 cloth trousers and all : and the hills roared in 
 concert with the loirmen and canoemen as he 
 floundered out and crept, dripping, to the shore. 
 
 We had another queer experience with an an- 
 taironist who '' took it out of us,'' at least for a 
 day — the sun. We make a point of wearing as 
 little covering as possible — no hats, no sleeves, 
 no shoes while in the boat. Healthy men are 
 never sun-struck. Alcohol-stroke or toil-stroke 
 or stomach-stroke is the real name of sun-stroke. 
 If the bare head feels warm in a boat, moisten it 
 and it becomes deliciously cool. 
 
 But sun-burn is another thing, and it must be 
 looked to until the skin touirhens. It must not 
 be cooled with water, for every drop becomes a 
 burning lens, to score a deeper mark. On our 
 fourth day out we were badly sun-l)urnt. Guite- 
 ras on that day had swam from 10 a. m. to 5 p. m., 
 making about fifteen miles. The sun had taken 
 hold of our shoulders, arms and face, and next day 
 we were both feverish and cross-irrained. Every 
 movement was painful. We stopped at a village 
 and bought half a pound of bi-carl)onate of soda 
 (connnon 1)aking soda). That night we made a 
 
CANOEING OX THE CONNECTICUT. 255 
 
 thick solution, poured it over the burnt parts and 
 put on tight cotton shirts with long sleeves In 
 the morning the pain was gone, though the 1)1 is- 
 tered flesh remained. 
 
 Here is an experience of " cures " for sun-burn ; 
 we tried many remedies, some on one arm, some 
 on another ; some on our faces, and others on our 
 necks. AVe tried Nature's remedy — Jet it alone — 
 and the l)urns treated in this way were the first 
 to ijet well. Moral : do nothino* for a sun-burn 
 1)ut to take it out of the sun for a dav or two. 
 
 As we came down the river one thinir was 
 noticeable and very enjoyable — the courtesy and 
 kindness of every one on the banks. At Brattle- 
 lioro we found two ijentlemen who owned canoes 
 (Mr. Harry Lawrence and Mr. Fred. L. Howe), 
 who lent us a pair of single paddles, and who were 
 otherwise exceedingly kind. 
 
 At Springfield we stopped long enough for me 
 to lecture in the evening (by previous arrange- 
 ment). There was a large audience, and Guiteras 
 sat on the platform, brown as an Indian, and fell 
 asleep. Fortunately he was shielded by a large 
 tropical plant. AVe stopped that night at the 
 hospitable house of my friend Father O'Keefe, of 
 West Springfield, who made the hours short for 
 us. 
 
 We had been told that the beauty of the Con- 
 
2")() ETHICS OF ROXING AND MANLY SPORT. 
 
 noctic'ut ended at Springfield ; ])ut it is not so. 
 Indeed, one of the loveliest stretehes lies between 
 ILirttbrd Jind Middletown, though the river under 
 ^It. Tom and Mt. Ilolyoke is surpassingly beau- 
 tiful. 1 never saw more delightful scenery than 
 in the river valley just a])ove and ])elow Xorth- 
 ampton. 
 
 And let no canoeist pass Springfield without 
 visiting the famous United States arsenal, where, 
 
 " From floor to ceiling, 
 Like a huge organ, rise the burnished arms." 
 
 Nowhere in the world is there a nobler view than 
 from the tower of this building. This is a super- 
 lative word, l)ut it was the opinion of the great 
 Humboldt, who, on a famous European river, 
 said: "There is nothing finer than this, except 
 the view from the Arsenal at Springfield." 
 
 At Hartford, the Canoe Club met us most 
 kindly, and its commodore, Mr. Jones, made our 
 stay bright and our departure memorable. 
 
 From Hartford to Middletown is one of the 
 finest stretches of the Connecticut, and it is bv 
 no means low-banked or monotonous. One of 
 the peculiarities of the river is that it is almost 
 as wide and apparently as deep at Hanover as in 
 this latest reach. 
 
 It is not necessary to go a great distance up 
 
H 
 I 
 
 m 
 
 o 
 
 c 
 
 o 
 
 H 
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 m 
 
 < 
 
 m 
 
 03 
 
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 I 
 
 ■U 
 
 ,? 
 
 7, > f V: • ' fi 
 
 k/.y'r Vl*'f^''' 
 
 %i • ■,-,-.■ ■^ ' 'Sir 
 
 'II? 
 
 11 
 
 ' \ 
 
 1^ iii^'j;^'-'- 
 
 ii 
 
 lJL 
 
 f i^ • ' 
 
 ^M^K 
 
CANOEING ON THE CONNECTICUT. 257 
 
 the Connecticut to find splendid canoeing water. 
 If one had only a week's time, and entered the 
 river at Brattleboro', or below Turner's Falls, he 
 would find enough beauty to remember for a life- 
 time. 
 
 The distances on the river appear to be quite 
 unknown to residents on the banks, who evidentlv 
 judge by road measurement. We found, in most 
 cases, that the river distance was at least a third 
 to a half lono'er than the road. 
 
 One of our rarest pleasures came from paddling 
 for a few miles up the smaller rivers that run into 
 the Connecticut. They are invariably beautiful, 
 and the smaller ones are indescribable as fairy- 
 land. 
 
 One stream, particularly (1 think it is a short 
 distance below White-River Junction, on the New 
 Hampshire side), called Bromidon, was, in all re- 
 spects, an ideal brook. It had the merriest voice ; 
 the brownest and most sun-flecked shallows ; the 
 darkest little nooks of deep, leafy pools ; the most 
 happy-looking, creeper-covered homesteads on 
 its banks. A^^e could hardly paddle into it, it 
 was so shallow ; or out of it, it was so beau- 
 tiful. Guiteras wanted to write a poem about it. 
 " The name is a poem in itself," he said ; " any 
 one could write a poem a])out such a stream." 
 All the way down the river his muttered " Broni- 
 
258 ETHICS OF BOXING AND MANLY SPOKT. 
 
 idon ! " \vas like the self-satistied l)ubble-bub])le 
 of the morninir birds. 
 
 This leads me to say that, in the rapid growth 
 of canoeini!:, whieh is surely coinino:, it is to be 
 hoped that the paddle will be the legitimate 
 means of propulsion, and not the sail. If men 
 want to sail, let them get keel-boats and open 
 Avater. The canoe was meant for lesser surftices. 
 Indeed, the smaller the I'iver, the more enjoyable 
 the canoeino-. A few feet of surface is wide 
 enough. With the quiet paddle, one can steal 
 under the overhan<>inir 1)0U2:hs, drift silently into 
 the deep morning and afternoon shadows ; study 
 the ever-changing banks, birds, even the splendid 
 drairon-flies and butterflies amono- the reeds and 
 rushes. 
 
 As an athletic exercise, paddling is one of the 
 best, or can easily l)e made so. A canoe trip of 
 a couple of weeks, diversified by two good swims 
 daily, will bring the whole muscular system into 
 thorouii'li workimr condition. Dr. Guiteras, Avho 
 has had unusual experience in athletic training, 
 and has given it special attention, is of opinion 
 that no oilier exercises are so excellent as paddling 
 and swimming in conjunction. 
 
 A word about the loijs. Thev are not so bad 
 as they look, nor as their general reputation. 
 We should, of course, prefer a river without 
 
CANOEING OX THE CONNECTICUT. 259 
 
 them ; and canoeists on the Connecticut can easily 
 avoid them by finding out when they start and 
 cease running. But they always keep in the cur- 
 rent ; they people the river with odd and interest- 
 inor fellow-vova<>ei"s, and they are as harmless as 
 sheep in a meadow wdien you know how to handle 
 them. 
 
 Since this trip on the Connecticut, we have 
 canoed many other rivers, some of them streams 
 of much o^reater volume. We had in these the 
 width of w^ater, the calm greatness of the flow, 
 the splendid reaches unbroken by falls and rapids 
 and dams ; but we often missed the over-hanoino* 
 branches, the flash and twitter among the leaves, 
 the shadows that made the river look deep as 
 the sky, and the murmur of the little brown 
 brooks that are lost in the s^reat stream, leavinof 
 onlv their names, like Bromidon, clinii'in": to the 
 water like naiads. 
 
DOWN THE SUSQUEHANNA IN 
 
 CANOE. 
 
 ''This river runs pjilpably down hill!" said 
 my friend in the other boat, as our two canoes 
 rounded a sweeping curve, and ran down an 
 unbroken slope of half a mile. 
 
 So it did. Beautiful ! That first air-borne 
 sensation of a sheer slide was not beaten on the 
 next hundred miles of river. The water Avas not 
 three feet deep ; clear as air — every pebble seen 
 on the bottom, and none larger than your hand; 
 and the whole Avide river slipping and sliding like 
 a irreat sheet of o'lass out of its frame ! At the 
 foot of the sloping water was a little rapid, our 
 first on the Susquehanna, which is even more 
 truly a river of rapids than a river of bends, 
 tlioui!:h the latter is the meaninij of its melodious 
 Indian name. 
 
 AVe had stopped paddling on the " palpable 
 hill," and we let the stream carry our canoes into 
 
 (201) 
 
262 ETHICS OF BOXING AND MANLY SPORT. 
 
 the noisy rapid at its foot. Zigzag it crossed the 
 riv^er ; and as I led into a well-defined rushing Vi 
 ainiino: at the an<rle, I felt the first aTiiniT)le of 
 a rock alonii; the keel. Next moment we were 
 pitching on sharp little white-caps below the rush, 
 and scooting down toward the swift, deep water. 
 
 We had launched our canoes at Binahamton, 
 J. Smith and I, because the river above is too 
 low in September. Shame that it should be so ! 
 The l)eautiful hills above Binii^hamton, that a 
 few years ago were clothed with rich foliage for 
 unbroken leagues, are shorn like a stubble-field. 
 The naked stumps are white and unsightly on the 
 mountains, like the bones of an old battle-field. 
 
 A monster has crept up the valley and devoured 
 the strono- youns: trees. Every trunk has been 
 swallow^ed ; and the maw of the dragon is belch- 
 ing fur more. On both sides of the river, and 
 through many of the valleys that open l)ack to 
 the farm-lands, the railroads wind like serpents ; 
 and every foot-loniz' joint in their vertebrae is the 
 trunk of a twenty-year old tree. The hills stand 
 up in the sun, cropped and debased like convicts ; 
 their l)eauty and mystery and shadowed sacred- 
 ness torn from them ; their silence and loneliness 
 replaced by the selfish chirp of the grasshopper 
 among the dry weeds. Never did the hard utility 
 of civilization appear less disguised and less 
 
DOWN THE SUSQUEHANNA. 263 
 
 lovely. All Indian warrior be2:2"ini2: on Broad- 
 way ; a buffalo from the wilds 3'oked to a market- 
 wao'on ; any de2:radin2: and antaii'onistic picture 
 of life were more endurable and more hopeful 
 than these majestic ridges stripped and burned 
 into commonplace and repulsive bareness. 
 
 But the injured hills, like all old and strong 
 children of nature, curse their destroyer as they 
 die. The railroads have killed the trees, and the 
 death of the trees is as surely killing the river. 
 Year by year its life-blood decreases ; it grows 
 narrower, shallower, yet more fitfully dangerous. 
 Scores and hundreds of miles it runs, drinkinii' in 
 the volume of the streams ; but in all this distance 
 its own volume does not increase. 
 
 Marvellous and shocking ! The Susquehanna is 
 no deeper at Harrisburg than at Towanda. Its 
 evaporation equals its growth. The shorn hills 
 can hold no moisture. The rain and dew are 
 dried in the morninof sun like a breath on a mir- 
 ror. But when the heavy clouds roll in and rain 
 for weeks, there are no thirsty roots to hold the 
 water, no myriad-leafed miles to be drenched 
 before a rill is formed below. Then the dried 
 veins arc suddenly and madly filled, tearing down 
 to the lowlands with unchecked violence. The 
 river, swollen with drunken fury, becomes the 
 brute that civilization is always making — leap- 
 
'Ji)4: ET11IC8 OF BOXING AND MANLY Sl'OHT. 
 
 ing at the bridges, devouring the tields, dehiging 
 farm-houses and streets, until its fury is ghitted 
 on the blind seltishness that irave it birth. 
 
 Pitts))urgh riots and Susquehanna devastations 
 are children of the same jjarents, — Greed and 
 Ignorance. Beautiful trees and beautiful souls, 
 steeped in the coal-pits, scorched by the cinders, 
 thundered over bv the roaiiniz wheels that carrv 
 treasures to the cultured and luxurious, there is a 
 curse in your detilement and mutilation. Yet our 
 moralists and socialists will not listen and under- 
 stand. 
 
 But who shall be didactic in a canoe on a river 
 that laughs into little rapids every few hundred 
 yards? It was delightful to see Smith take his 
 tirst rapid. He had only canoed before in still 
 water. A few miles below Binirharaton we heard 
 the break of the water, and saw the zi<rzaor line 
 ahead. Not knowin<z the nature of the thin*^, 
 whether it was a dam, an "eel-rack," a wood- 
 shoot, or a natural shoal, I paddled ahead, and 
 took a look at it. There was just one place in 
 the line, about three feet wide, where the water 
 rushed down like a sluicewav ; and we must iro in 
 there. On one side of this passage, a thin spur 
 of black stone rose above the surface, and made 
 a good mark to steer by ; but on the other side of 
 the. sluice was a great round stone, covered with 
 
DOAVX THE SUSQUEHANNA. 265 
 
 about six inches of rushing water. I paddled 
 back and asked Smith to observe exactly where 
 my boat entered ; and, turning her head, I let 
 her £ro in " with the swim." It was a deliohtful 
 little shoot cf about tifty yards, and when I had 
 reached the smooth water, I turned to see my 
 friend coming down. He neared the rapids, not 
 letting his boat drift, but paddling with all his 
 force, and moving at tremendous speed down the 
 swift water. He was not heading for the open- 
 'uvj:, but was cominir straia'ht for the bis: stone at 
 the riirht side. Xo use shoutinir ; the din of the 
 water drowned all other sound. I expected to 
 see him strike and swing round, and probably 
 get upset and rolled over; but instead of that, 
 the bow of his plucky little boat rose at the stone 
 like a steeple-chaser, till I saw half her keel in 
 the air, — and then over she came, without a 
 scratch, and buried her nose in the deep water 
 below the stone, while the canoeist sat straiofht, 
 laughing with excitement, and dripping with the 
 shower of spray from the plunge. 
 
 "How did it feel?" Tasked.^ 
 
 " Glorious ! " he shouted. 
 
 He thouijht he had come down secundum artem. 
 But before niijht he knew all about it, for the 
 river was so low that every shallow had an angry 
 brawl. Next day, with a steady hand and cool 
 
'2(]Q ETHICS OF BOXING AND MANLY 8POKT. 
 
 head, he found the wav out for nie when I had 
 2:ot into a bad ])hice. 
 
 It was in this wav : I had none in first on rather 
 a lono^ and rouirh descent. There was a bend on 
 the rapid, and in going round I struck heavily 
 and unexpectedly, and swung right athwart the 
 race, amidships fast on a huge brown shelf-rock. 
 The divided water cauirht bow and stern, and 
 held the canoe aofainst the stone. I ijot one foot 
 out against the rock and stopped her trembling : 
 and there I was, fost. I could hold her steady, 
 but could do no more. The stone was so shaped 
 that I could not stand on it. The water ran deep 
 and strong, and if I pushed otf altogether I 
 should be apt to go down broadside or stern first. 
 So I sat thinkin<r for a second or two ; and then I 
 looked back to wave to Smith to keep off. I saw 
 his boat, but not him. He was swimming, "ac- 
 coutred as he was," right across the river above, 
 to irive me a hand. His iud<rment had told him 
 that I was l)adly placed. In a few minutes he 
 had reached the head of the rapid, stepped from 
 stone to stone till he caught hold of my "painter," 
 and next moment my bow came round to the race, 
 and down I shot like a rocket. In a few minutes 
 he followed in the same course. 
 
 Just below that rapid we had an unpleasant 
 experience, — the only one on our whole voyage. 
 
■« -y 
 
 DOWN THE SUSQUEHAXXA. '2ij 
 
 We fell in with a sordid lout, and up to this day 
 I am sorry we did not thrash him or duck him in 
 the river. AVe had gone up to a farm-house on 
 the bluti' to buy milk and e^irs for dinner. Two 
 old women had verv kindly served us. and we 
 were coming away when the lout appeared. He 
 was evidently the master of the place : a big, 
 raw-boned, rasfored-whiskered, and dirtv-skinned 
 brute. He had just caught a snake, about two 
 feet lonof, and he held it wriofo-jinor in his hand, 
 while he laughed a vile chuckle, and opened his 
 filthy mouth in derision as the older woman, his 
 mother, probably, fled, almost screaming with 
 terror. Then he came toward us, and seeins: 
 Smith's bare ankles he deliberately put the snake 
 down to bite them, chucklins: all the time, and 
 mumblino* : "You hain't 2:ot the sand I He won't 
 bite, /ain't afeard. I've got the sand, /ain't 
 afeard o' snakes," and so on. 
 
 ^Ve stepped away frcm him, and at last told 
 him, in a tone he minded, to drop the snake. He 
 did so at once. His mother said to him from the 
 door : "If you did that to me, and I was a man, 
 rdkiU ^oi(/" 
 
 Then the brute insisted on sellinir us ten cents' 
 worth of honey, which he called " Th' bam'f a 
 
 V 
 
 thaousand flaours " (balm of a thousand flowers) ; 
 and, cominij to the boat, he besfsed for a drink, 
 
2()S KTIIICS OF BOXING AND MANLY SI»Oi:T. 
 
 and, at the last inoniont, wanted us to buy a pfal- 
 Ion of "old stock ale, seven year old." 
 
 It took us some hours to foriret the 1)arl)arian. 
 A handsome young trapper, logman, and railroad 
 worker, lower down, who knew liini well, told us 
 that the lout was known aloni>: the river as a cow- 
 ard, a brairiCart, and ''a man that was no irood, 
 anyhow." 
 
 The Susquehanna is, in one respect, quite un- 
 like anv other river on which I have canoed. 
 There is an endless recurrence of half-mile and 
 mile lonir deep stretches, and then a brawlinir 
 rapid. The river rarely maivcs a bend without 
 shoalin2: to a foot or two of water; and this is 
 invariably ended bv a bar, with a swift descent 
 beyond. These shallow places have been utilized 
 as *' eel-racks," by drivinir stakes or i)ilinir stones 
 in a ziu-zai; line across the river. From Towanda 
 down to AVilkesbarre, with a l)old, wooded hill, 
 or '• mountain," always on one side, and some- 
 times on both, the deep stretches ])ec()me deeper 
 and Ioniser ; but in a very few ])laces is the " slow 
 water" more than two or three miles in lenirth. 
 
 "We had brouirht a small tent with us, and we 
 carried some provisions, — prei)ared coffee, Lie- 
 big's extract of beef, a jar of delicious butter 
 (which we broke and lost on the third day), a 
 can of corned beef, some " hard tack," and some 
 
DOWN THE SUSQUEHANXA. 269 
 
 bacon. AYe head tin cups, a little alcohol stove, 
 and a bottle of very old Jamaica (for the malaria). 
 
 We had two canoes of the " Shadow" model, 
 Mr. Smith's, a Rushton, decked and hatched ; 
 mine without hatches, and built by Partelow, of 
 Riverside, ]Mass., — both good boats of their kind, 
 from good builders. But the " Shadow " is not a 
 ofood kind of canoe for river work. Her keel is 
 too long and too deep. This makes her heavy in 
 turning sharp curves ; and, when she runs on a 
 stone, — even a round or flat one, — the keel 
 throws her on one side ; and this is reallv a 
 canoe's unpardonable sin. A canoe should have 
 no keel. The '• Shadow " model is reallv not a 
 canoe at all, but simply a light boat. 
 
 The Indian round-bottomed, birch-bark canoe 
 is the best model for American rivers ; and it is a 
 pity that our builders do not keep it as their radi- 
 cal study. It should l)e modified and improved, 
 of course ; narrowed for double paddling, and 
 shortened and lightened for portage ; l)ut its first 
 principle, of a bottom that can run on or over a 
 stone without capsizing, ought never to be for- 
 gotten. In my opinion, paper will win against 
 lapstreak in the canoe of the future ; all that is 
 needed to insure this is a method of patching the 
 wound on a paper bottom. 
 
 Never have I seen river-water so clear and 
 
270 KTHICS OF BOXING AM) MANLY SPOi:T. 
 
 wholesome as the Susquehanna. One of our daily 
 pleasures was to dip our briirht tin cups into the 
 river, drink a mouthful, and pour the rest into 
 our mouths without swallowiuir. 
 
 The sun flamed on the water ever}' day of our 
 trip ; the records ashore made it the hottest fort- 
 niirht of the year. So we lovincfly huiriicd the 
 banks when there was any shade ; and, unex- 
 pectedly, this hal)it led us into the two greatest 
 pleasures of our voyage. 
 
 The first occurred a tew miles above the villaofe 
 of Appalaken. We left the main river to run to 
 the left of an island, where the stream was onl}^ 
 twenty feet wide. The island was perhaps three- 
 quarters of a mile long, and the trees on ])oth 
 sides reached over, interlaced, and made the 
 stream as dark as late evenins:. There was a 
 turbulent little rapid at the entrance, as we swung 
 in from the big river and the noonday blaze ; and 
 the water all down the narrow stream ran with 
 incredible rapidity. When we felt ourselves car- 
 ried alone: in this silent cool shadow, and looked 
 up at the lisrht siftins: throu<rh the dense foliaire, 
 we both exclaimed, " This is too lovely to be re- 
 peated ! " And the word was true. Such a super- 
 lative canoe-ride one could hardly ever expect to 
 enjoy twice. We laid down our paddles, only 
 fearinsf to come to the end of our marvellous irreen 
 
DOWN THE SUSQUEHANNA. 271 
 
 archway, with its dark gleaming floor ; and when, 
 at last, we did sweep out into the broad glare of 
 the river, we sighed and looked back wistfully, 
 as men will. Ten minutes later we were wadins: 
 over a shallow place and hauling our canoes by 
 the painter. 
 
