JIU JITSU.

Dunstan Times, Issue 2486, 21 June 1909, Page 7

JIU JITSU.

NOT AN EDIFYING SPECTACLE,

Wirth Brothers, by supplementing their circus programme with a jiu jitsu contest between Professor Stevenson and Albert Monier. the strong man of their company, for a purse of £7o, last week provided their Sydney patrons with an unexpected sensation. The struggle is represented by the local Press to have been intensely exciting, and at one time the feelings of the audience rose so higu that a serious disturbance seemed imminent. The proceedings were opened in the usual way, by the ringmaster announcing tha conditions of the contest. The men were to be to hit, scratch, bite, pull by the hair, kick sideways, gouge, or strangle. Practically the only for hidden attack was a straight kick. Stevenson at the outset complained that Monier had been substituted for the man he bad undertaken to meet, and claimed that a further sum of CIO should be added to the purse. The promoters ot the contest demurred to this at the first but finally consented. Shortly after the commencement of the actual hostilities Stevenson dealt his opponent a sntaca <m the face, and Monier retaliated by kicking the professor on the shins, a style ot lighting that must have been particularly edifying to the spectators. “A clinch followed, and they went to the ground,” one of the accounts of the exhibition reads. -‘After some active work, in which each alternately gained the advantage, t hey came to their feet again, and 'almost immediately Stevenson caught his opponent by the arm and Hung hini'hodily over his left shoulder. -Monier, turning in the air like a eat, landed on his feet, and was ready to meet Stevenson by the time he turned round.” And so the contest proceeded. Several times in quick succession each mm threw his opp.merit over his head or shoulder to the ground, a movement which was warmly applauded by the audience ; but when Monier started feeling for Stevenson's eyes with his thumb for the purpose of dissuading him from trying to break his neck between bis knees, or when Stevenson hit Monier vigorously across the loins to alter Murder's intention of dislocating his thumb the ideas of fair play of the more conservative of the audience were shocked, and the cheering was mixed with many emphatic hoots. Stevenson won the first round by securing a master hold from which Ins opponent could nob escape, and Monier the second after ho had been thrown bodily out of the ring amidst a scene ot the wildest excitement. The final round lasted out the fifteen minutes that bad been allotted to the contest, but the referee awarded the match to Stevenson on points, and the promoters bad to call in the assistance of the police to get rid of the protesting audience. Such a brutalising exhibition would not be tolerated in this Dominion, and the Messrs Wirth—who again visit us next January—are not likely to include it in their programme.—Exchange.