32 Among Men and Horses. 



the American Deer, Frost the Suffolk Stag, Jack Levitt, and 

 others. His mother, hearing of her lad's doings, went down 

 to the running grounds, and when she saw her boy dash off 

 with his beautiful lengthy stride to the front, being unable 

 to contain her feelings, she called out, to the astonishment 

 of the motley crowd of roughs, ' Look at my Jirn ! They'll 

 never catch him.' Nor did they ; for he won from start to 

 finish. 



The popular idea among people who have not had much 

 experience of ' taking their own part ' in a row, is that when 

 two Englishmen come to blows in an impromptu manner, 

 they observe as nearly as possible the rules of the London 

 P.R. My experience, which can be amply corroborated by 

 the police reports, is that they kick, bite, scratch, stab, strike 

 with lethal weapons, throw any missile within reach at, or 

 otherwise unfairly assault each other ; but that, except in 

 very rare cases, they don't ' put up their hands ' and fight in 

 the supposed orthodox manner, which can in no way be 

 regarded as a national method for settling disputes. In 

 Lancashire, for instance, kicking is the recognised style, as 

 we may see if we observe the sharp-pointed, and steel- 

 tipped boots of the young sporting men of Wigan, Oldham, 

 and Manchester. Irishmen are fairly consistent in sticking 

 to the shillalegh, which not infrequently takes the form of 

 spade, or is supplemented by a lump of lead, or heavy iron 

 ferule. 



When that soi-disant Champion of England, Mitchell, 

 whose last victory was over a decrepid old man in the Strand, 

 had an impromptu turn-up with Bill Goode, he was careful 

 to use a poker ! Could anyone who knew them imagine 

 Tom Sayers or Nat Langham doing such things ? Most 

 certainly one could not. We have no * line ' by which we 

 can compare the best prize-fighter of the present day, 

 namely, Jackson the black, with those of bygone times ; 

 but we have one by which we may guage the pretensions 

 of Mitchell. When he was first launched on the world for 