 The other peak of our enjoyment was reached 
 about four miles below the town of Athens. Ah, 
 me ! how we did enjoy our evening in that little 
 tow^n ! But let the tale bide a little. VTe had 
 gone down some miles below the bridge at Athens, 
 where the river widened out and grew consumedly 
 slow and commonplace. There w\as an island, with 
 a narrow openinir to the left and a rouah little 
 
 ■I. c o 
 
 rapid at the entrance, — almost a repetition of the 
 Appalaken archw^ay. After that other experience 
 we did not hesitate, but turned from the big sheet 
 of water, and shot into the narrow turmoil, to the 
 left of the island. Again we dashed into a splen- 
 did sweep, but about three times as wide as the 
 Appalaken archway. The water was about four 
 feet deep all the way down, and the bottom was 
 of small pebbles, every one as clearly seen as if 
 laid on a mirror. Once more our paddles were 
 crossed before us, and we sat in profound enjoy- 
 ment of water, wood, and sky, as we were swept 
 along by the current. Half-way down, we landed 
 on the island, intending to float in the w^ater and 
 
212 ETHICS OF BOXIXG AND MANLY SrORT. 
 
 be carried down after the canoes, holdinij on bv 
 the '' painter." 
 
 And here we made a discovery that will re- 
 donnd to the fame of Athens, — a discovery which 
 we present to that town in memory of the iienial 
 hosi)itality of one of its chief citizens, the Rev. 
 Father Costello, who ofJive us an eveninir not to 
 be forgotten. Here let me tell how, baked and 
 l)Lirned and tired and luinary and thirsty, on the 
 night precedinir our discovery, we walked up to 
 the house of the good priest at sunset, and were 
 met at the open door with outstretched hands of 
 welcome ; and how, before a word was spoken, 
 we were handed two srreat iroblets -tilled with iced 
 wine, — rich, fruity, American wine: and how we 
 sat down to a dinner for epicures, even if it were 
 Friday : and how we then were taken into the 
 little moonlit irarden, with itockI ciijars, and other 
 comforts, while our amiable and accomplished 
 host charmed us with quaint tancy and strange 
 learning, and played for us on the flute so softly 
 that it could not be heard fifty feet away, but so 
 exquisitely that we knew we were listening to 
 the soul of a i)oct and a master ; and how simply 
 and tenderly he told us that he had discovered a 
 similarity between his little Athens in the Penn- 
 sylvania hills and the innnortal Athens of the 
 Acropolis. 
 
DOWX THE SUSQUEHAXXA. 273 
 
 "Look around," cried FatlieT Costello, point- 
 ing to the perfect circle of bold mountains, that 
 were blue even in the moonlight ; " those hills are 
 a perfect coronet. This, too, is the City of the 
 Violet Crown ! " 
 
 'Now for our discovery : we give it to Athens 
 with only one condition, — that henceforth the 
 citizen who shall call his town Aythens shall be 
 disfranchised or excluded from good society, or 
 l)oth. 
 
 Half-way down between the island and the 
 shore we plunged into the swift current, intend- 
 ing to float after the canoes, holding on by the 
 painter, — a most enjoyable and interestino; thino- 
 to do. When you lie at utter rest in the w^ater 
 and watch the shore go by, it seems too delicious 
 for waking life ; but this is not the best. Let 
 your w^hole body and head sink well under the 
 surface, keeping your eyes open ; the river be- 
 comes an aquarium, — 3^ou see ihQ weeds, the 
 stones, and the fishes as clearly almost as if they 
 were in the air. This is because you have no 
 motion except the motion of the w^ater itself; 
 your eyes are flxed in a crystalline medium, and 
 nothing can express the sense of ease, of utter 
 luxury, which the supporting fluid gives to every 
 limb. You are lolling on or in an air-cushion 
 without surface or friction. The mere swimmer 
 
274 ETHICS OF IJOXING AND MANLY SPOUT. 
 
 can never feel this, nor even he who is towed after 
 a bout, — thouirh that is an ideal method of taking 
 an inviiroratinir bath. To see the river's inner 
 life, and to enjoy this complete luxury of resting 
 in the water, you must Hoat in and with the 
 stream, without effort or motion, supported l)y 
 the painter of your boat. 
 
 But our discovery waits : half-way down this 
 lovely and lonely island passage we plunged in, 
 as I have many times said ; and we had no sooner 
 struck bottom than Smith uttered a strange shout 
 and threw up his hands. I was startled till I 
 looked at his face ; and then I was puzzled beyond 
 measure l)y his motions and expressions. With 
 his hands al)ove his head, he seemed to be danc- 
 ing on the bottom of the river, and with every 
 step he gave a shout of pleasure. While I looked 
 at him, astonished, I began to feel the infection 
 of his strano-e conduct. A thrill like soft music 
 ran throuirh me, and seemed to tinirle in my ears 
 and under mv tonirue ; and every movement I 
 made brought a repetition of the inexpressible 
 sound, for a sound it was, like a musical echo. 
 
 *' What is it?'' I cried at length. ^' This is 
 wonderful ! " 
 
 " It is a musical beach, — a singing beach ! " he 
 answered. " And I should say it was the finest 
 in the world ! " And then he said, for by strange 
 
DOWN THE SUSQUEIIAXXA. 275 
 
 chance he knew something about such a queer 
 thing, '• I believe there are onlv two or three 
 'singing beaches' known in the whole world: 
 and this certainlv must be the be.^t." 
 
 You may be sure we lingered over that mellif- 
 luous swim. AVe pushed the boats ashore, and 
 went in for the weird, sweet music of the stream. 
 It was enough to make one howl with sheer sen- 
 suous enjoyment. As we pushed or scraped the 
 pebbly bottom with our feet we felt or heard. I 
 hardly know which, a rich resonance passing 
 through us, clear and sweet as the soft note of 
 distant cow-bells. The slightest displacement of 
 the gravel brought it up, as if it had just escaped 
 from the earth. 
 
 AVhen we had ti*ied it a hundred and a thousand 
 times, it occurred to us that neither could hear 
 the note caused bv the other, — we onlv heard 
 the sound of our own feet. Asfaiu the tenacious 
 memory of my friend found an explanation. He 
 remembered that divers can onlv talk under 
 water b^- placing their heads on the bottom. 
 
 Another discoverv here : vou can't iret vour 
 head to the bottom of a four-foot stream, unless 
 you catch hold of a stone on the bottom and pull 
 yourself down. You can dive, and £ret vour 
 hands or feet or knees down ; ])ut not vour chin. 
 AVe are both good swimmers, and we tried in 
 
2715 ETHICS OF liOXTXG AND MANLY SPOUT. 
 
 vain. AN'liilc under wtiter, on the dive, or crawl- 
 in<>" alonir the bottom on hands and knees, the 
 river was a drear and silent sluice. At last we 
 fot our eh ins on the ])ott()ni, eaeli on a stone, and 
 we heard it, — oh ! we heard such melodious dis- 
 cord, such a mixture of near and remote echo-like 
 sweetness as can only be imagined in dreams. 
 The river l)eeame as full of nmsic as it w^as of 
 water, and the inexpressible fusion of notes played 
 throusfh our senses like intoxication. Smith was 
 twenty or thirty feet from me, and in dee})er 
 w^ater ; ])ut every swee}) he gave the peb1)les 
 sounded to me like a thousand cow-bells 
 melted into liquid harmony. Never, until we no 
 to the same spot again, shall we hear such strange, 
 suppressed, eltin music. 
 
 Now, Athens, go down and bathe at the place 
 where; we had this intoxicating bath ; and believe 
 that never was there siren or naiad in the rivers 
 or springs of old Athens to ravish with sweeter 
 melody than your own beautiful Susquehanna 
 holds for you. 
 
 It would be better, perhaps, if I could follow 
 the river features seriatim, as we saw them ; but 
 then there are so many miles of every river that 
 are only one uninteresting feature. No one cares 
 for the names of little unheard-of villages, them- 
 selves quite featureless. Some whole days we 
 
DOWN THE SUSQUEHANXA. 277 
 
 (lid nothiuir l)ut run insiijiiificant rai^ids, until at 
 last we came to despise them, so that we some- 
 times I'an our canoes at them without searchinsf 
 for an opening, and for our pains always narrowly 
 escaped upsetting, and always, too, had to get 
 out and wade. The rapids of the Susquehanna 
 teach as much patience and wariness as the logs 
 of the Connecticut. You can manage both, like 
 little children, when 3'ou take the trouble of find- 
 ing the right way ; otherwise they will crush your 
 boat and you like the insensate brutes they are 
 wdien opposed. 
 
 About ten miles above Towanda we entered on 
 a memoral)le experience. The river was w'ide, 
 about half a mile, and w^e heard an unusually 
 loud rapid about a quarter of a mile ahead. It 
 was noon, and we landed on a pretty shaded bank 
 on the right, to eat our dinner. The day was 
 hot, and the shade was luxurious. We <rave 
 plenty of time to cooking and eating and swim- 
 minof and smokinof, and, like Brer Rabbit, " en- 
 joy in' the day that passes." 
 
 About two o'clock, a poor-looking fellow, in a 
 poorer-looking old fiat-bottomed boat, drifted 
 past, going tow^ards the rapid water. We asked 
 him on which side the current ran. 
 
 "Don't know," he answered, sounding all his 
 r's like a true native : "I was neverr hearr be- 
 
278 ETHICS OF BOXING AND MANLY SPORT. 
 
 foarr. Tin ti straiigoiT ! " And, looking anxiously 
 ahead, lie drifted towards the breakers. "We 
 were then dining, and we watched him for our 
 own instruction as we ate. AVe saw the swift 
 stream take him, chanirinix his course a little, and 
 carry him into the ra[)id. lie went down a few 
 boat's lengths and struck. He jumped out, and 
 saved the scow, hauling his l)oat back. AVhy he 
 did not try to drag her down, instead of coming 
 l)ack was a mystery. At last we forizot him ; and 
 an hour later we irot aHoat. The lirst thinir we 
 saw was the old ])oat, em])ty and aijround, at the 
 side of the rapid. The man was nowhere to be 
 seen. AVliat had become of him? lie could 
 hardly have been drowned, in three or four feet 
 of water, however rapid. And yet he had said 
 he was a strans^er. 
 
 We paddled to the other side of the river and 
 shot down a rare piece of swift water without 
 difficulty. "We were in a hurr}^ for the sky behind 
 us was *' black as tiumder" with an enormous 
 cloud, and already the air was tilled with dead 
 leaves from the mountain, carried out on the 
 river by the first gusts. A few heavy drops of 
 rain struck our faces and arms, and made little 
 towers on the river. 
 
 The river was running with extreme rapidity, 
 and the increasing wind, right behind us, ruffled 
 
DOWN THE SUSQUEHANNA. 279 
 
 it into white-caps in a few minutes, and di'ove 
 us ahead at an exciting pace. We hardly knew 
 what to do, beins: i<2:norant of the manner of 
 storms in those parts ; but as the gale was in our 
 favor w^e simply steered straight, and held on. 
 The stream ran "palpably down hill," deep and 
 swift. On our left was a grand mountain, almost 
 precipitous, but wooded to the top, and black 
 with the comins^ a'loom. The river almost ran 
 under its brow. 
 
 As we plunged ahead we heard the sound of 
 rapid water aboA^e the roar of the gale ; we had 
 no time to search for an opening ; but fortunately 
 the water was deeper than usual. We kept to 
 the left, as the river fell toward the mountain and 
 dashed for the rapid. Two fishermen in a boat 
 were running before us, about a hundred yards 
 ahead. Suddenly we saw them lurch forward, 
 while the boat swung round and the water leaped 
 into her. They had kept two yards too far- to 
 the left, but they had shown us the way. They 
 were in the water up to their waists, holding their 
 boat, as we shot past them without a word. They 
 looked at us with grim faces, quite silent, as if 
 duml)founded. We were fairly lifted over the 
 stones of that rapid by the wind and waves ; and 
 a few minutes later wc knew what reason we had 
 to be thankful, when the whole fury of the storm 
 burst on us. 
 
2S() KTIIICS OF BOXING AND MANLY SPOKT. 
 
 We had learned that an unbroken stretch of 
 river lay before us, clear to Towanda. six miles 
 away. We could see the spire of a church against 
 the lurid sky far down the valley. The sky ahead 
 was fast fillinir with heaps of dark clouds, racing 
 faster than I have ever seen clouds move. Be- 
 hind, from horizon to zenith, the air was like a 
 slate colored cavern, with masses and feathery 
 sheets of dark-brown vapor, tumbling and rush- 
 inir low down, so low as to strike the mountain. 
 There was no rain — nothinii" l)ut wind, and it 
 was riirht astern, and held there bv the towerinir 
 mountain on our left. The waves combed out 
 before us, hiiilicr than the boats. -AVe could not 
 have kept a quarter of a point oti' such a blast. 
 We felt the aalc on our backs like a i)hvsical 
 pressure. It was a magniticent race. We had 
 not even to steer. We sat still and were driven 
 straiirht ahead, and, had there been a bend in the 
 river, we should have had to run ashore. As 
 (juickly as the storm had risen, it subsided or 
 passed. Far sooner than I would dare to write, 
 we saw the tall bridire at Towanda half a mile 
 ahead of us. A\'e had run down five or six miles 
 of river in as quick time, 1 think, as canoes could 
 safelv travel. 
 
 Before we reached Towanda the storm had 
 crossed the mountain and the sun was out. We 
 
DOWX THE SUSQUEHAXXA. 281 
 
 kept to the left of tlie river, ran under the bridge, 
 round tin island, and then dashed through a splen- 
 did little rapid, right in front of the city, and ran 
 across to a boat-house. 
 
 This reminds me of one of the greatest pleas- 
 ures of canoeing on the Susquehanna — the 
 courtesy and kindness one meets from every 
 one, farmers, townsmen, rivermen, or railroaders. 
 Onlv one class of men ^^ant to take advantaire — 
 the expressmen. They are the same everywhere 
 — exorbitant, if not dishonest, in charge, and 
 careless in work. It is not to the credit of the 
 express system that a traveller must truly say so 
 harsh a thins:. 
 
 At Owego, or Ah-we gah, as we found its old 
 Indian name to be. we went to the hotel for 
 dinner. VTe were rouizhlv dressed, sunburnt, 
 and hunirrv. The landlord, an old man with a 
 singularly pleasant face, observed us as we ate. 
 Then he went out, pr()l)al)ly to see the canoes, 
 which were down at the wharf before his house. 
 
 "Having a good time, are you?" he said, as 
 he returned. 
 
 " Yes," we told him ; and we outlined our plan 
 for him as we went on eatinir his excellent dinner. 
 
 *' Forty years ago," said the okl man, " I went 
 down the Ohio River in a dug-out, just for fun, 
 as you are doing. We had a splendid time ; but 
 
'2S'2 ETHICS OF BOXING AND MANLY STOUT. 
 
 we got strapped, — do you know what that is? 
 We spent all our money, and for days and days 
 we hadn't a cent. But every one was kind to us, 
 and we never wanted for anything. AVe enjoyed 
 it all ; and I hope you'll do the same." 
 
 lie shook hands with us warndv. AVhen we 
 went to pay our bill, the clerk said, '* All paid 
 for, gentlemen. Glad you came to see us. Pleas- 
 ant trip down the river ! " 
 
 The kind old landlord was " <i:ettin2: even*' with 
 the Oh loans, who liad treated him well forty years 
 ai»(). 
 
 •Another pleasant memory from Owego : when 
 we went down to the canoes we found that Smith's 
 boat was leaking, probably strained on a stone. 
 He went to l)ail her out with his tin cup. 
 
 "You want a sponge," said a handsome l)ig 
 fellow, in shirt-sleeves, standinir in the little 
 crowd on the wharf. AVe hardlv answered, the 
 need beinsf obvious. 
 
 "You can't get a sponge ])etween here and 
 Ilarrisburir," he added. 
 
 " That is not very consoling." 
 
 " But I'm iroino^ to c^ive vou a biir sponufe," he 
 continued. " Come with me and Til Hx you 
 out." 
 
 One of us went with him ; he was the chief 
 livery-stable-keeper in Owego ; his name was 
 
i:)OWX THE SUSQUEHANNA. 283 
 
 Dean. lie gave us a tremendous sponge*, which 
 was of very great service. 
 
 " Good-by, Mr. Dean; good-by, all of you," 
 we said, as we swung out. 
 
 A little dark-faced man had just come down 
 the wharf. He was in a hurry. 
 
 " Oh, I say ! " he shouted ; " I bring you the 
 compliments of the Owego Rapid. Wanted to 
 interview you on the political situation ! " (I may 
 say here that our voyage was made during a heated 
 National campaign, of which more hereafter.) 
 And we heard Dean and the crowd lau2:hin<r at the 
 little man, who waved his note-book and pencil. 
 
 It was the first we had heard of " the political 
 situation " since leavinof Bins^hamton. I mio^ht 
 have mentioned that when we launched our canoes 
 near that city we were accompanied to the river 
 bank by quite a number of well-wishers, and 
 among them two gentlemen from the daily papers 
 of Binghamton, who industriously wrote doAvn 
 our " views." As we paddled away from the 
 wharf at Oweiro we congratulated ourselves that> 
 we had broken the last link, and henceforth could 
 Cfo alonir like sensible men with no "views" to 
 air. But the " situation " had not done with us 
 yet. 
 
 Of our nis^hts on the banks of the river the 
 details are too varied to be written. We enjoyed 
 
2!>4: LTIiiCS OF BUXIXU AND 31ANLY SPOUT. 
 
 tlioiii intensely after the first throe days, when 
 the heat of the sunl)urn had al)ated. The only 
 drawback was caused l)y oiir own })ersistent mis- 
 take : we did not pitch our camp early enough, 
 and the darkness closed on us before we were 
 quite ready for rest. AVe were tempted each da\' 
 to go on paddling till the sun had reach(»d the 
 tops of the mountains ; and we had not realized 
 how the mountains hurry on the sunset. 
 
 The story of one niuht will do for all. ^Vc 
 pulled our canoes ashore under a wooded bank, 
 tuenty feet high, and i>itched" our camp in a 
 loyely little meadow al)oye. It was six o'clock 
 when we left the boats. The river was exceed- 
 ingly beautiful from our meadow, reminding me 
 of the Connecticut in its superb reaches below 
 Northampton. Across the riyer, against the 
 distant hills, rose the spire of a church ; but there 
 was not a house in siirht. The nearest villaae 
 was Tioga Centre, fiye miles away. The current 
 in the river was almost still ; the water under our 
 bank was about ten feet deej). Though we had 
 nuich to do Ijefore we lost the sun, we could not 
 help giving a few mi mites to drink in the extreme 
 beauty of the evening scene. 
 
 Firewood was not to l)e had for the picking u]), 
 as usual ; but we found a dead tree, partly fallen, 
 supported by its fellows friniiing the river. We 
 
DOWN THE SUSQUEHANNA. 285 
 
 cut it down in quick time with our axe, chopped 
 off some puiiky lengths of the trunk, tied one of 
 our painters to the remainder, and "snaked" it 
 out of the underbrush. The dry branches l)roke 
 and burned like tinder, and the lars^er ones, with 
 the trunk, made us a roarino^ fire till morninir. 
 That night for supper we broiled some bacon and 
 boiled some tinned beef, putting in a h)t of 
 Liebig's extract. Then coffee, eked out with our 
 precious l)ut ill-fated butter and marmalade. 
 
 Then — let us tell the truth, so that the price 
 may be paid — we went to a stack of coarse hay 
 in the meadow, and took two great armfuls, 
 which w^e spread in our tent, and which was 
 softer that niuht than down-of-eider. About the 
 hour of this dark deed, the full moon rose over 
 the hills and sailed into a sky black-blue, star- 
 lit, and absolutely clear from mist or cloud. The 
 only vapor to be seen was a slight smoke that 
 cluns: m a thin, w^avy line to the middle of the 
 river. The only sound, except our own voices, 
 was the screech of an owl on the hills and the 
 leap of the l)ass in the water. 
 
 The niirht was breathless ; but we raised the 
 bottom of the tent, and made a pleasant draft. 
 Before ten o'clock we w^ere asleep. IIow long 
 that sleep lasted I cannot tell — perhaps three 
 hours ; but it was ended in a most awful uproar. 
 
28G ETHICS OF BOXING AND MANLY SPORT, 
 
 In my sleep I had heard for hours, so it seemed, 
 the thunder of rapids and falls greater than Xi- 
 airara, into which the canoe was .slipping against 
 all my power to steer or stop her. Nearer and 
 nearer the horror came ; there were people on the 
 shore shoutinir, and one of them blew a whistle 
 that would wake the dead, and I sprang up in the 
 tent at the same moment that Smith jum[)ed to 
 his feet. A\'itliout movinir farther Ave saw the 
 cause of the disturbance. AVithin forty yards of 
 us ran a railroad, along which was thundering one 
 of these interminable coal trains, that are longer, 
 I am sure, than any other trains in the world. 
 The noise had atiected us both in almost the same 
 way ; and we were so completely awakened that 
 to sleep again seemed out of the question. 
 
 So we piled up our firewood till the flames illu- 
 minated the sombre hills. Then we mixed with 
 sugar and water a stifl' dose of our remedy for the 
 malaria ; but before enjoying this, the night was 
 so warm and lightsome and the river so tempt- 
 ing, I i)lunged into the deep water for a short 
 swim. AVhcn I came in. Smith was singing ; and 
 we sat by the fire and sang on and on, and the 
 screech owl stopped to listen ; and the fire and 
 the tobacco burned as if the\' enjoyed it ; and it 
 was well for the malaria that it did not come 
 around that night. 
 
DOWN THE SUSQUEHANNA. 287 
 
 Suy what you will there is no other form of 
 outing that makes possible, within sight of con- 
 ventional life and labor, such days and nights of 
 utter freedom, health, natural beauty, and manly 
 enjoyment. 
 
 But the river proceeds — as the canoes could 
 not — below Towanda. There were immense 
 stretches where the river widened, and the depth 
 nowhere exceeded three or four inches. There 
 was little pleasure in wadino' and dras^o^insf our 
 boats till the bottoms were worn out ; so we car- 
 ried them up to the railroad (which hugs the 
 river all the way), and shot the iron rapids till 
 we came to fair water ao'ain. 
 
 It was sometime in the forenoon when we ran 
 into Wilkesbarre, passing through that lovely 
 historic valley, 
 
 "On Susquehanna's tide, fair Wyoming." 
 
 Surely, in all the world, there is nothing to 
 exceed the quiet, large beauty of this valley, that 
 is enriched with so many forms of wealth ; with 
 the stamp of sublimity from the hand of God ; 
 with the deep coloring of pathetic and patriotic 
 association, and with the })riceless mineral treas- 
 ures that lie deep in field and hill. 
 
