THE REVIVAL OF PUGILISM

Bruce Herald, Volume XIX, Issue 1933, 17 February 1888, Page 4

THE REVIVAL OF PUGILISM

The present attempt to revive prizefighting is, no doubt, well meant here and there. It may commend itself as a simple means of reviving or pre serving the British spirit of fair play. We know it has commended itself to the mind of a magistrate on much the same fanciful ground. The r6al practitioners would smile at the thought of its association with anything but the trick of putting money in the purse. The noble art, as we have more than once maintained in these columns is essentially the ignoble one. It must always break down with its own weight of ruffianism and brutality. Ie has come in and gone out in England on two or three occasions, and on each occasion its going out has been due to precisely the same cause. If the men were as carefully trained in honour as they are trained in the use of their fists, it would s*ill be difficult for them to maintain a chivalrous fairness under their horrible provocations of anger and pain ; being what they are it is almost impossible. The same thing may be said of their backers and supporters. They have a heavy stake at issue, and they are not the men to see it lost for want of a timely rush in aid of a falling cause. The creatures that gather round the' ring, whether they wear broad cloth or fustian, are usually the most degraded of their kind. It is but a bad joke to say that any quality distinctively and honourably British can owe anything to their example or to their fostering care. In our day, when the finest physical exercises, are within the reach of all, there is absolutely no warrant for the pretence. With football and cricket flourishing on every village-green, we can surely afford to leave prize-fighting to the slums. JErasons V ignoble ought to be the motto of every true lover of sport.