Couper, The South African Champion. 269 



coy of strangers ; but are very generous with their patronage, 

 when they get a proof that it will not be abused. They are 

 few in number and are scattered over an immense extent of 

 country. Consequently, it does not pay to tour through that 

 country with a large company. Frank Fillis found out this 

 to his cost. He is a man of very big ideas, and is but little 

 inclined to count the cost, if he thinks he can strengthen his 

 programme. He left South Africa with his circus owing 

 16,000, and bearing the good wishes of his creditors. Their 

 confidence was not misplaced ; for before their first season in 

 India was finished, he had remitted to South Africa the whole 

 amount of his debt. 



I had, while at Johannesburg, a very helpful friend in Mr 

 George Fotheringhame, who is a Scotchman, and was then a 

 livery stable keeper and horsebreaker on the Randt. I have 

 heard that he has since gone to Mashonaland. He, like the 

 large majority of the Colonists and Boers who attended my 

 classes, took a deep interest in the work and could never see 

 enough of it. He is a manly, honest fellow, and is one of the 

 many fine horsebreakers I have left behind in South Africa. 

 He was the great friend and second of Couper, the South 

 African champion, who is a quiet, well-bred Scotch gentleman, 

 about 5 feet 8 inches high, and about 10 st 7 Ibs. when 'fit' 

 He had gone out to the Cape as a lad with the love of adven- 

 ture and travel strong in him. Finding that education availed 

 nothing there and knowing no trade, he conceived the happy 

 idea of teaching boxing, which he had learned in Edinburgh 

 from old Charlie Ball. He is a natural fighter, ' good general,' 

 and has indomitable pluck and the capacity for taking ' pun- 

 ishment' His first battle of any consequence was for the 

 South African championship against 'The Lady's Pet,' a 

 West Indian negro, who, though about twice the size of his 

 Scotch antagonist, was out of condition and past his prime. 

 Couper won this fight without a mark. After that he had a 

 good time for some years, during which he was patronised by 

 Mr Barney Barnato, who is an ardent lover of the P.R., and 