 *' This is the richest valley on the face of the 
 planet," said a Wilkesbarre man to us ; and he 
 
288 ETHICS OF roxixo and manly spout. 
 
 was only thinking of tlio coal-veins hidden in its 
 bosom. 
 
 Bnt let there be a few uncivilized ones, at least, 
 who shall reirard the shafts and chinnievs and 
 hideous coal-heaps as marks of desecration and 
 disease. Wealth and civilization, you say; aye, 
 wealth and civilization for the owners of the 
 mines, for the lordly " coal operators," whose 
 summer i)alaces are set on the shoulders of the 
 noble hills. But for the thousands of workers in 
 the l)owels of the earth ; for those whose minds 
 and souls, as Avell as bodies, are darkened with 
 the coal-grim; for their wives and little children, 
 existins: that a race of subject-workers may be 
 perpetuated, what portion of our wealth and 
 civilization belongs to these? Does civilization 
 necessarily mean the degradation and starvation 
 intellectually and spiritually of ten, for the lux- 
 ury and over-devel()])ment of one? 
 
 Civilization impinges on humanity in Pennsyl- 
 vania perhaps not more unfairly or cruelly than 
 elsewhere ; but the contrasts are shockingly 
 a})parent. 
 
 But we came to look at the hills and the river, 
 not at the social relativities. And the hills are 
 as sadly marked as the human moles who ])urrow 
 into them. There is no desecration of a mountain 
 so l)liirhtinor as the sinkinir of a mine into its 
 
DOWN THE SUSQUEHANNA. 281) 
 
 heart. The dark mouth of the shaft, high up on 
 the side of the hill, is repulsive as a cancer to the 
 eye seai-ching for beauty. Storms might shatter 
 the forests, or fire sweep them, and the grandeur 
 of the hills would be untouched. But in the 
 midst of billowed foliage, and within sound of 
 the rills, the puff of a steam-engine beside a black 
 hole in the mountain-side robs the scene of all 
 loveliness, and hurries the observer out of siijht 
 of the profanation. 
 
 But where was T ? At Wilkesl)arre only ! We 
 put our l)oats up at a pretty boat-house above the 
 bridge, and we thought we should stay an hour 
 to see the city, and then proceed. It is very 
 pleasant to recall the manner and face of the man 
 who kept that boat-house, and who was, we learned 
 later, no other tlian " Commodore Brobst, of the 
 AVilkesbarre Xavy," a well-known and popular 
 person. He was ver}' kind indeed ; 1)ut while he 
 was showiniT us his handsome boats, his little 
 boy was scudding off to a newspaper office, and 
 *' The Commodore " seemed to enjoy himself 
 hugely when, a few minutes later, a reporter 
 stepped down to the float and said : — 
 
 " Gentlemen, we have been expecting you. 
 The editor of my paper is coming here presently 
 to welcome you ; and also a committee of recep- 
 tion, which was appointed three days ago." 
 
290 ETHICS OF BOXING AND MANLY SPORT. 
 
 Upon hearing this amazing announcement we 
 sat down upon the float to gaze at the reporter. 
 Within ten minutes his astounding words were 
 made true. 
 
 " Gentlemen you will speak here to-night in 
 the court-house, on the political situation. You 
 will have an immense audience ! " 
 
 This was the first word that impressed itself on 
 my mind. We could not laugh, and we could 
 not boorishly get into our boats and paddle away ; 
 so we weakly listened to the voice of the seducers, 
 who would draw us from our beautiful rapids and 
 woods and hills into the narrowing wrangle of 
 worldly ways. But the editor was such a clever 
 and earnest fellow, and the chairman of the com- 
 mittee was so ijenial and hospitable, that, after 
 hours of entertainment and enjoyment, we compro- 
 mised : we promised to return two days later 
 and make political speeches in Wilkesbarre ! It 
 was then noon of ^Monday ; we would go on our 
 way down the stream, and come back for Wednes- 
 day night. 
 
 From that moment we knew that a beauty had 
 departed from the river. It seemed to sink and 
 become commonplace. Some charm of fidelity 
 or sympathy was broken. We were disloyal to 
 the Susquehanna; we could not, as yesterday, 
 look the beautiful river in the face. 
 
DOWN THE SUSQUEHANNA. 291 
 
 But we went along, and, in keeping with our 
 new prosaic feeling, we hooked on to a little 
 steamer running down to Nanticoke, and escaped 
 nine miles of paddling. At Nanticoke we could 
 not cross the dam, — so we went into the canal 
 which ])egins there. Deeper and deeper we were 
 sinking into the prosaic ; and the sense of a 
 departed sympathy made us silent and almost 
 irritable. I heard Smith repeating to himself the 
 sad lines of Wordsworth : — 
 
 "' The moon doth with delight 
 Look round her when the heavens are bare ; 
 Waters on a starry night 
 Are beautiful and fair; 
 The sunshine is a glorious birth; 
 But yet I know, where'er I go, 
 That there hath passed away a glory from the earth." 
 
 We regretted the promise that bound us to 
 return, and necessitated at least some preparation. 
 We resolved to telegraph back recalling it. But 
 there was no telegraph-office for a long distance 
 down the canal. The current was slow, but in 
 our favor. We paddled steadily ahead, almost 
 silent, till the sun bent down to the mountains, 
 and the canal seemed to become a mere gloomy 
 ditch. Then we began to think of camping 
 and getting supper ; but for miles no suitable 
 place appeared. Just about sunset we overtook 
 
2d2 ETHICS OF BOXING AM) MANLY SPORT. 
 
 ti canal-boat, and asked the man at the wheel 
 where he was goinii: to stop for the night. 
 
 '' Wo don't stop ; we go on all night," he said ; 
 '* and if you fellows want to come on l)oard, 
 you can lift your boats on deck, and you're very 
 welcome." 
 
 AVe thanked him; read '*yes" in each other's 
 eyes ; and in live minutes the canoes were on 
 board, and we were having a new and pleasant 
 sensation. 
 
 The canal-])oat is no greyhound : it moves 
 solennily and hrndy at the rate of two miles an 
 hour; ])ut it pushes ahead day and night, and, 
 like the tortoise of the fable, it miirht win a race 
 against a heedless hare. The Susquehanna Canal 
 Compan3''s service emplo3'S about two thousand 
 men and bovs, and heaven knows how manv 
 nudes. And splendid mules they are, big as 
 horses almost, and comely to the eye. They 
 im[)ressed my companion so nuich that in his 
 speech at Wilkesbarre, two days later, he made 
 the audience gasp by opening with the emphatic 
 assertion that the Democratic party was like a 
 nude? "Because," said he, "it is patient, 
 Intel liijrent, irood-humored, hard-workincr, — and 
 handsome ! " The Jetlersonians breathed a sigh 
 of relief, and then enjoved the simile. 
 
 Tom Elder was the captain's name, and he had 
 
DOWX THE SUSQUEHANNA. 293 
 
 on board a man to cook and steer and clean — a 
 silent man who answered questions, but never 
 once looked at us ; also a youth of nineteen, a 
 carpenter from Tom's town down the river, who 
 had run awav from home, and was now returnino^ 
 through his townsman's kindness ; and, lastly, a 
 little tough, red-headed fellow of fifteen, the 
 mule-driver, — another Tom, — who had a phenom- 
 enal voice deep down in his chest, from roaring 
 at the ]nules, and who swore more profound!}^ 
 and unconsciously than any one I had known up 
 to that time. In this respect, however, little 
 Tom, we found, was distanced by competitors on 
 the tow path. 
 
 Once on board no one spoke to us or noticed 
 us. Their indifference was Indian-like. About 
 an hour after ])oarding the boat Captain Tom 
 came up from the cabin kitchen-bedroom of the 
 ship's company, and, without looking at us, said : 
 
 "If you fellows w^ant some bean soup there's 
 l)lenty of it down there, and you're very wel- 
 come." 
 
 "Much obliged, captain," said Smith; "and 
 perhaps you would'nt mind taking a little of this 
 — for the malaria. And a ciirJH'." 
 
 The captain came down without waiting to be 
 shot. 
 
 We had plenty of provisions with us, and we 
 
2'J4 ETIIIC8 OF liOXINU AND MANLY SPOKT. 
 
 jiiadc ;i inciiioi*a])lo supper. The runaway car- 
 l)entcr " washed up" after us. Then we " made 
 our l)eds " on the deck, ])etween the canoes, drew 
 our l)lankets over us, and looked uj) at the stars, 
 which seemed, from the motion of the ))oat and 
 our position, to be moving in a grand, slow pro- 
 cession. It was a l)eautiful night, and our enjoy- 
 ment was ijfreat. The trees reached over the 
 canal nearly all the way. On one side, helow us 
 some fifty yards, was the river, with a ])lack 
 mountain on the other side. Above us, about 
 the same distance, was the raili'oad, cut out of 
 the mountain foot ; and sheer a])ove that the 
 *' eternal hills," lifting to the stars. 
 
 There was no sound but the swish of the irreat 
 boat and the distant quick hooting of the mules. 
 About midniiiht we heard a stranize, hard roar, 
 risinir and fallinir in a certain cadence. It was 
 only little Tom, who had just waked from his 
 first na^) on the nude's back, and was cheering 
 them with a sons'. The children who drive the 
 nudes for this great corporation soon learn to 
 sleep on the animals' ])acks. 
 
 In the morninof, before breakfast, we saw a fair 
 place for lowering our l)oats to the river ; and we 
 shook hands with Captain Tom Elder, and the 
 serious cook, and the runaway' carpenter, and 
 bttle Calliope-Tom. We had, it api)eared, won 
 
DOWN THE SUSQUEHANNA. 295 
 
 their hearts; and for one brief second I caught 
 the retiring 63^6 of the cook as we parted. 
 
 Returning to the river rejoiced us ; it was like 
 coming back to an old friend, — a renewal of 
 fealty. And it was well for us that we had some 
 compunction to work off, for a viler ten miles 
 than that before us I have never seen, — not even 
 excepting the upper end of the Charles Hiver. 
 
 First of all, the water was like milk-and-water 
 in color, and it was limy to the taste. There was 
 a new sort of rock in the bottom, long ledges of 
 slate that crossed the river like bars, upon every 
 one of which we stuck. We never dreamt of 
 dressing : jerseys and shoes were enough. We 
 were Avading half the time. At last we came to 
 an island, and we parted company, Smith going 
 to the right, and I to the left, close under the 
 mountain. The river was more than half a mile 
 w^ide ; and the island turned out to be many miles 
 long. It was a dismal experience, going alone, 
 and each w^onderino: how the other Avas c^ettino' 
 on. For five miles I had not an unbroken run of 
 fifty yards. The side of the hill had evidently 
 fallen into the river, and crumbled into pieces 
 from the size of a foot-ball to the size of a cab. 
 The sluice-Avays between some of these were 
 fierce and swift, but irritatimrly short. 
 
 When I was about half-way down I began to 
 
2\H) ETIIirs OF liOXIXG AND MANLY SPORT. 
 
 iear that Smith might be worse off; so I liauled 
 toward the ishuid and went ashore. Nowhere 
 could I see him, nor c^et an answer to a bush 
 " coo-ee ! " So I walked back to the end of the 
 island, only to find that he had had open river 
 air the way down, and nuist, therefore, be miles 
 ahead. An hour later 1 found him at the end of 
 the island, on a mosoy l;:i:>k, under tall beeches, 
 — a little bit from fairyland. 
 
 As we were about to get into our canoes, after 
 several hours' rest here, we saw a stranue siuht. 
 In the retlection under the boats irreat nunil)ers 
 of little fish had i»athered, and ranucd themselves 
 in a line, evidently enjoying the only scraj) of 
 shadow on the wide river. As we ran down a 
 grand reach of deep and swift Avater, below the 
 village, we saw another strange thina- — a trc- 
 niendous iron i)ipe crossing the river in a lonely 
 l)lace, like a huge serpent half-buried in the mud, 
 under eight feet of clear water. It was probably 
 the pipe of one of the great oil lines. Ten miles 
 farther down we came to another villa<>e ; and as 
 we shot a little rapid in its front a man ran down 
 to the ri\er wavin<2: a letter. It was addressed to 
 me, "On the Susquehanna River in a Canoe." It 
 was from the political connnittee at AVilkes])arre, 
 which we had almost forirotten, tclliiii!- us that 
 we should have " an immense audience next 
 
DOWN THE SUSQUEHANNA. 2i)7 
 
 eveniiiir," and askiuo;, " On what traiu uiav we 
 expect you ? " 
 
 About a score of little l)ovs, the oldest not 
 more than twelve, who had been swunminir, 
 gathered round as we read the letter, and sat in 
 the water like fowl, evinir us silently. When we 
 started oft* they rose in a beyy, and r)luno:ed after 
 us, swinnning splendidly, one bhie-eyed little 
 fellow followin^r niy boat with extraordinary 
 rapidity, using the overhand stroke like an expert. 
 
 It was then four o'clock, and we were about 
 twelve miles from Danville. AVe paddled along 
 dejectedly, knowing that our trip had lost its 
 charm by this political interruption. But it was 
 too late to regret. AVe were delayed soon by 
 shallows and insignilicant rapids, and before we 
 had gone four miles the sun had sunk behind the 
 hillsr 
 
 To cheer us up we floated at last into deep 
 water, and saw before us a scene of sur})assing 
 loveliness and repose. The narrow valley on the 
 left was a marvellous picture of rural taste and 
 comfort. A farm-house smothered in soft foliage, 
 with roses trained over the porch, and in the 
 garden the largest and most beautiful weepin<r- 
 willow either of us had ever seen. A mile farther 
 down we passed a fisherman, and he told us there 
 were two strong rapids, some miles below, which 
 
2[)S ETHICS OF BOXING AND MANLY SPOKT. 
 
 could not be safely run in the dark. So we 
 carried our boats up to the tow-path, intendinir 
 to paddle hito Danville that night on the canal. 
 
 But when we had eaten our supper we resolved 
 to stay wdiere we w^ere. It was a lonely and 
 lovely i)lace. A hiirh wooden bridge on stone 
 piers crossed the canal and railroad, and led up 
 into a road that was cut into the steep hillside. 
 
 We sat on the high bridge and enjoyed the 
 moonrise over the gloomy hill ; ])ut, though we 
 did our 1)est to forget it, the coming speech-mak- 
 ing distur])ed us like the distant roar of rapid 
 water that we knew had to be considered and 
 crossed. 
 
 *'Iwish Tom Elder would come alon":," suij:- 
 ijested Smith. " We could ":o into Danville on 
 his canal boat." 
 
 But Tom was miles astern ; and we went and 
 raided on a wood-pile near the bridge, though no 
 house could be seen, and fluni>' a dozen biij sticks 
 down to the tow-path beside the l)oats. Just 
 then we heard a l)ugg3', or light wagon, passing 
 on the road ; and Smith ran up on the bridge and 
 hailed it, meaning to ask some questions. 
 
 '*Ho! I say! I say, sir!" he shouted, as he 
 sprang out in the moonlight. The driver of the 
 wagon started uj) his horse, evidently alarmed. 
 AV^e heard the swish ! swish ! of the whip, quicker 
 
DOWN THE SUSQUEHANNA. 299 
 
 and harder as Smith ran and shouted, and soon 
 the frightened teamster was out of dan2:er. 
 
 AVe learned next day that the i)hice at which 
 we stopped had been the scene of numerous rob- 
 beries, and that people disliked it even in the 
 daytime. It was well for us that the scared 
 driver had no ijun with him. 
 
 AVe lit our lire and made our beds beside it, 
 just Avithdrawn from the tow-path, and were soon 
 sleeping soundly. Once, about midnight, we 
 were awakened by a passing canal-boat ; but we 
 slept again, with a kindly " Good-night, fellows," 
 from the sleepy child on the back of the hind mule. 
 
 The dawn was just creeping over the hill when 
 another sound disturbed us, — a loud, hard, ca- 
 denced roar, which was familiar. It was little, 
 red-headed, Calliope-Tom, singing his matins to 
 the mules. In ten minutes we had all our goods 
 in the boats, and we started up the tow-i)ath to 
 meet our friends. Little Calliope-Tom saw us 
 afar off, and welcomed us with a loni^f shout and a 
 loud. Captain Tom Elder greeted us cordially ; 
 the serious cook and the runaway carpenter came 
 up and gave a hand with our embarkation ; and in 
 a few minutes more we were sound asleep in our 
 blankets on the friendl}' deck. 
 
 At Danville, in the morning, we went to the 
 hotel, Captain Tom escorting us. We left our 
 
300 ETHICS OF BOXING AND MANLY Sl'OKT. 
 
 l)oats at the landins^. After ])rctikfast and a morn- 
 ing paper (the first for days) we resolved to 
 i>o to AVilkesbarre at noon, and *' think over our 
 speeches " hy the way. 
 
 No need to tell of our reception, our audience, 
 our eloquence. We had a famous day, and a 
 night to be remembered, at the hospitable house 
 of a Pennsylvania gentleman of the old school, 
 who gave us much that the palates of wandering 
 men hanker after. 
 
 But the next day dawned, and we were far 
 from our canoes. AVe breakfasted with an etlbrt at 
 cheerfulness. AVhen the bov brouirht to us, at the 
 table, the morning paper, with a report of our 
 speeches, we brightened at once. But, lo ! it was 
 the Republican paper, the Democratic sheet hav- 
 infif only an evenino- issue. And therein we read, 
 with ghastly merriment, words of scorn for our 
 eloquence and pity for our arguments. 
 
 *'Wait till evening, till you see the Leader!'' 
 said a friendly caller. "I tell you the Leader 
 will do you justice." 
 
 But no; ^ve said " Good-by," and started for 
 Danville. On our wav we concluded to jro no 
 farther in the canoes, but to run on to Ilarris- 
 burg, taking them up as Ave passed Dan- 
 ville. That was the end of our vova<re on the 
 river, though we followed it lovingly from the 
 
DOAVX THE SUSQUEHAXXA. 301 
 
 window of the trjiin all the way to Harrisburg. 
 AYe saw the marriage of the lovely Juniata with 
 the Susquehanna, recalling the exquisite poem of 
 my friend, John BroAvn : — 
 
 " Oh ! never such a sight : 
 He sweeping round the valley's bend, 
 While she, on maiden tij^-toe rising, 
 Feasts loving glances on the friend 
 She lias so lonesome been abiding; 
 He, helpless, seeks the fatal shore, 
 Charm-blinded by her eyes, dark-flashing 
 Within the portals of the door 
 Through "which her slender form is passing: 
 He opens wide his giant arms, 
 The young and lordly Susquehanna ; 
 She nestles there her virgin charms. 
 The soft- voiced, lovely Jimiata; 
 
 There in the bright sunlight! " 
 
 And so, good-by for another season to the 
 sweet waters, the dancing boat, and the biceps- 
 building paddle. There is no sport or exercise so 
 complete as canoeing a river, for it embraces all 
 S})oits, — the excitement of rapid water, the deli- 
 cious plunge, the long swim down stream, the 
 fishing and shooting, the free camping out at 
 night, and the endless beauty of the panoramic 
 scene. Canoe-clul)s may meet and vote and com- 
 pete and sail regatta races on the lakes. But the 
 true canoeist knows not sail nor prize, but searches 
 with the paddle all the bends and rapids and shad- 
 owed reaches of our peerless American rivers. 
 
DOWN THE DELAWARE RIVER IN A 
 
 CANOE. 
 
 " You can run everything on the river but the 
 Bio- Foul," said the teamster at Port Jervis, as 
 he helped us launch the canoes from a gravel 
 ])ank. 
 
 "Where is the Bio- Foul?" 
 
 "Below Belvidere : you'll strike it in a few 
 days. No 1)oat can run that rift at this sta^'e of 
 the water." 
 
 " Oh, it's a rift," said Moseley, standing knee- 
 deep in the river, and packing his canoe. "I 
 thought it was a bird. Why is it called the Big 
 Fowi^? " 
 
 " It is the foulest rapid on the Delaware," an- 
 swered the teamster. "I know the river to 
 Trenton: went down last May on a fresh. You 
 can run all the rest ; but you'll have to carry 
 round the Big Foul Eift." 
 
 We had before heard about this rapid with 
 
 (:]03) 
 
304 ETHICS OF BOXlX(J AND MANLY SPORT. 
 
 the ominous name. A discussion in Forest and 
 Stream, a tow years aijo, directed the attention 
 of canoemen to its alleirod dangers and extreme 
 rapidity of cun'ent.* 
 
 I had with me also the notes of one of the best 
 canoemen in the country, who liad run the Dehi- 
 ware in the spring- of last year, to whicli T re^ 
 feiTed, and found these words: — 
 
 "Oivat Foul IJift, short distanoo 1)olow Bt'lvidcro. Ran 
 down on rafting fresh in ^fay. Lengtli ahnost a mile and a 
 half from head of Little Fonl to foot of Great Foul. Rapidity 
 of water and danger much exaggerated." 
 
 *' That's all right for a spring fresh," said the 
 teamster, who had hoard this note read. " But 
 
 * Two canoemen of East Orange, X. J., who ran the rapids 
 in 187S, and who claimed to he the first to do it, \\TOte as fol- 
 lows: "After passing through two or three small rifts, we 
 arrived at Great Foul Kift, which is considered the most dan- 
 gerous one in the river, on account of the numher of rocks and 
 the swiftness of the current. How to descrihe our passage 
 through here, we hardly know; all we can say is, we saw it, 
 we entered it, and we passed it. You can see the big slate 
 rocks on all sides of you, and are unahle to tell what minnts 
 you will strike them. This rift is two miles long, and we 
 passed through it in three minutes exactly, being carried that 
 fast by the current, without using our paddles." This state- 
 ment was received with astonishment. Two miles in three 
 minutes, or forty miles an hour, is not the speed of a rapid, but 
 almost that of a waterfall. 
 
 Among the critics was Mr. A. IT. Siegfried of Louisville, who 
 had also run the Great Foul Kift. lie wrote: "We were 
 warned against Foul Kift for two days above it, and came to it 
 
DOWX THE DELAWARE Kn^EK. oO.J 
 
 the river is ten feet lower now ; and it's the 
 ])ottoni of a rivev that's dano-erous, not the top." 
 
 Guiteras was the first in his canoe. "Here 
 goes for Phihidelphia ! " lie cried, as he pushed ofl'. 
 " Are there any rapids near us, down the river?" 
 
 " Listen ! *' and the teamster smiled. 
 
