ANECDOTES OF SPORT AND SPORTSMEN.

Otago Witness, Issue 1895, 16 March 1888, Page 26

ANECDOTES OF SPORT AND SPORTSMEN.

(Licensed Victualler*' Gazette.) Author 0? Pugilist? •It is not o£len that a man oscillates 'between two such extremes as Ihe gospel of brains and the goßpel of muscles ; yet such was the c&se \SHth Mr Julian Hawthorne, the son of America's greatest writer, and himself a novelist of no mean power, who might now" have been a rival of Sullivan's instead of a weaver of romances. At College his pugilistic proclivities were strongly developed, and While there tfoo Harvard University was honoured by a visit from the Benicia Boy— a tall> gmve, urbane gentleman, with reddishbroW n hair and a purple moustache. He wore black broadcloth and a tall hat, and diamonds sparkled here and there. " I wonder," remarks Mr Hawthorne, by way of parenthesis* " what the present ' champion of the world 11 would have done if pitted against that individual." A sand-bag was hung tip Jn the college gymnasium ; it was suspended by a long rope to a horizontal bar half way from floor to ceiling. The strongest man in the collegb, and he was pretty strong, had once hit this bag bo hard that it had swung \ip on a level with the bar. It was suggested that Heenan should hit the bag. He glanced at it, and stripped off his black broadcloth, and laid it, with its silk lining outward, over the back of a chair. Then he walked up to the bag, poised himself for a moment, and his arm shot out. The bag flew up with an impetus that carried it completely round, the bar once, and nearly round the second time. As it fell, Heenan shook his head and sadly turned away. No one spoke ; but as he slowly inserted himself into the silk lining he remarked, " Boys, you should only have seen me when I was fit 1 " Muscles Tersus Brains. Hawthorne having confided to Heenan his love for pugilism, the famous bruiser remarked : " You've got a first-rate hand, and you're well set up on your legs ; your head's too big, but you've got a notion of taking care of it. Now, I'll tell you what I'll do with you. After you've got through your four years in college here, come and spend four years with me. I'll pay you. Just let me have the care of you, and when the time is up I'd be willing to back you against any man of your weight in the ring." The young scholar was now fired with the most intense ambition to enter the P.R. under the auspices of so famous a master, and he dreamed of nothing less than going over to England and bringing back the crown of glory of which he considered tis hero had been so unrighteously defrauded. What nobler name, he thought, could a young (»on of Harvard and Massachusetts set before him. Hawthorne lost no time in communicating his desire to his family. But, alas ! youth and age will always take such opposite views of the same things, and he could not excite the least sympathy with his aspirations in the minds of mother or father, who absolutely refused to see that it would add to the glory of the name of Hawthorne to be encircled by the belt of a prize-fighter. Blighted. Being an obedient son, he yielded to his fate, and returning to Heenan told him sadly what had happened. The gallant hero expressed deep regret. " Well," he said, " it's not for me to go against what the folks at home say, but if a young fellow had a talent I do think it's a pity not to educate him to it. I tell you fairly I would put you in a way of making a reputation ; I don't know what they may have in mind for you, but I'd be willing to give odds that, whatever your profession may be, it won't bring you half the money nor half the fame you'd have got i£ you'd took up with me." We have no doubt that when ' Julian Hawthorne read of, Sullivan's £30,000 and tremendous ovations, merely on the credit of what he might do the words of the Benicia Boy came forcibly back upon his memory. Probably all the brain toil he has gone through has never realised that sura, and he might certainly walk in the streets of London without any one casting a second glance upon him. And this is called the age of intellect, of education, of enlightenment. A Itiral to the Jubilee. It was not at Harvard, however, that Julian Hawthorne got his first knowledge of Heenan. As a youth he had been in England at the time of the great battle with Sayers, and he has given a very vivid description of the time. "It was a period of splendid excitement, and I doubt whether the recent jubilee of the English sovereign aroused so much generous interest and enthusiasm as did that immortal encounter. The fun began at least six weeks before the champions appeared, in the ring. All the papers took a hand in fostering it. In the shop windows were displayed portraits of Mr Sayers and Mr Heenan, with a very short hair, short trunks, and determined visages,

posing in attitudes of defensive bffensiveness. The features of neither were cast in the classic mould of beauty ; but what an arm Slayers had, and what thews and sinews and towering proportions were Heenan's ! One shudders and yet rejoices at the thought of the probable resultsof their .collision. Accounts pf their incredible feats^f trainipg wefe .daily bulletined, together wich absorbing descriptions of the efforts of the police not to capture them and put them under bonds to keep the peace. Probably none of them could read ; at all events, they never succeeded in getting a share of the knowledge possessed by every other human being in England as to the exact whereabouts and movements of the men of muscle. As the appointed date of thp battle, drew, near, .it seemed as if it would be. necessary |o pilch, , the ring ( in the dehlre oj^the, American prairies in order to accommodate the crowd that wanted to witness, the : fight., The day arrived. On awakening that morning I was .fully convinced, for a few moments, that I had been a spectator of the event from beginning to end; but it turned out that I had only dreamed I was. The day passed in a tremor of excitement and impatience to know the result. The next day everybody was up at dawn to get early copies of the papers. Who had won ? That question was not answered; never has been to this day ; but what a fight it was ! Neither won, both won; Sayers' arm was broken, and his head in chancery, but Heenan's eyes were fast closing on the light of day, and what was Samson without his eyes ?"