 We listened and heard one, the sound comino- 
 from the bend of the river half a mile below. 
 
 " It's only a little one," shouted the teamster, 
 as we started. "Keep well to the left, and you'll 
 find a channel. It is a smooth rift." 
 
 We were three, in three canoes, — Mr. Edward 
 A. Moseley in a stout boat built by Partelow, of 
 the Charles Eiver ; Dr. Eamon Guiteras, in a 
 
 determinetl not merely to rim it, but to examine it carefully, 
 and see if it is as dangerous as the natives think. ^Ye went 
 through it without paddle, save for steering purposes, but 
 losing ho time from speed of actual current, and were just 
 eleven minutes from the time we entered imtil we left the swift 
 water. That we thought a quick run, considering the windings 
 of the channel, following wliich the distance is fully three miles, 
 though a straight line will measure nearly one-third less. The 
 rift is very swift and crooked, whirling among many and such 
 recklessly distributed boulders that the speed claimed by ' F. r. 
 and E. P. D.' Avould have been sure death to both boats and 
 men if it had been possible." 
 
 The official measurements of the Little and Great Foul Rifts 
 are: Little Foul Eift, 768 ft.; Great Foul Eift, 4,020ft.; di.5- 
 tance from head of Little Eift to foot of Great Eift, 1^ mile. 
 These measurements are probably by the straight line, and not 
 according to the Mindings of the channel. 
 
306 ETHICS OF lJOXIN(} AM) MANLY .spoirr. 
 
 stronir Racine ; while iniiie was a keelless, decked 
 canoe, by the best ])iiilder in the world, Riishton, 
 of Canton, N. Y. 
 
 It was two in the afternoon of a glorious day 
 when we started from Port Jervis. After a Ions:, 
 dusty railroad ride, it is inipossi])le to convey the 
 exhilaratin<2: sense of freedom and enjoyment 
 which one feels durin<>: the first moments in his 
 canoe. To plunge the ])are arms to the elbow 
 into the river as vou i>'0, and let the cool water 
 curl up to the l)iceps ; to feel the soft breeze on 
 bare head and neck ; to be far from the busy 
 crowds in the cities, with all the senses awake to 
 new and fascinating objects — the swirl of rapid 
 water, the lirown and yellow stones on the bot- 
 tom of the river, the larire, free movements of 
 clouds, the strange flowers on the bank ; to grip 
 the paddle with an agreeable sense of power in 
 shoulder and hand ; to brace the feet strongly 
 against the foot-rest and feel the canoe spring 
 with the elastic force of the stroke ; to shout un- 
 restrainedly to your com])anions. and hear them 
 shout in return h'ke hearty, natural men ; to 
 lau<2:h consumedlv with sliiiht cause ; and in the 
 midst of all this joyous wakefulness, to be aware 
 of the ncaring ra])id ahead — to hear its low, 
 steady roar, as if tlie sound cluno: to the water ; 
 and to be aware also of a new preparation of 
 
DOW^ THE DELA^^AKE KIVEK, 'M)7 
 
 nerve, sight, and muscle — a purely aninuil and 
 instinctive alertness — for the moment of rushini!; 
 excitement into Avhich you are s\vee})ing, — all 
 this we experienced within ten minutes of leav- 
 ino- the ijravel Ijed at Port Jervis, and while the 
 teamster still shouted to us from the shore. 
 
 We were silent at hrst, and surprised. It took 
 us some moments to realize that the surprise was 
 delight. The river was not deep — three or four 
 feet at most ; but it ran down hill like a hunted 
 hare. There was something quite new in it, too, 
 which I concluded to be the long, wavy green 
 weeds near the bottom, that floated straight with 
 the current like a yacht's pennant in a gale, and 
 by their swaying and glistening in the de})ths in- 
 dicated the course and the extraordinary rapidity 
 of the water. 
 
 "This is superb!" said one. The others 
 echoed the word. 
 
 Almost before we knew, we were in the rush of 
 the first rapid. We had not carefully followed 
 the teamster's instructions to keep to the extreme 
 left ; and we had passed the narrow mouth of the 
 channel. Before us ran an oblique bar of heavy 
 stones, *over which the river poured like a curtain. 
 It ran clear across the river, and we found our- 
 selves far into the closed ano'le. The water on 
 the curtain to the left roared like a heavy surf, 
 
o06 ivnwcs or i'.()xin(j and manly sroK-T. 
 
 and wc knew tliat we could not <ret over or 
 through. There was no opening between the 
 stones more than two feet wide, and beyond or 
 l>elow was a hundred yards of chaotic rock and 
 roar. 
 
 AVe turned and paddled up strcai!i — I might 
 have said ui) hill. Inch bv inch we iiained, work- 
 ing with feverish speed, the paddle slipping back 
 in the lilancina' stream as if it were in air, holdinii' 
 hardly any force. 
 
 But we clim])ed the first descent, and steered 
 across to where the channel luma'ed the riizht 
 bank. Guiteras went in Hrst ; he had not a'cjue 
 up far enough by a l)oat's length, and as he shot 
 across into the narrow channel, his canoe lurched 
 ui)on one side, stood a moment and swung athwart 
 stream. He had struck ; but before a thought of 
 danger could follow, the paddle was buried, and 
 with a lifting push, his boat slipped over the stone 
 and rushed down the rapid like a leaf. 
 
 The other canoes followed, avoidinij: the buried 
 stone. It was a vigorous little rush — about two 
 hundred yards in leniith, and not fifteen feet in 
 width. The water was deep, but its spec;d made 
 it rise in a leap oyer every stone on the bottom, 
 and hurl itself in all kinds of rid<res and furrows 
 and springing white-caps. 
 
 At the ])ottom of the rift we plunged into a 
 
73 
 
 O 
 
 CO 
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 r 
 m 
 
 < 
 
 O 
 
 c 
 
 (7) 
 
 X 
 
 o 
 m 
 
 o 
 m 
 
 H 
 
DOWN THE DELAWARE RIVER. 301) 
 
 heap of boiling breakers, still running like mad. 
 Next moment we floated into smooth water, and 
 turned and looked back at our first rapid with 
 much lauii'hiniJ^ and conirratulation. 
 
 The rapid, or rift (on the Upper Delaware all 
 rapids are rifts; on the Lower Delaware all rifts 
 ai'G faJh; the change beginning, I think, about 
 Easton, as, for instance. Saw-mill Rift, Death's 
 Eddy Eift,. Big Foul Rift ; and below, Welles's 
 Falls, Trenton Falls, etc.) — the rapid we had 
 passed, on looking back, seemed insignificant in 
 descent and roui2:hness ; but we were fairly aston- 
 ished at the speed of the water, and I think we 
 had a ya2:ue consciousness that it would have heen 
 no child's play to steer through that channel had 
 it been of anv considerable lenoth, and broken bv 
 rocks. The teamster had called it "a little one," 
 and "a smooth rift;" what, then, were the big 
 ones ? There was no mention at all of this rift in 
 the notes of the canoeman which I had with 
 me. What was the ominous Great Foul Rift in 
 comparison ? 
 
 As we gazed back at the rapid, it receded from 
 us swiftly. We were on the quiet surface of 
 deep water, but going down at the rate of several 
 miles an hour. 
 
 The current still kept to the left bank, and an 
 odd bank it was, — Avorth describins:, because 
 
:)10 ETHICS OF BOXING AMD MAXLV SPOUT. 
 
 it continued intermittently quite down to Trenton, 
 where the hist rapid on the Dehiware pitches the 
 canoeman into ti(hd water. Tiie ])ank resembled 
 molten metal that had hardened. It was almost 
 black, a clean, smooth stone, with round puff- 
 holes in it, no veiretation whatever on the 
 steep slope of, say, twenty feet from the water's 
 edire, above which rose a wooded hill, almost a 
 mountain. The metallic l)ank ended abruptly in 
 the stream, and the deep current alongside ran 
 with astonishinir swiftness. 
 
 I realized in brief time that up to that day I 
 had not known rapid water, continued in a long 
 stream. The Susquehanna rapids are short and 
 sharp descents, followed by slow and gentle 
 reaches, some of which are miles in length. The 
 Connecticut, in a memory of six years' distance, 
 spreads out like a lake, with here and there a log 
 moving alongshore, showing that there actually is 
 a current. The Merrimack was. remembered as 
 a very millpond, except on the short descent of 
 Miber's Falls, near Haverhill, and in the power- 
 ful tidal rush under Deer Island Chain-bridge at 
 Xewburyport ; while many lesser streams were 
 quite forgotten in ])resence of this grand artery 
 which carried us onward almost as fast as we 
 could paddle on slower rivers. 
 
 I have given too much space to our first rapid 
 
DOWN THE DELAWARE KIVEK. 311 
 
 on the Delaware, which, we soon found, was 
 onl}^ one of scores before us, and a small one — 
 even a "smooth one." But it will save other 
 descriptions ; and it gives our first impression of 
 the river. Having run the Delaware from Port 
 Jervis to Philadelphia, we found that this first 
 rapid was singularly characteristic. All the 
 considerable rapids are of a somewhat similar 
 formation, — except the Great Foul Rift, which 
 is unique. 
 
 The rapids of the Delaware are formed in the 
 main by an oblique line of rocks crossing the 
 river, leaving a narrow channel on one side, or 
 sometimes the opening is almost one-third of the 
 way across, with reefs on both sides. 
 
 With deep water, say in May or June, when 
 the river is from eia'lit to ten feet hio-her than it 
 was in the last week of August, a canoeman may 
 run two hundred miles of this incomparable river 
 without strikins^ a stone. But every foot of fall 
 in the. stream makes -a totally new river; and he 
 who goes down on a freshet in early summer 
 cannot imagine what the river is like at low 
 water in late autumn. 
 
 The Delaware is a river of extraordinary pitch, 
 the fall from Port Jervis to Philadelphia being 
 nearlv 1,200 feet. 
 
 On that first afternoon we intended to run down 
 
312 ETHICS OF BOXING AND MANLY si»OKT. 
 
 to Milforcl, twelve miles distant, where, we had 
 been told, there was a famous hotel. But we 
 linsrered on the way. In the sweltering heat we 
 pulled the eanoes ashore and })lunuL'd into the 
 delicious water, driidvinir it as w^e swam — a sensa- 
 tion for epicures. ^Vc lay prone in the rapid 
 stream, our arms outspread, and our faces under 
 water, floatino: quickly down, and look ins: at the 
 yellow and white pel)])les on the ])ottom. 
 
 At last we came to a lovely spot, a soft white 
 sand-baidv on the left, the Jersey side, formed by 
 the junction of a bright little river with the Dela- 
 ware. Every paddle was laid down. Haifa mile 
 below w^e heard the dull roar of a rai)id. Here 
 the river was very deep and swift, and not more 
 than eighty yards wide. On the right, a wooded 
 but precipitous mountain rose almost straight 
 from the water to a heidit of at least 800 feet. 
 From his eyrie far up we had disturbed a wliite- 
 headed eagle wliich iioated and tipped its great 
 wings a1)ove us as it moved -slowly down river. 
 
 The sand-l)ank was in the anale where the little 
 river fell over a short r;n)id of twentv vards into 
 the Delaware. The bank was hemmed in bv a 
 dense wood. 
 
 We camped on tlui sand-bank for the night. 
 One man erected the t(Mil : anotlicr cooked dinner : 
 the third went in search of a farmhouse for milk, 
 
DOAVN THE DELAWARE RIVER. 313 
 
 eggs, melons and peaches — the staple of our food 
 for the next fortniirht. 
 
 AVhile the dinner simmered ^ye had a trial of 
 strength with the Delaware itself, breast to breast. 
 Swiftly we struck across and down the river for 
 a hundred vards, and then turned and faced the 
 stream. Three strono- swimmers, ^two of the 
 three extraordinary. Moselev, with the over-hand 
 stroke, which sends him about eight feet a stroke 
 in still water, made progress at the rate of about 
 one foot a stroke.. Guiteras barely held his own, 
 swunminof as if he were anchored ; and, watchino- 
 the bank, I saw that I was actually iroino; down 
 stream. Under such circumstances vou can do a 
 great deal of swimming i;i a quarter of an hour. 
 
 The sun went down on the left, above the low 
 trees, without cloud or haze. For a lono- time 
 after its disappearance the upward rays Hamed 
 on the face of the o^reat clitf across the river, the 
 red a'lcam movin£>' hiaher and higher, and the 
 darkness creeping up the wooded wall like a vast 
 tide. When the line of iiaht had cleared the brow 
 of the cliff the trees above, diminished to a fino'er- 
 lenofth, blazed in Cfold and crimson ; and then, 
 almost suddenlv, the liaht left them, — rose over 
 them, and was lost in si)ace, and they, too, were 
 swallowed up in the night. 
 
 '' The lioht that shoots over the heads of trees 
 
ol4 KTIIICS OF li()XIN(J AND MAM.V Sl'ORT. 
 
 or p('()])l(\" said ]\Ioseloy, '* miiilit as well not 
 exist. 
 
 AVitli which philosophic rcHcction, wc spread 
 our rubber l)lankets on the sand of the tent, over 
 these our woollen l)lankets ; and then, with a bi^: 
 fire ])laziniz* a few feet from the tent's mouth, Ave 
 lay or sat for our coflee and cigars. 
 
 Throughout our trip this quiet smoking hour, 
 each evening with a strange scene before us, was 
 a most enjoyable part of the day. 
 
 AVe slept as if the night were an hour long, 
 and we woke to plunge into the sweet unchilled 
 water. We started without breakfast, hoping to 
 reach ^lilford and the " famous cook" at an early 
 hour. 
 
 The miles were long, and tlie river unendingly 
 broken. It was down hill all the time, rift suc- 
 ceeding rift. Do what we could with careful 
 steeriuii, we struck airniu JUid air«'dn, and we were 
 in constant danger of smashing boats or paddles. 
 So common became the strikins: that we coined a 
 word for it — "hung u}>." And we could not 
 help laughing, wIhmi one struck, as we swept past 
 and saw him arindv polinir his canoe over a rock, 
 or raising his feet over the gunwale, as he got 
 out to haul her ov(M'. For this we had to be 
 always ready ; trousers tucked up, and canvas 
 shoes on. 
 
DOWX THE DELAAVARE KIVER. 515 
 
 It came to be a ierttina* habit, that when one 
 led mto a rapid he would do so \\'\\\\ a boastful 
 shout. This was my part, at one time on this 
 second da v. I had irone into a rift with much 
 flourish, and, a third of the way through, had 
 been " hung up." Down rushed the others with 
 loud derision, avoiding the bad place. Imagine 
 mv feelins: of disa'ust at their sellishness, as I saw 
 their backs, leaving me there. Xext moment, in 
 the worst part of the rapid, I saw one of them 
 strike and hold his boat with his paddle against a 
 rock ; and a second or two later the other struck 
 just beside him. Who could help smiling? And 
 that moment, by a fortunate lurch, \\~\\ canoe 
 floated and rushed down toward the two, who 
 vrere now struggling knee-deep in the stream. 
 They held on to let me pass, and scowled as if 
 my laugh were in bad taste. 
 
 At ten o'clock we reached Milford, Penn., and 
 clim])ed the hundred feet of steep bank on which 
 the little town stands. Over the town, all round, 
 rose still many hundred feet of grandlj^-wooded 
 mountains. The hotel, thev told us, was over 
 twelve hundred feet above sea level. The hotel 
 we found to be even better than its report. 
 
 Ev^r since starting at Port Jervis, Moseley 
 had kept referring to the beaut}' of the scenery at 
 Walpack Bend, some fifteen or twenty miles be- 
 
31() ETHICS OF HOXINt; AND MxVNLY SrOUT. 
 
 low Milford. He had a camera with him, and 
 his desire to fj^et out and take a view o^rew on him 
 like a disease. Xo impatience, or protest, or 
 prayer affected him. " When we get home," he 
 would unseltishly say, "these pictures will be 
 the best part of the trip,'' — and he was right. 
 
 The banks on l)oth sides now rose into moun- 
 tains, wooded to the top. The river Avas a series 
 of deep and swift reaches, and then a leaping 
 rift, with a steep descent. 
 
 In the very centre of one of these rapids, an un- 
 usually deep one, my canoe struck on a covered 
 rock and I knew in a flash that she nmst either iret 
 instantlv over or be rolled down stream. Thouuht 
 and act united. I lifted her by a vigorous push, 
 and was whirled down, stern foremost, with mv 
 paddle broken. 
 
 Fortunatcl}', the channel below was deep, 
 though rough and very rai)id. To meet the emer- 
 gency I knelt u}), instead of sitting as heretofore, 
 and used the broken end of the paddle as a pole, 
 fending off rocks, and steering occasionally with 
 the blade end. 
 
 Before I had cleared the rapid I knew that my 
 loss was a aain. The best way to steer a canoe 
 down a rapid is to knc^el and use a Jon r/ ■paddle 
 v:itJi one blade, tJie otJiPr end to he used as a jyole. 
 
 I had a spare paddle in the canoe, a delicate spoon 
 
DOWN THE DELAWARE KIVER. 317 
 
 paddle, only fit for deep water. As soon as the 
 rift was past, I jointed this and used it ; hut when 
 the next rift was heard, laid it aside and took up 
 the hroken paddle. 
 
 The memor}' of that day is Avholly confused 
 with the noise of rapid water. We were no 
 sooner throuah one rift than we heard another. 
 The names of the rapids were quaint and sugges- 
 tive : such as Death's Eddy, Fiddlers Elbow, 
 Milliner's Shoe, Sambo and ^Luy, Yancamp's 
 Xose, and Shoemakers Eddv. 
 
 One must use colors, not words, to paint the 
 beauty of the scene that opened before us on our 
 third day, when we ran the u[)[)er rapid at AVal- 
 pack Bend, and floated into a reach of river that 
 can hardly be siu'passed in the world. On our 
 rio'ht and left the banks were low and richly 
 timbered ; and straight ahead, barring our way, 
 about half a mile ofl", a high mountain, wooded 
 from the water to the crest. 
 
 The river runs straiirht to the mountain-foot, 
 and there turns directly to the left. It is not a 
 curve or a sweei), but distinctly a rialit anale ; 
 and then, for one mile with the hill to the right 
 and the low farms on the left, and for two miles 
 with the mountain to the left and the farms to 
 the right, the grand stream paces slowly, like a 
 proud horse in the eye of a multitude. 
 
olS KTIIICS OF llOXIXG AND MANLV M'OKT. 
 
 Here we liiid a btrikiiii>- illustration (^f the 
 power of color. The wooded height ])efore us 
 rose at least twelve hundred feet. The river l)e- 
 low was ii'reen with the immense retleetion. But 
 on the verv line of union, where the leaves met 
 and kissed in air and water, was a little tlame of 
 crimson, which held the eye and centered all the 
 immensitv. 
 
 It was one small cardinal Hower, a })lant that 
 u^rows all the wav aloni:- the Delaware. The 
 intensity of its color is indescribable. After this 
 superb exhi))ition of its power, one little red 
 flower a2:ainst ti mile of irreen and silver, I 
 iZathered everv dav a handful of the lovely 
 blossoms and set them on the bow of the 
 canoe. 
 
 AVhen one thinks of the marvels of this river, 
 the reirret becomes ]);unful that thev are unknown 
 to the outer world, that thev are onlv seen bv the 
 
 «' \/ %i 
 
 natives of the scenes and the accidental canoe 
 voyager. 
 
 The rivers are the veins and arteries of a 
 country, the railroads and roads the nerves and 
 sinews. 
 
 lie has seen the land trulv, with its wealth 
 
 ft. 
 
 and strenerth, wdio has followed the rivers from 
 their sources in the hills down to the tide-pulsat- 
 in<r ocean-heart. But the railroads are familiar. 
 
DOWN THE DEL A WAKE IMVEK. /)19 
 
 the rivers unknown. "Sin writes histories," 
 says Goethe ; " goodness is silent." 
 
 The river afiects men in a different way from 
 the road. The dweller bv the railroad is keen 
 and quick to trade, and dicker, and undertake. 
 The inhabitants of the river valleys are placid 
 folk ; ftirmers content with their peaceful and 
 laborious lives. 
 
 Such homes as the poets have imagined are 
 realities on every mile of the Delaware's banks. 
 Xever before, in the same space, have I seen so 
 many quiet, contented, and gentle working peo- 
 ple. Scores and hundreds of farm-houses we 
 passed, surrounded with flowers and foliage, the 
 easy-chairs Avaiting on the wide porch, with the 
 women sitting sewing, the children playing near 
 the house, the men Avorkins: in the farmvard or 
 in the spreading melon or peach fields, and the 
 bri«:ht river movinsr forever l^efore their eyes, 
 with its great homely ferry-boat waiting below, 
 where the shaded paths comes down the bank. 
 Softly come to one's memory the lines of Bryant, 
 
 " O River, gentle Elver! gliding on 
 In silence underneath this cloud-flecked sky 
 Thine is a ministry that never rests, 
 Even while the living slumher. 
 
 At dead of night the child awakes and hears 
 Thy soft, familiar dashings, and is soothed, 
 And sleeps again." 
 
320 KTillCS OF liOXIXG AND MANLY tiTUliT. 
 
 But one is tciiiptod to linger too long on .such a 
 scene as this at Walpack Bend. Here, for the 
 first time since we left Port Jervis, the water ran 
 slowly. It is hard to leave a spot so l)eautiful, 
 where so few stranirers are led. Here Avas Nature 
 at first hand. To impress it deeper on my mind, 
 I retrace our course, on the bank, to where, a 
 hundred yards above the bend, a little sinirinir 
 river flows into the Delaware. Only a few inches 
 deep, babbling over l)rown pebbles, bright as the 
 sun itself in its flashes, comin<>' down under a dim 
 arch of trees and fringing underwood — a very 
 dream of a little sinuina" brook, that 
 "Knows the way to the sea." 
 Here, sitting on a stone, enjoying the soft susur- 
 rus in my ears and in the leaves and in the rij)- 
 ples, conies alons>' a country' bov, flshiuii: — down 
 the dim arch, walking in the little river, bare- 
 footed. 
 
 "Bushmill Creek is its name," he says: and 
 he knows no more about it — not how lonii it is, 
 nor whence it comes. l>ut yet a commentator 
 and critic, this barefooted lisher. 
 
 " Plow far have you fellows come?" he asked, 
 examining the canoes. 
 
 " From Port Jervis." 
 
 " And how far an; you going?" 
 
 " To Philadelphia." 
 
DOAVN THE DELAAVAKE lUVER. 321 
 
 (( 
 
 AYell," — a long pause — '* you fellows must 
 want sometliins: to do ! " 
 
 A sons: sunix by some country «:irls and boys 
 in a boat, passing close to the mountain foot, 
 makes a memory of music and echo as yiyid as 
 the gleam of the cardinal flower. They slowly 
 moye their unwieldly-lookino- crooked oars, char- 
 acteristic of the Dehiware — the flat l)lade set on 
 the oar at an obtuse ano'le. But this oar, hino-ed 
 on the o'unwale of the flat-l^ottomed boat, or 
 bateau, is suited to a riyer of rifts, the bent blade 
 enal)ling the rower to sweep the shallow water 
 without strikina'. 
 
 The riyer is rich with bass, and the fishers are 
 numerous. BeloAy AValpack Bend, a lady in a 
 boat, excited and joyous, holds up a splendid fish 
 as we pass. 
 
 " See ! I'ye just caught it ! " she says. It was 
 at least fiye pounds weight. A gentleman in the 
 boat tells us that Aye can run all the rapids down 
 the riyer — *' except the Great Foul Rift ! " 
 
 Here it was ao-ain : and from this time forward, 
 almost eyery one to Avhom Aye spoke warned us 
 in about the same Ayords. Hence o^reAV an unex- 
 pressed desire in eacli of our minds to get aAyay 
 from this croaking rapid ; Aye longed to reach and 
 run it, and haye done Avitli it. 
 
 But Aye Ayere approaching one of the glories of 
 
322 ETHICS OF BOXING AND MANLY SPORT. 
 
 the Delawtire — the most famous and certainly the 
 most sublime — the "Water (Jap. We reached it 
 unexpectedly. AVe knew when it was only a few 
 miles away, but we could see nothing ahead but 
 the unbroken mountain range on each side. One 
 mile away, and the range had closed around us in 
 a biixht, leavino- no perceptible opening for the 
 
 river. 
 
 " Where is the Water Gap?" we asked a boat- 
 ful of fishers, anchored under a bridge. 
 
 *' You'll see it in half a minute," they answered. 
 '* And look out I for just round the turn there, 
 you will be in the rapid." 
 
 We did not need the warning : we were in the 
 quick water already. Looking into the stream, 
 we saw the yellow stones on the l)ottom fly stern- 
 ward at an extraordinary pace. The roar of a 
 powerful rapid reached us as we came to a sharp 
 turn in the river ; and below us we saw a memo- 
 
 ral)le scene. 
 
 I do not know the descending angle of that 
 rapid, nor the measure of its fall ; but it seemed 
 as if 4e were on the top of a liill of rushing water, 
 at the bottom of which, less than a mile away, 
 was a vast wooded basin, its green slope l)roken 
 by two white hotels set on the hillside, but still 
 seemingly far below us. 
 
 There was no time for admiration, or for any- 
 
DOWN THP: DELAWARE RIVER. o2o 
 
 thing but steering. We ran down the Jersey 
 shore, close to the rocky mountain foot, in the 
 fastest rush so far. The river plunged from ledge 
 to ledge fierceh' ; but the channel was deep. At 
 the foot of the fall, we were shot into a whirlpool 
 of yellow breakers that curled up and washed 
 clean over the canoes, drenching all, and almost 
 swamping one of them. 
 
 AYe stopped at the AA^ater Gap that night, and 
 sat long on the wide veranda of the hotel, looking 
 at the wonderful scene. The river passes between 
 two mountains, as through a tremendous gateway ; 
 and one feels, without knowing, that beyond that 
 imperial portal, the scene must change into some- 
 thing quite new and strange. 
 
 This we found to be true : the Delaware mav 
 be said to have left the mountains Avhen it pours 
 through the Water Gap. Henceforth, its banks 
 are bold, or even precipitous, as the right bank 
 surely is in a wonderful cliff some miles l)elow 
 Reis^elsville ; but it is a mountain river no lonsfer. 
 
 In the morning, before starting, we climbed 
 the mountain and looked down on the wild beauty 
 of the Water Gap. From that height the fall in 
 the river was imperceptible ; and the rapid that 
 had astonished us the day before looked like a 
 mere shallow l)rawl. 
 
 Few people are aware of the force and danger 
 
324 ETHICS OF HOXING AXD m'aNLY SPOKT. 
 
 of rapid l)r()ken water. To the person who 
 drives or walks along a river, the rapid seems 
 the safest spot, because it is obviously the shal- 
 lowest. But, as the teamster said at Port Jervis, 
 it is "the bottom that is to be feared, not the 
 top." 
 
 "It is iust the same w^ith humanity," savs 
 Guiteras, when this thought is spoken ; "it is the 
 superficial and hasty people who make all the 
 trouble. Depth of mind is as safe as depth of 
 water." 
 
 The last w^ord to us from the boat-keeper at 
 the AVater Gap was, of course, a warning about 
 the Great Foul Rift. AVe ran two or three rapids 
 that dav that tested nerves and boats, and were 
 exasperated to hear that they w^ere " smooth 
 rifts," and " nothing at all to the Big Foul." 
 
 In the hiu'li heat of the afternoon, we came to 
 a place whc^re a little waterfall leaped down a 
 bank almost twcntv feet into the river. The 
 fallinij water was white as snow. AVe went 
 under it and enjoyed a glorious shower bath, but 
 found that in the centre the water fell in lumps 
 almost as heavy and hurtful as clay. 
 
 That dav. too, we had another novel and de- 
 lightful experience. A\'e came to an unbroken 
 reach of river on which the descent was so irreat 
 that a stretch of two miles before us resembled a 
 
DOWX THE DELAWARE EITER. 325 
 
 coasting-hill of ice. The nver was about ^ve 
 feet deep, with a gravel bottom. TTe let the 
 canoes float, and we followed, with outspread 
 arms and faces in the water, fiurlT coastinsr down 
 that wonderful liquid slope. 
 
 Late in the evening, not finding a ple:isant 
 camping place, we settled at last on a tolerable 
 spot, on an island. We were tired, and we soon 
 fell asleep — to be awakened by a shout of hor- 
 ror firom Guiteras, over whose hand a snake had 
 crawleil ! He had flung the reptile firom him. out 
 of the tent. 
 
 After such a start, sleep was out of the ques- 
 tion. TTe lav. however, and tried to rest. But 
 
 m 
 
 every rustle of the leaves outside, eveiy insect 
 that stirred in the grass, brou^t a chill and 
 creepy feeling. 
 
 • • I am going to sleep in the canoe, ^ at last 
 said one: and at the word we gathered our 
 blxinkets and abandoned the tent. 
 
 K it were not for the dansrer of smiinin^r the 
 boat if pulled ashore, or of catching malaria if it 
 be left afloat, the canoe is the pleasantest and 
 easiest sleeping place. 
 
 In the morning a swim, a solid breakfsist. and 
 an extra careful jiacking of the canoes. Xo one 
 spoke of it : but that momiug we were each con- 
 scious of a particular attention paid to the trim of 
 
320) ETHICS OF ROXING AND MAXLV SPOUT. 
 
 the boats tiiid the stowing of (huinagc. At al)oiit 
 eleven o'clock in the forenoon we would reach 
 Belvidere ; and the Great Foul Ilift was only a 
 mile farther. 
 
 There was a camp of bass tishers near us, and 
 thev came to see us start. Thev learned our in- 
 tention of oroimr down without portaire. rift or no 
 rift. Thev did not dissuade us. One of them 
 said he knew the Big Foul Rift, and he gave us 
 precise, too precise, instructions. All I could 
 recall half an hour later was : *' Keep to the right 
 when vou come to the biir white stone — if there's 
 water enouirh to float vour boats." 
 
 It was noon when we came to the town of 
 Belvidere, and paddled into deep water under a 
 mill. AVe needed some necessaries for our dinner, 
 and we coulil buv them here. The school-bo vs 
 flocked to the bank to see the canoes, and the 
 mill-workers (it was the dinner hour) came down 
 to have a chat. 
 
 *' You are not iroiu!! to run the rift?" asked 
 
 one. 
 
 " Yes, we are." 
 
 "Thev can do it: thev don't draw more than 
 two inches," said another. 
 
 We knew that at least one of the canoes, heavily 
 laden with ])aggage, and with a heavy man in her, 
 drew more than six inches. We could get no 
 
DOWN THE DELAWAEE Rm:R. 327 
 
 information worth having, except a repetition of 
 the fisherman's word : '• Keep to the right of the 
 biir rock, two-thirds of the way down, — if vou 
 can." 
 
 '• Xobodv has irone down the rift for five weeks," 
 said the man who had first spoken. 
 
 Guiteras was 2'oiuir ashore for the necessaries ; 
 and as he stood in his canoe, about to step on a 
 log that edged the bank, he slipped, and pitched 
 head-first into the deep water. AVe were so used 
 to sfoinir into the water anvwav, that the other 
 two sat quite still in the canoes, as if not heeding, 
 while Guiteras climl^ed out and shook himself, in 
 a matter-of-course kind of waA'. This nonchalance 
 created an impression on the crowd : and shortly 
 after, when we started, the general prediction was 
 audibly in our favor. 
 
 " Keep to the right of the T)ig white rock, and 
 3'ou will strike the channel,"* shouted a man as we 
 started. 
 
 Haifa mile or so below Belvidere, we felt the 
 water quicken and sweep to the right — the Penn- 
 sylvania bank. AVe knew we were in the first 
 reach of the rapid that had been roaring for us 
 since we started. 
 
 There are two distinct rapids, — the Little Foul 
 and the Great Foul. — divided by a reach of safe 
 but swift water of half a mile. 
 
rt'2>> ETHICS OF HOXING AND MANLY SPOUT. 
 
 From the inoiiient wo struck the Little Foul 
 Rift, we kuew we were in the grip of ji giant. 
 AVe were as much astonished as if we had never 
 run a rapid before. V\c shot down the river — 
 each one finding his own channel — like chips: 
 and, with all our careful steering, we grazed 
 several danii^erous stones. 
 
 There ^vas no stopping at the foot of the Little 
 Foul Ivift ; l)ut we ran with the stream without 
 paddling, and examined the entrance to the Great 
 Kapid ahead. 
 
 There was no bar or lodire formation here, as 
 in the minor rifts behind us. The rocks stood 
 up like the broken teeth of a sperm whale, irregu- 
 larly across the river, and as far ahead as wc 
 could see from the canoes. Some of the stones 
 were twelve feet out of the Avater, others of lesser 
 height, and of all shapes; some were level with 
 the surface, and some covered with a few inches 
 of water. These last were the dangers: to strike 
 and irct '• hunir ui) " on one of these meant certain 
 upsetting ; for no ])oat could stand the rush, and 
 there was no footing for the canoeman if he tried 
 to get out to })ush her over. 
 
 But more threatening than the tall rocks, that 
 looked like a disorganized Stonehenge, 'was the 
 terrible nature of the bed rock, and the broken 
 stones on the l){)ttom. We could steer between 
 
DOWN THE DELAWARE RIVER. 329 
 
 the teeth we saw, but we siiddenlv became con- 
 scions of unseen teeth that lay m wait to lacerate 
 the boats under the water-line. 
 
 The whole bed of the river is formed of a rock 
 that is worn and wasted in a sti'anirelv horrible 
 way, as if it were pitted with a hideous small- 
 pox. Round and oval holes are seen everywhere 
 in the rock, some of them as much as two feet 
 deep and three feet across ; and the upper edges 
 f)f these 1)0 wis are as sharp as scythes. 
 
 AA'e saw the process of this singular pitting. 
 Heavv stones are caught on an an2:le of the bottom 
 and rolled over and over without proceeding, till 
 they wear out these cup-like holes, and are buried 
 deeper and deeper in their ceaseless industry. As 
 the 1)0 wl increases in size, it catches two workers 
 instead of one, and these gi'ind each other and 
 sri'ind the matrix till the verv heart of Xature 
 must admit their toil, and pity their restlessness. 
 
 Some of these irreat stone cui)s were hiuii out 
 of water, empty and dry ; and theu' round tor- 
 mentors lay in peace on the bottom. Some were 
 above the surface, but still half full of water that 
 had dashed into them from the rapid. 
 
 But there was a keener evil than the circular 
 knife tops of these vessels ; and it was their 
 broken edges. 
 
 ^Mien the torrents of winter and spring thun- 
 
330 ETHICS OF BOXING AXD MANLY SPORT. 
 
 der throus:!! the Great Foul Kift, whirl inir and 
 draofiiiiiir trunks of trees and massive stones down 
 the surcharged chan-nels, the pitted ledges of bot- 
 tom and hank are smashed like potsherds, the 
 imprisoned stones are released and shoot down 
 the river, and the fractured rock remains to cut 
 the water with irregular edges as sharp as a shat- 
 tered punch-bowl. 
 
 ^Ve were sfoiuir into the Great Foul liift all 
 this time, at the rate of — Imt who can tell the 
 rate of rapid water? The best canoeman T know 
 says there is no canoeing-water in America over 
 twelve miles an hour. — ^I think he places this on 
 the Susquehanna, below Columbia, — and that 
 eight miles is very rapid indeed. He may l)e 
 right ; but, were I asked how fast we went into 
 the Great Foul Rift, T should say, at least, at (he 
 rate of twelve miles an hour, and, in parts of the 
 descent, much faster. 
 
 Guiteras went tirst, but was causfht on a cov- 
 ered flat stone in the quick, smooth water ; and 
 Moseley led into the rai)id, Guiteras, who had 
 floated oflf, followinir. I came about fiftv vards 
 behind. 
 
 From the first break of the water, the sensation 
 was somewhat similar to that of fallinor through 
 the branches of n tree. The river was twistinsr 
 down-hill in convulsions. We rushed throu<rh 
 
DOWN THE DELAWARE RIVER. 331 
 
 narrow slopes of ten or twenty feet as if we were 
 fallino' and then shot round a rock, flinofins: the 
 whole weiirht of our hodies on the steerinof-pad- 
 die. The tall stones ahead seemed to be rushing 
 at us with the velocity of an ocean steamer. 
 
 All the time we were painfully conscious of the 
 presence of the incisive edges under water, as 
 one mioht feel the nearness of burglars' knives 
 in the niizht. If we struck one of these stones 
 on a downward shoot, it would rip the canoe 
 from l)ow to stern. 
 
 ^loseley steered skilfully, and we cleared two- 
 thirds of the tortuous descent without a shock. 
 A quarter of a mile ahead we saw the smooth 
 water at the foot of the rift. AVe had crossed 
 the river, and were runnino- down on the Penn- 
 sylvania shore. Suddenly, the channel we were 
 in divided at a irreat white stone, the wider water 
 going to the left, toward the centime of the river, 
 and a narrow black streak keeping straight down 
 to the riirht. 
 
 A memory of the warning came to me, *' Keep 
 to the riirht of the bis: rock, — if vou can." But 
 it was too late. A man could not hear his own 
 shout in such an uproar. The white rock rushed 
 past us. The canoes ahead had turned with the 
 main stream, and were in the centre of the river 
 in a flash. Suddenly both canoes ahead were 
 
332 ETHICS OF BOXIXG AND MANLY SPORT. 
 
 shot out of the channel, their bows in the air 
 resting on a hidden rock ; and the current, just 
 then turning a sharp curve, swept by their sterns 
 with a rush. Fortunately they were out of the 
 stream, driven into an eddy, or that had been 
 the end of thein. 
 
 I had time to profit by their mishap. Kneeling 
 in the canoe, using the long-handled paddle, I 
 rounded the curve within a foot of the cfi'ounded 
 canoes, and fairly leaped downhill on a rounded 
 muscle of water. In the rush, a thrill swept my 
 nerves — and another — as if twice I had touched 
 cold steel. T found later that my canoe had 
 twice been pierced by the knife-like edges under 
 water. 
 
 Before I realized it, the end had come, and the 
 canoe shot across the river in a sweeping eddy. 
 The Great Foul Rift was behind me. 
 
 A fisherman on the bank had been watchins: 
 our passage. " You ought to have kept to the 
 right of that stone," he shouted. '' See, there's 
 the channel !" And, looking up, I saw it, straight 
 as a furrow from the big white stone, keeping 
 swift, close to the Pennsylvania shore, unbroken, 
 and safe. Had we kept in this straight way the 
 Great Foul Rift would to us have been no more 
 than an exairire rated name. 
 
 The grounded canoemen pushed free, and were 
 
H 
 I 
 
 m 
 
 ■n 
 O 
 O 
 
 o 
 
 O 
 XI 
 
 m 
 > 
 
 o 
 
 c 
 
 :a 
 
DOAVN THE DELAWARE RIVEH. 333 
 
 down in a minute ; and then we went ashore, and 
 while Moselcy photographed the Great Foul Rift, 
 the others phuiged into the delicious water, that 
 seemed too peaceful and sweet ever to have been 
 violent and brutal. 
 
 Half a mile below the Great Foul Rift, we 
 came to the pastoral scene of the voyage, ^9ar 
 excellence. It was ideal and idA'Ilic — sunny and 
 varied as a Watteau paintinir. It was not £>Teat 
 or grand in any way; but simply peacefid, pas- 
 toral, lovely. 
 
 It was a sloping hillside, of two or three farms, 
 risiiiir from the river. There were low-roofed 
 homesteads, smothered in soft domestic-looking 
 foliaae. A round-arched stone brido'e spanned 
 a stream in the forec^round. Cows and horses 
 stood in the shadow of the trees in the fields, and 
 a drove of cows stood in the river, the reflection 
 a.i distinct as the cow — like Ilerrick's swans, that 
 ''floated doable — swan and shadow." Dark 
 woods framed the scene on both sides and on 
 top, children's voices at l)lay filled the air, and a dog- 
 barked joyously, joining in some romping game. 
 
 We laid our paddles on the canoes in front of 
 us, and floated a full mile throuah the lovely 
 picture. It can never be forgotten. In its 
 quiet way, nothing equalled it on the whole river. 
 
 " Photograph the place," I said to Moseley. 
 
334 ETHICS OF BOXIX(i AM) MANLY yPOKT. 
 
 '*No," he ivpliod. ''It is too oood for anv 
 tiling but meinoiy." 
 
 And then followed ji r;ire picture of another 
 kind, or rather a })ieee of statuary. AVe had 
 stopped to cook and eat a nol)le 1)ass. ^Ve sat 
 on the l)ank, near a cosey farm-house, which 
 nestled in trees a little withdrawn from the river. 
 The farmer, a young, roughly-clad man, with 
 kiughing bright eyes and a l)rown, good-humored 
 face, came down the shady road, ridinsf a o-reat 
 draught-horse, and leading another. Following 
 him, were his two little sons, perhaps ten and 
 twelv^e years old. 
 
 He chatted pleasantly with us, while he unlaced 
 his heayy boots, and undressed. 
 
 " Are you going to swim?" asked Guiteras. 
 " I am going to wash my horses," he said. 
 Just then he pulled his gray woollen shirt oyer 
 his head, and stood naked beside the horse, pre- 
 paring to jump on his back. AVe fairly shouted 
 with admiration, the man was so superl)ly hand- 
 some, and so maryellously nmscular. He smiled 
 pleasantly, as if not surprised, jumped on his 
 horse and rode into the deep water; his two 
 yellow-haired boys sitting on the bank, with 
 their hands clasped in front of their legs, watch- 
 ing their father with i)rofound pleasure. 
 
 We were accustomed to seeinsf athletes in train- 
 
DOWN THE DELAWAllE IIIVEK. 335 
 
 ing ; but none of us had ever seen the equal of 
 this man. He swam his horses out in the deep 
 water fen* a quarter of an hour, riding like a Cen- 
 taur, every nuiscle on his lithe body sinking, 
 gathering, contracting, disappearing, in the most 
 astonishing Avay. He was not a tall or heavy 
 man. When dressed, he was almost common 
 looking'. But never a Greek or Koman gladiator, 
 in life or marl)le, was more beautiful or more 
 powerful than that young Jersey farmer. 
 
 When we came to float the canoes, after dinner, 
 I saw, with disniav, that mine was almost half full 
 of water. In a alance, I realized the meanino- of 
 the quick tremors that had chilled me in the last 
 rush of the Great Foul Rift. The canoe had been 
 struck twice under the water-line by the keen- 
 edired rocks. 
 
 I feared that the end of my trip had come ; but 
 we emptied the water and found that the leaks, 
 wdiich were clean-cut, as if by a knife, had swelled, 
 and almost closed. Eastonwas a dozen or fifteen 
 miles away ; and when we got there, ^loseley 
 thought he could patch the canoe Avith resin and 
 linen and make her water-tight. 
 
 But it was a heavy paddle, though the sti'cam 
 raced downhill. One of the cuts was bruised 
 afresh, in a rapid about four miles above Easton, 
 and the water spurted into the canoe. 
 
33() ETHICS. OF BOXING AM) MANLY Sl'UKT. 
 
 It was dark to hlackiies.s on a Saturdav ni'dit 
 as we paddk'tl down to Easton. We had been 
 told of a strong rapid just above the eity. l)at we 
 eould not see it; we coukl only ht^ar it. the roar 
 doubled l)y the niuht and the imairination. We 
 had run two or three small ritts in the dusk, and 
 had eseaped pretty well ; and there was nothinir 
 for us Init to venture again, in the dark, for 
 nowhere eould we find a place to land or leave 
 our canoes. 
 
 Heavy as a sick animal, my i)oor little water- 
 logged boat wallowed alouir. To strike now was 
 doubly dangerous, for her weight would smash 
 her, bow or beam. The other canoes went ahead. 
 We had been instructed to keep *• on the Jersev 
 side of the island." When we entered the rapids, 
 we only paddled for steerage- way. The men 
 ahead kept shouting to me ; but, when the rush 
 of the fall came, I was too far to the right, and 
 I brought up heavily on the very outermost stone 
 of the reef. 
 
 The canoe was so firmly fixed, that I could 
 have stayed there all night, by sittinir quiet. I 
 tried to push off, but could not. I tried to get 
 out; but the stone was sloping, and oUered no 
 footing. The water, visible oidy for a few tl^et, 
 like a flood of i?dv, ran with tremendous force on 
 both sides of the stone. The other canoes were 
 
DOWN THE DELAWARE RIVER. 337 
 
 out of hearin.<j ; and the niirht was as black as the 
 inside of a cave, with the brii>ht, electric liohts 
 of the city, a quarter of a mile away, set upon 
 what seemed hii>h cliffs above the river. 
 
 Plowever it was to l)e done, I nmst get out, and 
 ease the canoe otf the rock. This was one of the 
 minutes in which the diso^usted canoeman resolves 
 to give up the sport. If I pushed her over, down 
 stream, I could never hold her to o^et in : she 
 nmst be })ulled back, and then pushed round the 
 stone. Slowly and cautiousl}^ I got out, and into 
 the water behind the stone, which was almost 
 waist-deep. When the canoe was pulled l)ack, 
 I o'ot in, with some trouble; and a few minutes 
 later joined the others at the end of the rift. 
 
 Then beo-an a hunt for a landing'. We found 
 that, in the citv of Easton, there is not a single 
 landing-place where we could put up our ]K)ats 
 for the niiilit. At last v»^e were directed to a 
 place where boats were kept on the bank, on the 
 Jersey side ; and there we found an ol)liging and 
 interesting man named John Horn (the l)()ys 
 called him "Tippy" Horn), who allowed us to 
 carry the canoes up on his rocks, and who stored 
 our bao^ofafye, and then rowed us across to Easton. 
 . He was an old river-man ; and he said that he 
 had never seen the water so low as it was then. 
 He was a type of the calm, polite, and intelligent; 
 
338 ETHICS OF ROXIXU AND MANLY SPORT. 
 
 coiiinioii peoplo we had met everywhere on the 
 Delaware, lie spoke so slowly, and enuneiated 
 his svllai)les so clearly, Avith his r\s l)urrinii: 
 stronirly, that voii listened to his sensible >^en- 
 tences with odd pleasure. 
 
 That niiiht we stopped at an excellent hotel in 
 Easton ; and, while enjovinir the pleasant rest of 
 room and l)ed instead of tent and sand, we re- 
 ceived a visit from two 2:enial canoemen, wlio 
 were on a pedestrian tour through the mining 
 districts, and who recoi^nized our names on the 
 register. One was ^Ir. Kirk ^lonroe, then })resi- 
 dent of the New York Canoe Club ; and the other, 
 ^Ir. Rogers, the artist, whose clever sketches in 
 ''Life*' and other periodicals have made his re- 
 putation national. 
 
 AVe found the citizens of Easton sufterinir from 
 the intolera])le system of the " Law-and-Order " 
 fanatics, Avho controlled the town, and who had 
 established a system of secret espionage of which 
 the police were used as the tools. 
 
 Next day, on the rocks, assisted by ]\Ir. Horn 
 and ]\lr. Horn's' two or three children, and ph'as- 
 antlv watched by a sittinirriuiz* of smokinir foundry- 
 men, Moseley heated his resin, and i)atched the 
 damaged Blanid from stem to stern. We found 
 that the sharp edges of the Great Foul Ivift had 
 cut her as a Ijravo cuts his victim. AMien we 
 
BOAVX THE DEL AAV ARE HI VEIL 339 
 
 floated her, she had anvthino: but a racmo: bottom ; 
 but she was as tiirht as a drum. 
 
 Below Eastou, opposite the great rollmg-mill, 
 we saw a siiiht of strikino: effect. — a multitude of 
 men and boys — })erhaps a hundred altogeth-er — 
 strii)i)ed for swinmiinir, inid standing: on the hiuh 
 bank. They were outlined against the sky ; and 
 as we passed them a hundred yards olf, they 
 seemed models of liirlitness and orace. It was 
 probal^ly the great number c1 white bodies that 
 made the scene so stranii'e. 
 
 Such peaches as we lived on that day — such 
 cantelopes, such melons ! Such an island as we 
 camped on, with clean sand as soft as flour ! Such 
 a spring pouring out of the mountain across the 
 river, the water as cold as ice, and as clear as 
 liquid diamonds I AVe enjoyed it with the keen- 
 ness born of regret ; for next day one of our party 
 would have to leave the river. 
 
 At Reiirelsville, next dav, a little Jersev town 
 on a high bank, ^loseley boarded the train with 
 his canoe. The other two proceeded ; but it was 
 lonely for a day or two, and we sadly missed the 
 strong canoeman and the cheery companion who 
 had left us. 
 
 A few miles below Reiirelsville the river makes 
 a dive down hill, without breaking, so that we 
 seemed to be on a level with the tops of trees 
 
340 ETHICS OF JiOXING AND MANLV SPORT. 
 
 c:rowin2^ on the bunk a mile ahead. At the foot 
 of such a decline, we heard the growl of a rapid, 
 and found a division in the river, formed ]\y an 
 island. We kept to the left : we ought to have 
 kept to the right. With a few touches, I got 
 tlirouii'h ; but Guiteras was " hun<>' up" in the 
 worst ]iart of the rapid. He tried all ways to 
 get olf without leaving the boat ; but he had to 
 come to it in the end. And a dangerous time he 
 had for a few minutes. The water was deej), and 
 the powerful current swept the boat against his 
 body, and nearly upset him. He had hard work 
 to hold her back, and get in without capsizing. 
 
 Then we came to one of the noblest features of 
 the whole river. On our right, rising sheer as a 
 wall from the water, was a clift', which must l)e 
 several hundred feet high. It was formed of 
 layers of rock, eacli layer i')erhaps forty or fifty 
 feet deep, and each differing a little in color from 
 the others, so that it looked like a vast storied 
 buildinsf. On the narrow lediie at the foot of 
 each laver, trees and shrul)s i^rew, so that the 
 whole face of the clifi' was softened with foliage 
 which was so feathery that still the entire wall 
 was visible. In places it was like the outer 
 barrier of a mi<j:htv fortress ; and in others there 
 was an absolute likeness to artilicial masonry. 
 
 This majestic clilf ran for perhai)s a mile. 
 
DOWN THE DELAWARE RIVER. 341 
 
 and then ended abruptly in a soft green hillside 
 of cultivated fields. 
 
 But our last rapid had started the leaks in my 
 canoe, and I was bailins^ everv few hundred 
 yards. As the evening was closing;, and it threat- 
 ened rain, we resolv^ed to carry the canoes into 
 the canal, get aboard a canal-boat, and mend the 
 broken Blanid. 
 
 The tow-path was only a hundred yards from 
 the river. A heartv canal-man made us welcome 
 on his boat which had a hundred tons of coal on 
 board. His name, he told us, was "Johnnie 
 Curran, from Bristol, down the river." His mate 
 was a small, foxy man, called " Billy," who spoke 
 and walked like a paralytic ; but a civil fellow 
 when he got a little present. 
 
 " Johnnie " Curran was about thirty-three years 
 old; rather below middle stature, but strong and 
 active, with a stern face, like a fiuhtinir man ; 
 but with a merry eye and a smile in keeping, so 
 that his features were lit up with constant good- 
 humor and good-nature. He had lost two front 
 teeth, and there was a deep scar on his forehead. 
 
 Everyone knew him on the tow-path and the 
 canal. He was constantly hailing some friend, 
 man or woman, by familiar names, or returning 
 like friendly salutations. He had been canalling 
 " twenty years, like his father before him." He 
 
342 ETiiics OF JioxiNi; and manly sroirr. 
 
 had never known so poor a year as tliis for eanal- 
 men. "Rut. poor as he was, ho threw a h)af or 
 something else to every poor tramp we passed on 
 the tow-path. 
 
 He was called, and he called himself, '' John- 
 neni." In the night (we slept on his boat, which 
 was tied to the bank) we heard passing hails : 
 " AVho are you?" •• Johnnem." " Hello, John- 
 nem ; hope you're well ! " 
 
 A mem()ral>le incident occurred while we were 
 on Johnnem's l)oat. We passed a canalside inn, 
 where men and nudes are housed. The landlord, 
 nu old canaller, sat at the door, and hailed us 
 warndv. 
 
 ''Who did vou have over Sundav?" asked 
 Johnnie Curran. 
 
 " Oh, we liad a irood time — a lot of the riuht 
 sort. We had Barrett, and Patterson, and Al- 
 legliany — and a lot more; and then ^ we had 
 Mike ! " 
 
 " ]\Iike ! Well, then, vou did have a irood 
 time. Where was he iroinjr?" 
 
 " Went down to Lambertville, last night." 
 
 "Goodbv!" 
 
 '* Good luck. Johimem ! " 
 
 Then Johnnie told us what a " ijood fellow" 
 Mike was, and how })opular on the canal. We 
 soon had evidence to that etlect. A boat, passing, 
 
DOWN THE DELAWARE RIVER. 343 
 
 entertained us with an account of " a s^reat time " 
 with Mike the niirht before. 
 
 Presently we passed a pretty little cottage be- 
 tween the canal and the river : over the low irarden 
 gate leant a young woman, whom Johnnie Cur- 
 ran saluted thus : 
 
 '' Evenin', Julia." 
 
 ^'Evenin', Johnnem." 
 
 Johnnie, with a wink at us, to cover his 
 duplicity : 
 
 ' ' Mike here Sunday ? " 
 
 «* 'Xo," sulkily ; " but he was up at Steele's." 
 
 '* ^Vell — he'll come next Sunda}^" 
 
 '^ Don't care if he never comes." 
 
 " Oh, yes you do. Good-l)y, Julia." 
 
 *' Xo, I don't. Good-bv Johnnem." Pause of 
 moment. 
 
 *' Say, Johnnem ! " 
 
 '^AVhat is it?" 
 
 " You needn't tell Mike I said that." 
 
 " No fear, Julia. I'll tell him to come up 
 Sunday." 
 
 And Johnnie Curran lauirhed low to himself, 
 as if he knew the ways of womankind. It was a 
 dismal drizzly eveninix, and we had to i>o alouir 
 till ten o'clock. Then, at Lambertville, we were 
 to tie up till mornina". As the niiiht o^rew the 
 rain increased, and at ten it was a steady down- 
 
o44 ETHICS OF BOXING AND .MANLY .SPOIIT. 
 
 l)()iir. AVo were grateful for the slieltcr of the 
 stilliim- little cabin of the canal-boat, where 
 *' Billy "\snored, and *' Billy's" doix had convul- 
 sive dreams, in one of which he i)lunged oyer 
 Guiteras, and scratched his face. 
 
 It was about live next niorniiiir when we started. 
 I was half asleep in the cabin when I heard a man 
 shout from the tow-p:ith. 
 
 '' Johnnem, did you hear al)out Mike?" 
 
 There was somethinir in the man's tone that 
 made me sit up and listen. 
 
 '^ What about him?" 
 
 *' He's down there on the lock — drowned ! " 
 
 *'G()dI" hissed Johnnie Curran, as if he had 
 been struck l)y a missile. " Drowned, you say?" 
 
 " Dead ! We took him out of the canal last 
 night. He fell in comiif aboard. Poor^NIikel" 
 
 AVhen we came to the lock, Johnnie Curran 
 jumped ashore and joined the group of canal -men, 
 who stood near the Ijody. They nroyed aside to 
 let Johnnie see ; and he stood with folded arms a 
 full minute lookinir down at ^like. Then he drew 
 a lonir breath, and turned away, rai)idly brushinir 
 his eyes with his hand, and came aboard. He 
 went on with his work without a word, thouirh it 
 was obvious that the dead man had l)een an oKl 
 and close friend. 
 
 We crossed the riyer in elohnnie Curran's boat, 
 
DOWN THE DELAWARE RIVER. 345 
 
 and left him soon after, carr^^ng our canoes down 
 to the river. \Velles's Falls, at Lanil^ertviile, had 
 not water enoua'h to float us throuirh. The run 
 before us was about ten miles to Trenton, and the 
 stream was swift. It was a perfect afternoon, 
 clear, warm, and calm. The scenerv above Tren- 
 ton is surprisino'lv beautiful, though there is no 
 elevation higher than the tree-tops. It was a 
 superb open picture of river and reflection, wood 
 and cloud, with the city spires in the distance 
 seen under the square openings of two extraordi- 
 narily-handsome bridges. It would be difficult to 
 name, in the world, a more beautiful opening to 
 a city than the four miles of the Delaware above 
 Trenton . 
 
 "The Trenton Canoe Club" was the leo-end 
 printed on a boat-house under the shadow of the 
 city bridge ; and there we stopped. 
 
 The house was closed ; but we went up to the 
 genial toll-keeper of the bridge, — a venerable 
 man, with a face like George AVashington, and a 
 manner to equal it, — who stored our traps and 
 directed us to the hotel. The old man pointed out 
 the difficulties of Trenton Falls, below the bridsfe, 
 and said that he had hardlv ever seen the water 
 so low. 
 
 " I'll go with you mj^self, to-morrow !" said the 
 courteous veteran; "I'll take a boat and show 
 vou the wav down the falls." 
 
34() ETHICS OF ROXIXG AND MANLY SPOUT. 
 
 Next morning he was " as good as his word ;" 
 but we had with us the i)resident of the Caiioe 
 Chib, who ran down the intricate cliannel of 
 the falls, readily and i)leasantlv chattiuir all the 
 while. He was in a light canoe, which he handled 
 splendidlv. 
 
 *'A few years airo, before we beofan canoeino- 
 here," he said, "everyone dreaded these falls. 
 Nobody ever ran them but the luni])ermen. Now 
 we come down in our canoes for fun, and dra"^ the 
 boats back alongshore." 
 
 At the l)ottom of the falls, which are more por- 
 tentous in name and aspect than in descent or 
 velocity, we entered tidal water. No more rapids 
 or rifts to Philadelphia, or the sea. The kindly 
 Trenton canoeman left us with a manly grip that 
 was i)leasant to remember : and, with the wind 
 and tide against us, we started for Philadelphia, 
 forty-tive miles away. 
 
 Below Trenton the Delaware is uninterestin<'- 
 for canoemen. We were so used to swift water 
 that we seemed to be anchored while paddling 
 under adverse circumstances. We st()i)ped at 
 Florence that night, and next day shipj)ed our 
 canoes on a river steamer, and ran down to Phila- 
 delphia. 
 
 Looking back, we salute the Delaware with 
 love and admiration. It has tilled our minds with 
 
DOWX THE DELAWARE RI VEIL 347 
 
 memories and pictures to ])e cherished for a life . 
 time. Xoblest of rivers for canoemen, but only 
 for those who come before the middle of Jnlv. 
 In the freshets of :\Iry and June, a ruu down the 
 Delaware must be a revelation of joy. Then, not 
 one rock of all that beset our way would be visible 
 or dangerous. We came down a depleted vein : 
 in early summer the Delaware is a full arterv. 
 But with all these drawbacks, on our list of 
 canoeing-rivers we must give the first place to the 
 Delaware. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Academy, Royal Irish, 169. 
 
 Air-bag, The, Use of, 133. 
 
 Alcohol, Its Use in Training, 124. 
 
 Althorp, Lord, Opinion of Boxing, 2. 
 
 America, Athletics in, 80. 
 
 American Fairplay Rules, C6. 
 
 Amycus and Pollux, IT. 
 
 Appalaken, Description of Susquehanna River at, 270. 
 
 Appendix, The, 88. 
 
 Art, Ancient Irish, 218. 
 
 Athens, Singing Beach at, 274. 
 
 Athletes, Diet in Training, 114. 
 
 " Leading Irish, 171-2-3. 
 
 " Not Short Lived, 104. 
 
 " Training of, 103, 106. 
 
 " The Grecian, Definition of, 18. 
 
 " " '' Diet in Training, 115. 
 
 " " " How Esteemed, 19. 
 
 " " " Training of, 22. 
 
 Athletics, See Introduction. 
 Athletics in the School, Necessity of, 147, 152. 
 Back Sword, Definition of, 44. 
 Ballymote, See Book of. 
 Banting, Mr., Plan for Reducing Flesh, 155. 
 Bare Hand Fighting, 6. 
 
 (349) 
 
350 INDEX. 
 
 Bare Knuckle Battle, The Longest, 80. 
 Baronotf, Capt., 73, 
 
 Battle Axes, When First Used in Ireland, 179. 
 Benen, The Law of, 213. 
 Bolly-dart, Gai-bolga, 220. 
 Big Foul Rift, See Great Foul Bift. 
 Binghaniton, Description of the Kiver at, 262. 
 Binns, Dr., Anatomy of Sleep, 159. 
 Book of Ballymote, 208, 211. 
 " " Kells, 218. 
 
 " " Leinster, 200, 207, 212, 215, 217. 
 " " Js^avan, 193. 
 " " Rights, 198, 213. 
 Boston School Board, Ext. From Report of Hygiene Cora., 147. 
 Boxers, Races Avho have produced them, 02. 
 
 " British, History of, 51. 
 Boxing, Antiquity of, 1, 11. 
 
 " Comparative Value of, 1. 
 
 Distinction between Ancient and Modern, 13. 
 English Claim to Invention Unfounded, 15. 
 " English Style, The Brutalities of, 5. 
 " With Greeks and Romans, 14, 29. 
 Breakfast, The, in Training, 127. 
 Breathing, How to Breathe Properly, 144. 
 
 " See also Deep Breathing. 
 
 Brehon Laws, 188, 204. 
 British Boxing, G. 
 Bromidon, an Ideal Brook, 257. 
 Bronze Weapons in Ireland, 175. 
 Broughton, John, 48. 
 
 " " The Father of Modern Boxing, 11. 
 
 Broughton' s Rules 48, 50. 
 Canoe, The Comparative Value of, 243, 244. 
 Carman, 190, 200. 
 
 " See Fair of Carman. 
 Cattle-Prey of Cooley {Tain-llo-Chuaihjne), 215. 
 "Celt," 180, 181. 
 
 
INDEX. 351 
 
 Cestus, The Greek, Use of, 13, 15, 16. 
 
 " " Roman, 16, 36. 
 
 Challenges, Specimens of, 47. 
 Chambers, Dr. T. K., Quotation from, 117, 153. 
 Champion's Hand-Stone, 177, 178. 
 Chaucer, Geoffrey, on Irish bowmen, 179. 
 Chess, Antiquity of, in Ireland, 201. 
 Chopper, The, 16. 
 Clasper, H., Quotation from, 128. 
 Clinch, The, m, 90. 
 Closed Windows, Evil of, 137. 
 Conn, of the Hundred Battles, 189. 
 Connecticut River, The, its Value to Canoeists, 259. 
 Cooper, George, .54. 
 Corpulence, How to Reduce, 153. 
 Costello, Rev. Fr., Hospitality of, 272. 
 Craisech, The, of the Firbolgs, 176. 
 Cribb, Thos., 58. 
 Cross-buttock, 57. 
 
 " " Antiquity of, 200. 
 
 Cross-counter Blow, 27, 29,61, 81. 
 Cuclmllain, See Cuchullin. 
 Cuchullin, 185, 219. 
 Curragh, The, of Kildare, 53. 
 Cynisca, 25. 
 Cyrene, 23. 
 
 Dares and Entellus, Episode of, 29, 31. 
 Davies, Sir John, Quotation from, 237. 
 Delaware River, Description of, 311, 319. 
 Delaware Water Gap, 322. 
 Deep Breathing, Necessity of, 111, 144. 
 Deer-Island, Newburyport, 310. 
 Diagoras of Rhodes, Story of, 20. 
 Diet in Training, 114, 
 
 " " " by Dr. F. A. Hariis, 119. 
 Diet of Greek Athletes, 21, 115. 
 Dindsenchas, a Gaelic Tract, 203. 
 
352 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Dinner, The, in Training, 129, 
 Donald na Xgeelacli, 205. 
 Donnelly, Dan, 52, 60. 
 Donnelly's Hollow, 55. 
 •• Dueking" in boxing, 9. 
 Dumb-bells, How to Exercise with, 135. 
 
 " The Use of, 133, 137, 
 
 Entellus and Dares, Episode of, 29, 31. 
 Eochaid Garbh, 203. 
 Epeus and Euryalus, Episode of, 29. 
 Exercise in Daily Life, 141, 162. 
 " Training, 129, 134. 
 FAiit of Carman, 207, 208, 210, 214. 
 
 " " Tailten, 207. 
 Fairs, Ancient Irish, 202. 
 
 Fair-Play Pailes. See American Fair-Play Rules. 
 Famous Prize-figliters, List of, 105. 
 Fenians, Etymology of, 189. 
 Ferdiad, Fight of, 219, 220. 
 Feudalism, Its Influence on Athletics, 37. 
 
 " Formal Introduction into England, 40. 
 
 Fianna Eireann, 189, 193. 
 
 " " Ten Conditions of Membership, 193, 195. 
 
 Fiarlanna, The, 177, 209. 
 Figg, James, 43. 
 Figlit, Longest bare-hand, 80. 
 glove, 80. 
 
 '' for Largest Stake, 80. 
 
 " First in America, 80. 
 Finn, Boyish Exploits of, 200. 
 Firbolg Craisech, 176. 
 Firbolgs, 175. 
 Food, Conditions for taking, 122. 
 
 " How to Prepare it for Training, 120. 
 
 " See also Diet. 
 Fresh Air, Value of, 138, 141. 
 Gai-bolga. See Belly Dart. 
 
INDEX. 353 
 
 Gladiatorial Games, Abolition of, 36. 
 
 " Sliows, 32, 33. 
 
 Gladiators, Origin of, 33. 
 Gladstone, Wm. E., Quotation from, 242. 
 Glove Fighting, Superiority of, 6. 
 
 " " The Longest, 80. 
 
 " " "What Sullivan has done for it, 8. 
 
 Gouging, 61. 
 Great Foid Eift, Description of, 304. 
 
 " " " Running Through, 330. 
 Greek Athletes, Diet of, 21, 11.5. 
 
 " " List of most Celebrated, 22, 23. 
 
 " " Training of, 22, 25. 
 
 Greek Boxers, Position of, 14. 
 
 '• " Skill of, 26. 
 
 Greek National Games, 18. 
 
 " Sacred Games, 23. 
 Guiteras, Dr. Eanion, Canoeing Trip, 244, 305. 
 Hall, Thos., Fight with Donnelly, 52. 
 Hanging-bag, The, 132, 164. 
 
 " See also. Air-bag. 
 
 Harris, Dr. Francis A., Treatise on Diet in Training, 118. 
 Harvard System, The. of Training. 117. 
 Heenan, John C, 63. 
 
 '' " Physical Condition in Fight with King, 109. 
 
 Holmes, Oliver "\V., Quotation from, 2, 103. 
 Horse Pacing, Ancient Irish, 200, 
 Hunting, Ancient Irish, 200. 
 Hurling, Antiquity of, 195, 197. 
 Hurst, " Staley Bridge Infant,"' 66. 
 Illustrations, The, 88. 
 Ireland, Ancient Games of, 170. 
 " Ancient Weapons of, 171. 
 " Minerals of, 239, 241. 
 " Natural Resources of, 236. 
 Irish, The, Their Comparative Rank as Athletes, 170. 
 Irus, Fight with Ulysses, 27. 
 
354 INDEX. 
 
 Joyce, Dr., on the Danes in Ireland, 208. 
 
 Kane, Sir Rob't, L.L.D., on Strength of Irishmen, 170. 
 
 Keating, Rev. Dr. Geoffrey, 191, 193. 
 
 Kells, See Book of. 
 
 Kih'ain, 79. 
 
 King, Tom, 0."). 
 
 Laflix, John M., "The Model Man," 163. 
 
 Laighin, The, 177. 
 
 Lancet, The, Quotation from, 109. 
 
 Leinster, See Book of Leinster. 
 
 Lia Lamha Laich, Champion's Hand-Stone, 177, 178. 
 
 Lic-tailme, 177, 190. 
 
 Liquids, Use of in Training. 123, 129. 
 
 London Prize Ring Rules, 89, 90. 
 
 Lugaidli Lam-fadlia, 203. 
 
 MAii, Queen, 220. 
 
 Mace, Bronze, 65. 
 
 " Jem, fight with King, 6.5. 
 Maclaren on Respiration, 111. 
 Magh Tuireadh, Battle of, Weapons Used, 177. 
 Manais, The, 177, 186, 187, 217. 
 Marquis of Queensberry Rules, 89, 95. 
 Meat, Use of in Training, 115, 120. 
 Mendoza, Daniel, his Blows, 61. 
 Milk, Use of in Training. 120, 123. 
 :Milo. 21. 
 
 Mitchell, Chas., Contest with Sullivan, 6, 75. 
 Modern Boxing, How Improved by Sullivan, 5. 
 Molineaux, Thos., 54, 62. 
 ^Nlolyneaux, See Molineaux. 
 Morgan, Dr. John. Statistics of Training, 104. 
 Moseley, Edw. A., Canoeing with, 305. 
 Muscular Power, Its Comparative Value, 111. 
 Museum, Royal Irish Academy, 169. 
 Music, Ancient Irish, 216. 
 MiLsical Beach, 274, 
 Nations Who Have Produced National Boxers, 62. 
 
INDEX. 355 
 
 ISTavan, See Book of. 
 
 Xewenham, T., on Resources of Ireland, 288-240. 
 
 Normans, The, in England, 39. 
 
 O'CuRUY, Prof., ITS, 192. 
 
 O'llartagan, Cineadh, Poem, 190. 
 
 Oliver, Fight with Donnelly, 58. 
 
 Ollamh Fodhla, 204 
 
 Olympian Games, Order of, 24. 
 
 " . " Preparation for, 25. 
 
 " " Prizes of, 19, 24. 
 
 O'Keefe, Father, Hospitality of, 255. 
 O'Shea, Michael C, on Ancient Exercises, 204. 
 Over-Training, Effects of, 108. 
 Oxford, A Day's Training at, 116. 
 Oxygen, its place in Xature, 140. 
 Palstave, 180, 181. 
 Pancratium, The, 22. 
 Peel, Sir Robert, Opinion of Boxing, 1. 
 Perelchine, Lieut. Michael, 72. 
 Petit, Fight with Slack, 50. 
 Pherenice, 25. 
 Pillows, The Use of, 162. 
 Poets, Ancient Irish, Power of, 220. 
 Pollux, The God of Boxing, 16. 
 Prize Fighters, Ages of most Famous, 105. 
 Prize Ring, Rules of, 89-96. 
 Prizes for Boxing among the Greeks, 19. 
 Pugilism among the Greeks, 14. 
 
 " Why Essential to Education, 1 
 
 QUEENSBEKKY Rui.ES, 89, 95. 
 
 Rapids, The, of the Susquehanna, 207. 
 
 " Best Way to Run, 316. 
 Respiration, Value of, IJl. 
 Rest after Meals, 123. 
 Rift, Definition of a Delaware, 309. 
 Rights, See Book of. 
 Round Blow, Antiquity of, 8. 
 
356 INDEX. 
 
 Round Blow, How Delivered, 10, 11. 
 
 " " Mendoza's Opinion of, 61. 
 Eowing, 12S, l:]l. 
 
 Royal Irish iSea], The History of a, 182, 1&4. 
 Royal Irish Academy, see Academy. 
 Rules of the Ring, Definition of, 4, 5. 
 
 " " " See also Broughton, London, Marquis of Q. 
 
 " " " *' American Fairplay. 
 
 liunning, The Value of, 113. 
 
 " " in Training, 132. 
 
 Rushton, great Canoe Builder, 306. 
 Russell, T. O'Xeill, Letter of, 198. 
 Russian Sea Fight, 72. 
 Saint Ciakax, 217-219. 
 Sand-Bag, The, its Use in Training, 13.3. 
 Sayers, Tom, 62, 63. 
 Sccithach, "War College of, 18.5. 
 Second Wind, The, 112. 
 Shadow, Canoe Model, Use of, 269. 
 Shaw, British Life-Guai-dsman, 70. 
 Shelley, P. B., on Diet, 157. 
 Slack & Petit, Story of, 50. 
 Sleep, how to Induce it, 159. 
 
 " Its Value in Training, 124, 130. 
 Slegh, The, 177, 226, 227. 
 Sling-Stone, The, 177, 196. 
 Smith, Sydney, On Eating and Drinking, 156. 
 
 " " Opinion of Boxing, 3. 
 
 Spardha, The, 181. 
 Sparring, Its Value in Training, 127. 
 
 " With whom to Spar, 132. 
 Spenser, Edmund, Description of Ireland, 236. 
 Springfield, a Day at, 25.5. 
 Stakes, The Largest, 80. 
 Staley Bridge Infant, The, 66. 
 Straight-Counter, 73. 
 Striking Bag. See Hanging Bag. 
 
INDEX. 357 
 
 Stiiic, or War Horn, 196. 
 
 Sullivan, John L., Contest with Mitchell, 6, 75. 
 
 " •' Analysis of His Style, TO. 
 
 Sunburn, The Remedy for, 2-54. 
 
 Susquehanna Eiver, Description of, for Canoeists, 268. 
 Swimming, 83. 
 Sword, Eelationship to Boxing, 12, 38. 
 
 " The Use of, 45. 
 Tailtex, Ancient Irish Games at, 195, 200, 202, 203, 205. 
 Tain-B6-Chuailgne, 215. 
 Tchernoff, Lieut.-Colonel, 72. 
 Telemachus, 36. 
 
 " Telltown Marriage," 206. See also Tailten. 
 Thackeray, AVm. M., Poem on Heenan and Sayers, 64. 
 Tuatha De Danann, 176, 179, 182. 
 Tipton Slasher, The, 63. 
 Tobacco, Its Use in Training, 124 
 Training, The Danger of, 103, 106. 
 
 " The Purpose of, 106, 107. 
 
 " " Advice on, by Dr. Harris, 118. 
 
 Trenton, Beautiful River at. .346 
 
 Canoe Club, 346. 
 Ulysses and Irus, Episode of. 27. 
 Tapper-Cut, 62. 
 
 Vegetables, Use in Training. 115, 120. 
 Venerable Bede, Opinion of Ancient Ireland, 236. 
 Vesta, 71. 
 
 "Walking before Breakfast, 126. 
 Walpack Bend, Description of, 317, 320. 
 Wapentake, 39. 
 
 " "When and Iioav Abolished, 40. 
 
 "Water, Use of in Training, 123, 129. 
 Water-Gap, Description of, 322. 
 Weapons, Ancient Irish. 
 
 Weapon Feats, Ancient Irish, List of, 185-187. 
 Westhall, Charles. Suggestions on Training, 127. 
 Whateley, Dr., Exercise to Induce Sleep, 160. 
 
358 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Wilde, Sir Wm., Quotation from, 205, 207, 218. 
 
 Wilkosbarre, Caiiooincr Episode at, 280. 
 
 Women, (ireek and Koman. their delation to the National 
 
 Oames, 25, 
 AVoodford, W. B., on Reducing Corpulency. 154. 
 AVoodgate, W. K , Exercise in Training, I.JO. 
 
 '' Food in Training, ] 14. 
 AVrestling, Antiquity of, I'.)'). 
 
 Wyatt, M. Digby, on Early Irish Manuscripts, 218. 
 Yale System of Training. 117. 
 Young. Arthur, on Resources of Ireland, 238. 
 
THE 
 
 STATUES IN THE BLOCK, 
 
 AXD OTHER POEMS. 
 
 BY JOHN BOYLE 0'REILJ_Y. 
 
 OPrS'IOXS OF THE PKESS. 
 
 Trom T7ie Boston Daily Adrertiser. 
 
 "Mr. O'Reilly excels in drairiatic poetry. When he has an 
 heroic story to tell, he tells it \*ith ardor and vigor; he appreci- 
 ates all its nobleness of soul, as well as its romantic and pictur- 
 esque situations; and his 'Song for the Soldiers,' and 'The 
 Mutiny of the Cha ns,' in his last Tolume, show with what 
 power he can portray the daring and heroism that have stirred 
 his own heart. He writes with ease and free«lom, but his 
 I)oems of love and of discontent are not superior to those of 
 other well-known English poets. His best work in this \t-ay are 
 • Her Refrain,* a sweet, tender poem, true to life; and * Wait- 
 ing,' that is far more impassioned. The cynical verses and 
 epigrams scattered through the book are piquant, and enhance 
 its sweetness, as bitter almonds do the richness of confection- 
 ery. There is another side still to Mr. O'Reilly's poetry, and 
 it would be easy to represent him as chiefly religious, earnest, 
 and tender. His poems abound in passages like the following 
 from • Living " : — 
 
 '• • Who waits and sympathizes with the pettiest life. 
 And lores all things, and reaches up to God 
 With thanks and blessing — he alone is liring." 
 
 (1) 
 
THE STATUES IN THE JJLOCK. 
 
 " And ' From the Earth a Cry,' this Hue:— 
 
 " 'God purifies slowly by peace, aiul urgently by fire.' 
 
 " From ' The Statues in the Block ' : — 
 
 " ' And I know 
 That when God gives to us the clearest sight, 
 He does not touch our eyes with Love, but Sorrow.' " 
 
 From The Neio York II V>,-///. 
 
 U-VT. 
 
 Nobody can look over Mr. O'Reilly's poems without being 
 convinced that they are poems ; that is to say, that the writer 
 has really something to say. and something which could not be 
 said so well or so completely in prose. Those Avho are in the 
 habit of looking over current volumes of verse will recognize 
 that this is very much to say of them. Mr. O'Reilly's verses 
 are, indeed, quite out of the common. There is not one of the 
 poems in this thin volume that is not a genuine poem in the 
 sense that it records a genuine and poetical impression. His 
 talent is essentially, we should say almost exclusively, dra- 
 matic, as strictly dramatic as Browning's. The most success- 
 ful of these poems are those which are professedly dramatic 
 rather than those which are contemplative. This excellence in 
 dramatic verse is national. From Thomas Davis down, the 
 Irish lyrists, who are worthy of classification at all in poetry, 
 excel in representation of rapid action and of the emotion which 
 is connected with rapid action; and this is what we call dra- 
 matic Excellence. Mr. O'Reilly's chief successes are in such 
 poems as 'A Song for the Soldiers,' and 'The Mutiny of the 
 Chains,' in the present volume." 
 
 Newark- (X ,/.) Mornbirj Hey later. 
 
 " Roberts Brothers, Boston, have just published ' The Statues 
 in the Block, and Other Poems,' by John Boyle O'Reilly. The 
 poem that gives the book its title is the stoiy of four persons 
 looking at a block of marble and seeing an ideal in it. One, her 
 he loved, his jewel, and the jewel of the world. Another, her 
 upon Avhom he lavished coin — he drank the wine she filled and 
 
THE STATUES IN THE BLOCK. 6 
 
 made her eat the dregs, and drenched her honey with a sea of 
 gall ; he, however, was hut one, who swooned with love beside 
 her. The third was suffering 'Motherland,' and, as may be 
 supposed, the author's i>en waxes strong at picturing the sor- 
 row, because — 
 
 5 
 
 " • Xo love but thine can satisfy the heart, 
 For love of thee holds in it hate of wrong, 
 And shapes the hope that moulds humanity.' 
 
 " The fouith sees in the block his lost child, and the pen 
 softens as he sees — 
 
 "' The little hands still crossed — a child in death; 
 My link with love — my dying gift from her 
 Whose last look smiled on both when I was left 
 A loveless man, save this poor gift, alone. 
 
 I see my darling in the marble now — 
 
 My wasted leaf — her kind ej-es smiling fondly, 
 
 And through her eyes I see the love beyorid, 
 
 The binding light that moves not; and I know 
 
 That when Gotl gives to us the clearest sight 
 
 He does not touch our eyes with Love, but Sorrow.' 
 
 "Here and there through the collection are little unnamed 
 wavelets, of which these four lines are a good example: — 
 
 " ' You gave me the key of your heart, my love; 
 Then why do you make me knock ? ' 
 *0, that was yesterday, saints above! , 
 And last night — I changed the lock ! ' " 
 
 Dr. Shelton M'Kenzie in the Philadelphia Ei-eninr/ News. 
 
 "Good poetry, which constitutes a considerable portion of 
 literatm-e, has been rather scarce of late. The odds and ends 
 of verse which get into the magazines are generally aimless 
 and crude. The poet sits down to write what he has thought, 
 but the poetaster takes pen in hand to think what he shall 
 think. There is a world of difference between the results — 
 that is, between true poesy and merely mechanical verse. . . 
 The poem which leads off, covering only thirteen pages, is the 
 longest in the volume, and is full of deep-thoughted expres- 
 
4 THE STATUES IN THE BLOCK. 
 
 sion; but it is probable that ' Muley Malek, the King,* a lay of 
 chivalry, Avill have more numerous admirers. There is also 
 ' From the Earth a Cry,' reviewing the loading events of the 
 decade which closed in 1870. The heart-poems here are highly 
 impressive in their truth. Here and there, on casual fly-leaves, 
 we find curt truths ; thus : — 
 
 " ' Life is a certainty, 
 
 Death is a doubt; 
 Men may be dead 
 
 While they're walking about. 
 Love is as needful 
 
 In being as breath; 
 Loving is dreaming, 
 
 And waking is death.' 
 
 ■e> 
 
 '■ Her6 is another leaflet; an epigram if you please to call it 
 so: — 
 
 " ' You gave me the key of your heart, my love, 
 Then why do you make me knock '? ' 
 ' O, that was yesterday, saints above ! 
 And last night — I changed the lock! ' 
 
 "Apropos of the season, which holds back its beauty and 
 bloom, here is a bit of truth : — 
 
 " ' O, the rare spring flowers I take them as they come; 
 Do not wait for summer buds, they may never bloom; 
 Every sweet to-day sends, we are wise to save; 
 Roses bloom for pulling, the path is to the grave.' 
 
 " In conclusion, we earnestly hope that Mr. Boyle O' Reilly, 
 who writes so well, will challenge our attention, our admira- 
 tion, far more frequently than he yet has done." 
 
 From the yew York Herald. 
 
 u 
 
 Mr. O'Reilly has treated with a beautiful purpose the 
 theme of four men, each imagining the statue that may be 
 carved from a block of marble. Love is the first. Revenge the 
 second, Suffering Motherland the third, and Sorrow the last. 
 All these are strongly, nayy passionately drawn', with that 
 
THE STATUES IN THE BLOCK. 5 
 
 inner relation to actual experience in the narrator, which so 
 
 intensifies the interest. The first is a lovely woman : — 
 
 " ' O Love! still living, memory and hope, 
 
 Beyond all sweets, thy bosom, breath and lips — 
 My jewel and the jewel of the world.' " 
 
 "The second, a faithless woman, cowering above the form 
 of her newly-slain paramour : — 
 
 " ' O balm and torture ! he must hate who loves, 
 And bleed who strikes to seek thy face, Revenge.' 
 
 ' ' The third a chained woman — Mother and Motherland : — 
 
 " O star, 
 That lightens desolation, o'er her beam, 
 . . . Till the dawn is red 
 Of that white noon when men shall call her Queen.' 
 
 " The fourth is a figure of a dead child: — 
 
 "'I know 
 That when God gives to us the clearest sight 
 He does not touch our eyes with Love, but Sorrow.' 
 
 "In 'Muley Malek, the King,' Mr. O'Reilly bursts over the 
 bounds of metre; but in the swing of his utterance there is a 
 certain forceful rhythm, indicating an earnest endeavor to 
 preserve some of the characteristics of song. In 'From the 
 Earth a Cry,' however, all reserve is thrown off, and he 
 launches formlessly forth. TTalt Whitman chopped up Car- 
 lylesque sentences into lines at hazard, but rapidly debased the 
 model. Mr. O'Reilly takes a higli strident key, and follows 
 Whitman's most ambitious endeavors. It is an eloquent in- 
 vective, and its fitfulness and spasmodicts have a certain 
 relation to its grievous story of human oppression. It is as 
 formless and as forcible as the onrushing mob it invokes. All 
 that is, is wrong; what need of nice measuring of feet ? It is 
 not the measured tramp of an army that can be expected where 
 the undisciplined millions rise to bear down drilled thousands. 
 
 " ' O Christ! and O Christ ! In thy name the law! 
 In Thy mouth the mandate! In Thy loving hands the whip! 
 They have taken Thee down from Thy cross and sent Thee to scourge 
 the people; 
 
6 THE STATLE8 IX THE liLOCK. 
 
 They have shod Thy feet with sjiikes, and jointed Thy dead knees with 
 
 iron, 
 And pushed Thee, hiding behind, to trample the poor dumb faces.' 
 
 " Oppression has its leagues and its trimnplis, but 
 
 *' ' Never, while steel is cheap and sharp, shall thy kinglings sleep 
 without dreaming.' " 
 
 From Tilt' Buffalo Union. 
 
 (( 
 
 The strength, tondei-ness, and exceeding power and aptness 
 of expression conspicuous in a former volume — (' Songs, Leg- 
 ends, and Ballads,') — are all here, intensified. The poet goes 
 beyond the limits of any one land or nationhood. He sings 
 here for all time and for every nation. His inspiration is 
 Iliunanity^ wherever it agonizes under tyrannical bonds or 
 struggles to break them. ' From the Earth a Cry, ' is a very 
 epitome of the history of the manifold uprisings, all the world 
 over, of the weak against the strong during the decade just 
 ended — the voice of the oppressed clamoring to Heaven for ven- 
 geance — an arraignment of the 
 
 " 'Landlords and Lawlords and Tradelords ' 
 
 before the bar of justice, and in face of the terrible growth of 
 
 " ' Communists, Socialists, Nihilists, Rent-rebels, Strikers ' — ■ 
 
 from the seed themselves have sown. 
 
 " We wish we could speak in detail of some of the other 
 poems, with their rugged but splendid versification, in which 
 the poet has taken 
 
 " ' No liecd of the words, nor . . . 
 the style of the story, 
 
 but 
 
 " ' Let it burst out from the heart, like a sjaing from the womb of the 
 mountain; ' 
 
 or of that majestic opening poem, ' The Statucb in the Block,' 
 through which this true note rings: — 
 
 " 'When (iod gives to us the clearest sight, 
 He does not touch our eyes with Love, but Sorrow.' 
 
THE STATUES IN THE BLOCK. 
 
 C( 
 
 We strike on a vein of keen but kindly sarcasm at the 
 expense of poor human nature here and there through the col- 
 lection, especially in a few of those gem-like stanzas that pre- 
 lude the different sections. But the poet has a sweet voice for 
 tender themes; and there ai-e some exquisite lyrics here, too, 
 like fragrant, delicate flowers, blooming in the clefts of the 
 massive rock. Such, notably, are ' Her Refrain,' ' Waiting,' 
 ' Jacqueminots,' and ' The Temple of Friendship.' The book is 
 inscribed 'To the Memory of Eliza Boyle; Aly Mother.' " 
 
 From The Boi^ton Journal. 
 
 " The little volume containing ' The Statues in the Block, and 
 Other Poems,' by John Boyle O'Eeilly, will commend itself to 
 those for whom fresh and spirited verse has charms. The 
 pieces, which number about twenty, are of two very different 
 styles; the one graceful in form, and conveying some light 
 fancy or suggestion, and the other careless as to form, usually 
 barren of rhyme, and irregular with the pulses of stern and i)as- 
 sionate emotion. Of the former type are ' Jacqueminots,' ' Her 
 Refrain,' and 'The Temple of Friendship'; of the latter, 
 ' From the Earth a Ciy,' ' A Song for the Soldiers,' and ' The 
 Mutiny of the Chains.' The first poem mentioned in the latter 
 group, and indeed some others belonging to the same group, 
 have a Walt Whitmanish turn to them which, we are free to 
 confess, we do not like. Take, for example, such lines as these : 
 
 " ' Lightnhig! the air is split, the crater hursts, and the hreathing 
 
 Of those below is the fume and lire of hatred. 
 
 The thrones are stayed with the courage of shotted guns. The warning 
 
 dies. 
 But queens are dragged to the block, and the knife of the guillotine 
 
 sinks 
 In the garbage of pamijercd flesh that gluts its bed and its hinges.' 
 
 " The story of the mutiny in the final poem is finely told, as 
 is also the story of the defence of the Cheyennes, in the poem 
 preceding it. Mr. O'Reilly is at his best when his blood is hot 
 and his indignation roused by the thought of human wrongs ; 
 and some of his pieces, written inider this inspiration, have a 
 ring like anvil strokes, and stir the blood of the reader as by the 
 sound of trumpets." 
 
OPINIONS OF THE PRESS. 
 
 ''aSO^'^gs from the ISOUTJIER^ ISEASr 
 
 ]?Y J01i:S^ BOYLE O'llETLI.y. 
 
 iNTeiy Yovk Arcadian. 
 
 " Like the smell of new-mown hay, or the first breath of 
 spring, or an unexpected kiss from well-loved lips, or any other 
 sweet, fresh, wholesome, natural delight, is to the professional 
 reviewer the first perusal of genuine poetry by a new writer. 
 Xot for a long time have we experienced so fresh and joyous a 
 surprise, so perfect a liteniry treat, as has been given us by 
 these fresh and glowing songs by this young and hitherto 
 utterly unknown poet. There is something so thoroughly new 
 and natural and lifelike, something so buoyant and wholesome 
 and true, so nuich original power and boldness of touch in 
 these songs, that we feel at once that we are in the presence of 
 a new power in poetry. This work alone i^laces its author 
 head and shoulder above the rank and file of contemporary 
 versifiers. . . . The closing i)assages of ' Uncle Xed's ' 
 second tale, are in the highest degree dramatic, — thrilling the 
 reader like the bugle-note that sounds the cry to arms. Finally, 
 several of the poems are animated by a spirit so affectionate 
 and pure, that we feel constrained to love their writer, offering, 
 as they do in this respect, so marked and pleasant a contrast 
 with too much of the so-called poetry of these modern times." 
 
 (0) 
 
10 SONGS FROM THE SOUTH ERX SEAS. 
 
 Baltimore Bulletin. 
 
 "Mr. O'Keilly is a true poet — no one can read his stirring 
 measui'es and his picturesque descriptive passages without at 
 once recognizing the true singer, and experiencing the conta- 
 gion of his spirit. He soars loftily and grandly, and his song 
 peals forth witli a rare roundness and mellowness of tone that 
 cheers and inspirits the hearer. His subjects belong to the 
 open air, to new fields or untrod wilds, and they are full of 
 healthy freshness, and the vigor of sturdy, redundant life. 
 We hail Mr. O'Reilly with pleasure, and we demand for him 
 the cordial recognition he deserves."' 
 
 Chic.wjo Inter-Ocean. 
 
 " We may safely say that we lay these poems down with a 
 feeling of delight that there has come among us a true poet, 
 who can enchant by the vivid fire of his pictures without 
 having recourse to a trick of words, or the re-dressing or re- 
 torturing of old forgotten ideas. These poems, for the most 
 part, are fresh and lifelike as the lyrics which led our fore- 
 fathers to deeds of glory. With scarce a line of mawkish 
 sentiment, there is the deep heart-feeling of a true poet. Ilis 
 descriptions bear the impress of truth and the realism of 
 personal acquaintance with the incidents described. There is 
 the flow of JScott in his narrative power, and the fire of ^lacau- 
 lay in his trumpet-toned tales of war. We are much mistaken 
 if this man does not in the course of a few years walk the 
 course, and show the world how narrative poetry should be 
 written. lie has it in him, and genius cannot be kept under 
 hatches. Passing over ' The Dog Guard,' a fearful picture, we 
 come to ' The Amber Whale.' It is impossible to describe the 
 intense interest that surrounds this dramatic description. A 
 more exciting chase could hardly be conceived, and as we stand 
 with bated breath, while the mate drives his lance home to 
 the vitals, and the boats go hissing along in the wake of the 
 wounded monster, we seem to behold the sea red with blood, 
 
SONGS rilOM THE SOUTHERN SEAS. 11 
 
 and mark the fliikes as tlioy sweep the captain's boat into 
 
 eternity. Here is a portion of the story : — 
 
 " ' Then we heard the captain's order, " Heave! " and saw the harpoon 
 
 fly, 
 
 As the whales closed in with their open jaws: a shock and a stifled cry 
 Was all that we heard; then we looked to see if the crew were still 
 
 afloat,— 
 But nothing was there save a dull red patch, and the boards of the 
 
 shattered boat. 
 
 " ' But that was no time for mourning words: the other two boats came 
 
 in. 
 And one got fast on the quarter, and one aft tht' starboard fin 
 Of the Amber AVliale. For a minute he paused, as if he Avere in doul)t 
 As to whether 'twas best to run or fight. " Lay on ! " the mate roared 
 
 out, 
 "And I'll give him a lance I " The boat shot in; and the mate, when he 
 
 saw his chance 
 Of sending it home to the vitals, four times he buried his lance.' 
 
 "We next come to ' Tlie Dnkite Snake,' a tale so simply 
 told, so beautifully sad, that the heart goes out in pity to the 
 poor yoimg husband in his terrible grief. The Dukite Snake 
 never goes alone. When one is killed the other will follow to 
 the confines of the earth, but he will have revenge. Upon this 
 fact the poet has wrought a picture so true and so dramatic 
 that it almost chills the blood to read a tale so cruel and so 
 lifelike. ... Among the remaining jDoems of length, we 
 have ' The Fishermen of Wexford,' ' The Flying Dutchman,' 
 and 'Uncle Xed's Tales.' All are good; but the last are simply 
 superb. We doubt if more vivid pictures of war were ever 
 drawn. The incidents are detailed with such lifelike force, 
 that to any one who had ever felt the enthusiastic frenzy of 
 battle, they bring back the soimds of the shells and the shout 
 of advancing columns. They are lifelike as the pages of 
 Tacitus, and stir the blood to a fever heat of warlike enthus- 
 iasm. They are strains to make soldiers." 
 
 London Athenceiun. 
 
 "Mr. O'Eeilly is the poet of a far land. He sings of West- 
 ern Australia, that poorest and loveliest of all the Australias, 
 
1'2 SONGS FIJOM THE SOUTllEHX SEAS. 
 
 ■which has receivcil from the mother country only her shame 
 ami her crime. Mr. O'Jteilly, in a sliort poem, si)eaks of the 
 huul as 'discovered ere the littiiii^ time,' endowed with a peer- 
 less clime, but having birds that do not sing, flowers that give 
 no scent, and trees that do not fructify. Scenes and incidents, 
 however, known to the author, in tliis perfumeless and mute 
 land, have been reproduced by him in a series of poems of much 
 beauty. ' The King of the Yasse,' a legend of the bush, is a 
 weird and deeply pathetic poem, admirable alike for its concep- 
 tion and execution." 
 
 Atlantic Montlilij. 
 
 "In a modest, well- worded prelude, the poet says: — 
 
 " ' From that fair land and drear land in the South 
 
 Of which through jcars I do not cease to think, 
 I brought a tale, learned not by word of mouth, 
 
 But formeol bj- finding here one golden link 
 And there another; and with hands unskilled 
 
 For such fine work, but patient of all pain 
 For love of it, I sought therefrom to build 
 
 What might have been at first the goodly chain. 
 
 *' 'It is not golden now; my craft knows more 
 Of working baser metal than of fine; 
 But to those fate- wrought rings of precious ore 
 I add these rugged iron links of mine.' 
 
 " This is not claiming enough for himself, but the reader the 
 more gladly does him justice because of his modesty, and per- 
 haps it is this quality in the author which of tenest commends 
 his book. ' The King of the Yasse ' is the story of a child of the 
 first Swedish emigrants to Australia, who lies dead in his moth- 
 er's arms when they land. A native chief, coming with all his 
 people to greet the strangers, touches the boy's forehead Avitha 
 great pearl, which he keeps in a carven case or shrine, and the 
 mighty magic of it calls him back to life, but with a savage soul, 
 as his kindred believe; for he deserts them for the natives, over 
 whom he rules many years, inheriting and w^earing the magic 
 pearl. At last the young men of the tribe begin to question his 
 
SONGS FROM THE SOUTHERN SEAS. 15 
 
 authority, and one of them, with a spear thrust, destroys the 
 great pearl. Jacob Eibsen then seems repossessed by a white 
 man's soul, and retm-ns to the spot long since abandoned by his 
 kindred, and finds it occupied by English settlers, whose chil- 
 dren's simple, child-like playmate he becomes, and remains till 
 death. The plot is good; and it is always managed with a sober 
 simplicity, which forms an excellent ground for some strong 
 dramatic effects. The Australian scenery and air and natural 
 life are everywhere summoned round the story without being 
 forced upon the reader. Here, for instance, is a picture at once 
 vivid and intelHgible, — which is not always the case with the 
 vivid pictures of the word-painters. After the rains begin in 
 that southern cHmate, — 
 
 " ' Earth throbs and heaves 
 With i)regnant prescience of life and leaves; 
 The shadows darken 'neath the tall trees' screen, 
 While round their stems the rank and velvet green 
 Of undergrowth is deeper still ; and there 
 Within the double shade and steaming air, 
 The scarlet palm has fixed its noxious root, 
 And hangs the glorious poison of its fruit; 
 And there, 'inid shaded green and shaded light, 
 The steel-blue silent birds take rapid flight 
 From earth to tree and tree to earth; and there 
 The crimsoned-plumaged parrot cleaves the air 
 Like flying fire, and huge brown owls awake 
 To watch, far down, the stealing carpet-snake 
 Fresh-skinned and gloAving in his charming dyes, 
 With evil wisdom in the cruel eyes 
 That glint like gems as o'er liis head flits by 
 The blue-black armor of the emperor-fly ; 
 And all the humid eartli displays its powers 
 Of prayer, Avith incense from the hearts of flowers 
 That load the air with beauty and Avith wine 
 Of mingled color. . . 
 
 " 'And high ©'erhead is color: round and round 
 The towering gums and tuads, closely wound 
 Like cables, creep the climbers to the sun, 
 And over all the reaching branches run 
 And hang, and still send shoots that climb and wind 
 
14 80NGS FK03I THE SOUTMEliX SEAS. 
 
 Till every arm and spray ami leaf is twined, 
 
 And miles of trees, like brethren joined in love. 
 
 Are drawn and laced; ■svhile round them and above, 
 
 ^Vlien all is knit, the creeper rests for days 
 
 As gathering niiirht, and then one blinding bkize 
 
 Of very glory sends, in wealth and strength, 
 
 Of scarlet tlowers o'er the forest's length! ' 
 
 " There are deep springs of familiar feeling (as the mother's 
 grief for the estrangement of her savage- hearted son) also 
 touched in this poem, in Avhich there is due artistie sense 
 and enjoyment of the weirdness of the motive; and, in short, 
 we could imagine ourselves recurring more than once to the 
 story, and liking it better and better. ' The Dog Guard ' is the 
 next best story in the book; — a horrible fact, treated with 
 tragic realism, and skilfully kept from being merely hor- 
 iil)]e. . . . Some of the best poems in the book are the pre- 
 ludes to the stories." 
 
 Boston Adrertisei: 
 
 " The first, and in many respects the best poem in the book, 
 is ' The King of the Yasse,' which is a story of the very 
 earliest settlement of AiTstralia by Europeans, and before a 
 convict settlement was established there. There is to it far 
 greater care and finish than to any of the other long poems. 
 In some parts it is weird and strange to a degree ; in others it 
 is pathetic, — everywhere it is simple, with a pleasant llow of 
 rhythm, and closely true to nature. It is followed by ' The 
 Dog Guard,' a poem which leaves an impression on the mind 
 like Coleridge's 'Ancient Mariner' — a subject which, but for 
 great skill in the treatment, would have been repulsive. As it 
 stands in the book it shows eminent descriptive power, and a 
 certain freedom and daring that lifts it far above the connuon- 
 place. Interspersed among the longer i)oems are short verses, 
 Avhich must answer the same purpose in the book as the or- 
 ganist's interludes, helping out the value of that wliich 
 precedes, and that which follows. Some of these are more 
 than excellent. They stand out as a pecuUar feature of the 
 
SONGS FROM THE SOUTHERN SEAS. 15 
 
 book, adding to its completeness, as tliey will add to the poet's 
 reputation. Preceding ' The Dog Guard ' we have the follow- 
 ing, which perhaps is as characteristic as any of the preludes. 
 It will be seen that the burden of this, as indeed of the whole 
 book, is AVestern Australia : — 
 
 " ' Xation of Sun and Sin, 
 
 Thy ti(jwers and crhxies are red, 
 And thy heart is sore within 
 "While the "lorv crowns thv head. 
 Land of the songle^s birds, 
 AVhat was thine ancient crime, 
 Burning through lapse of time 
 Like a prophet's cursing words? 
 
 " ' Aloes and Myrrh and tears 
 31ix in thy bitter wine: 
 Drink, while the cup is thine, 
 Drink, for the draught is sign 
 Of thy reign in coming years.' 
 
 " Mr. O'Reilly has done his work faithfully and well; he has 
 given us in his book more than he promised us in the preface; 
 and to-day, with his first poetical ventm-e before the public, he 
 has added another to the laurels he has ah'eady won in other 
 fields." 
 
 N'ew York Tribune. 
 
 "These songs are the most stirring tales of adventure im- 
 aginable, chielly placed in Western Australia, a penal colony, 
 which has ' received from the mother country only her shame 
 and her crime.' The book is the very melodrama of i)oetry. 
 . . . Mr. O'Reilly is a man whose career has been full of 
 wild and varied adventm-e, and who has put these stirring 
 scenes — all of which he saw, and part of which he was — into 
 verse as spontaneous and unconventional as the life he de- 
 scribes. His rhymed tales are as exciting as ghost stories, and 
 we have been reading them while the early sullen Xovember 
 night closed in, with something the same feeling, the queer 
 shiver of breathless expectation, with which we used to listen 
 to legends of ghosts and goblins by our grandmother s firelight. 
 
16 SONGS FROM THE SOUTH K UN SEAS. 
 
 Xot tliat iho supernatural figures too largely in these tales, — 
 the actors in them are far more formidable than any disem- 
 bodied spirits. . . . ' The King of the Yasse ' is a wonderful 
 story, in which a dead child is raised to life by a pagan incan- 
 tation and the touch of a mystic pearl on the face, — which 
 will charm the lovers of the miraculous. 'The Amber Whale,' 
 'The Dog Guard,' and ' Ilaunted by Tigers,' are in the same 
 vein with ' The Monster Diamond.' Thrilling tales all of them. 
 ' Chunder All's Wife' is a charming little Oriental love story; 
 a ' Legend of the Blessed Virgin ' is full of tenderness and 
 grace, for Mr. O'Reilly is both a Catholic and an Irishman; 
 and I cannot close my extracts from his book more fittingly 
 than with his heartfelt lines to his native land : — 
 
 *' ' It chanced to me upon a time to sail 
 
 Across the Southern Ocean to and fro ; 
 And, landing at fair isles, by stream and vale 
 
 Of sensuous blessing did we ofttiraes go. 
 And months of dreary joys, like joys in sleep, 
 
 Or like a clear, calm stream o'er mossy stone, 
 Unnoted passed our hearts with voiceless sweep, 
 
 And left us yearning still for lands unknown. 
 
 " ' And w'hen we found one, — for 'tis soon to find 
 
 In thousand-isled Cathay another isle, — 
 For one short noon its treasures filled the mind. 
 
 And then again we yearned, and ceased to smile. 
 And so it was, from isle to isle we passed. 
 
 Like wanton bees or boys on flowers or lips; 
 And wlien that all was tasted, then at last 
 
 We thirsted still for draughts instead of sips. 
 
 •* ' I learned fr( m t'.iis there is no Southern land 
 Can fill with lo/c the hearts of Northern men. 
 Sick minds lieed change; but, when in health they stand 
 'Neath foreign skies their love flies home again. 
 
 " ' And thus with me it was; the yearning turned 
 From laden airs of cinnamon away. 
 And stretched far westward, while tlie full heart burned 
 With love for Ireland, looking on Cathay ! 
 
SONGS FR031 THE SOUTHERN SEAS. 17 
 
 My first dear love, all dearer for thy grief! 
 
 My land that has no peer in all the sea 
 For verdure, vale, or river, flower or leaf, — 
 
 If first to no man else, thou'rt first to me. 
 New loves may come with duties, but the first 
 
 Is deepest yet, — the mother's breath and smiles: 
 Like that kind face and breast where I was nursed 
 
 Is my poor land, the Niobe of isles.' " 
 
 Mr. B. II. Stoddard, in Scrihner*s Monthly. 
 
 U I 
 
 The King of tlie Yasse,' tlie opening poem in Mr. O'Reilly's 
 volume, is a remarkable one; and if the legend be the creation 
 of Mr. O' Reilly, it places him high among the few really imag- 
 inative poets. . . . This, in brief, is the outline of the 
 'King of the Yasse.' In it we could point out many faulty 
 lines. William Morris could have spun off the verse more flu- 
 ently, and Longfellow could have imparted to it his usual grace. 
 Still, we are glad it is not from them, but from Mr. O'Eeilly 
 that we receive it. The story is simply and strongly told, and is 
 imaginative and pathetic. It is certainly the most poetic poem 
 in the volume, though by no means the most striking one. ' The 
 Amber Whale' is more characteristic of Mr. O'Reilly's genius, 
 as ' The Dog Guard ' and ' The Dukite Snake ' are more char- 
 acteristic of the region in which he is most at home 
 
 He is as good a balladist as Walter Thornbury, who is the only 
 other living poet who could have written ' The Old Dragoon's 
 Story.' " 
 
 Boston Gazette. 
 
 " This is a volume of admirable poetry. The more ambitious 
 poems in the book are in narrative fonn, and are terse and 
 spirited in style, and full of dramatic power and effect. Mr. 
 O'Reilly is both picturesque and epigrammatic, and writes with 
 a manly straightforwardness that is very attractive. ... Of 
 the sickly sentimentality that forms the groundwork of so much 
 of our modern poetry, not a trace is to be found in this book. 
 The tone throughout is healthy, earnest and pure. There is 
 also an independence and originality of thought and treatment 
 
18 SONGS FROM THE SOUTIIEIIN SEAS. 
 
 that are very striking, and which prove not the least attractive 
 features of the book. Some of the stories are conceived with 
 nniisnal i)ower, and are developed with scarcely less etTect and 
 and skill." 
 
 Jio.stun Times. 
 
 " Some reminiscences of his romantic life, the poet has woven 
 into the verses that till this volume. Very grim reminiscences 
 they are, of crime and death and horrors dire; but they repre- 
 sent faithfully, we have no doubt, the society, or rather sav- 
 agery, of those far and fearsome hinds. Most of the poems are 
 stories, sombre in substance, but told with a vehement vigor 
 that is singularly harmonious with their themes. The opening 
 poem, ' The King of the Yasse,' j^reserves a strange and 
 pathetic legend, which the poet has wrought into a powerful, 
 but most painful story. His imagination revels in pictures of 
 weird desolation and the repulsive and appalling prodigies of 
 animal and vegetable life in the tropic a\ orld ; and the elfect 
 of these presented in quick succession, and varied only by epi- 
 sodes of human sin or suffering, is positively depressing. Such 
 passages as this abound in the poem: — 
 
 " ' In that strange country's heart, whence comes the hreath 
 Of hot disease and pestilential deatli, 
 Lie leagues of wooded swamp, that from the hills 
 Seem stretchint!; mo;id )ws; but the flood that tills 
 These valley basins has the hue of ink 
 And dismal doorways open on the brink. 
 Beneath the gnarled arms of trees that grow 
 All leafless to the t<)i>, from roots below 
 The Lethe flood; and he who enters there . 
 lieneath this screen sees rising, ghastly bare, 
 Like mammoth bones within a charnel dark, 
 TIk white nnd r;ip,ir«'d stems of ]iaper-bark, 
 That drip down moisture with a ceaseless drip,— 
 With lines that run like cordage of a ship; 
 For myriad creepers struggle to the light, 
 And twine and meet o'erhead iu murderous tight 
 For life and sunshine. . . . 
 
SONGS FROM THE SOUTIIERX SEAS. 19 
 
 Between tlie water aud the matted screen, 
 
 The hald-liead vultm-es, two and two, are seen 
 
 In dismal grandeur, Avith revolting face 
 
 Of foul grotesque, like spirits of the place; 
 
 And now and then a spear-shaped wave goes by, 
 
 Its apex glittering with an evil eye 
 
 That sets above its enemy and prey 
 
 As from the wave in treacherous, slimy way 
 
 The black snake winds, and strikes the bestial bird, 
 
 "Whose shriek-like wailing on the hills is heard.' 
 
 'e 
 
 " The ' Dog Guard ' is a tale of horrors. ' The Amber 
 Whale • and ' Haunted by Tigers ' are founded on whaling 
 incidents, and the latter, especially, is eloquent Mitli the woe of 
 tragedy. There are a few poems in the volume written in a 
 lighter mood. 'Uncle Xed's Tale' is a veiy spirited tale of 
 battle. ' The Fishermen of Wexford ' is one of the best pieces 
 in the collection — almost severe in its simple realism, but ten- 
 derly pathetic. We have rarely seen a first volume of poems so 
 rich in promise as is this. It is singularly free from the faults 
 of most early poems, and exhibits a maturity of thought and a 
 sober strength of style that would do credit to any of our older 
 poets." 
 
 Boston Commercial Bnllefin. 
 
 " His descriptive powers are remarkably strong and vi^id, 
 and his imagination powerful and vigorous. Yet it is evident 
 from a glance at the minor poems of ' Golu,' and 'My Mother's 
 Memoiy,* that the author has an imagination that will not 
 desert him on brighter and more graceful flights of fancy. 
 Altogether the volume is one of much more than ordinary 
 originality and excellence." 
 
 Worcester Palladium. 
 
 "He shows originality and good descriptive power, and he 
 treats his subjects con amore. . . . The author had the 
 very best reason in the world for writing this collection, and a 
 second volmne will be awaited with reason; for strong points 
 
20 SONGS FKOM THE SOUTH EIJX SEAS. 
 
 are displayed, and a person who writes because his heart wills 
 it, sooner or later wins the heart of the public." 
 
 Bangor Whiff. 
 
 " There is no one of the poems the book contains that has 
 not running through it a sort of realism that at once takes pos- 
 session of the reader's mind, and he looks upon it, as it were, 
 as an actual event." 
 
 Mr. Newell {Orpheus C. Kerr) in The Catholic Mevieto. 
 
 "Judged in all the phases of his talent presented by this 
 book, Mr. O'Reilly is unquestionably a man of true poetic 
 verve and temperament, with too much reverence for the noble 
 gift of song to sophisticate it with mawkish affectations or con- 
 ceited verbal ingenuities. Xo obscure line patches his page; no 
 fantastic mannerism accentuates his style; no pretendedly met- 
 aphysical abstraction egotizes what he thinks worthy of gift to 
 mankind." 
 
 Utica Herald. 
 
 "In the leading poem of Mr. O'Reilly's collection, entitled, 
 ' The King of the Vasse,' there are novelties of scene and leg- 
 end which alone claim the attention. . . . The poem is in 
 many respects a wonderful one, and contains many subtleties 
 of thought and exp-'ession, which it is impossible to reproduce 
 in scanty extract " 
 
 Literary World, Boston. 
 
 . . . " Mr. O'Reilly unquestionably possesses poetical tal- 
 ent of a high and rare order. He excels in dramatic narrative, 
 to which his natural intensity of feeling lends a peculiar force. 
 His verse is sometimes careless, and often lacks finish; but 
 writers are few, nowadays, who have a better capital in heart 
 or hand for successful poetical work than that which is evi- 
 denced in this volume." 
 
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