270 Among Men and Horses. 



was a clever exponent of the noble art in his younger days. 

 For some reason or the other, a coolness sprung up between 

 the two, and to pay the Scotchman out, the Jew imported 

 his co-religionist, Wolf Bendoff, who was a good second- 

 class man in England. The Johannesburg Hebrews thought 

 that their representative had a nice, easy job against an 

 antagonist whom they regarded merely as a good amateur. 

 Couper being a firm believer in hard work as the best means 

 of getting into condition, kept going his 25 to 30 miles day 

 after day, and stepped into the ring full of muscle, clear in wind, 

 and brimful of pluck and vitality. The Jew despising his 

 enemy, took things easy. In the first few rounds, Bendoff 

 hit his man pretty freely ; but his blows, which were somewhat 

 lacking in ' steam,' made little impression on his opponent. 

 As soon as he began to get a little slow from fatigue, Couper, 

 who is a terribly hard hitter, knocked his man about so 

 vigorously that Bendoff soon gave up the fight. I believe 

 that on the day of this battle Couper was a better man than 

 we have had in England for the last ten or fifteen years ; I 

 mean in the ' old style,' and not at glove-fighting, for which 

 he was too light. My opinion of Couper's excellence is no 

 doubt worthless, and would not be recorded here, did it not 

 coincide with the estimate formed by that admirable judge, 

 Bat Mullins, after he had sparred with Couper, who used to 

 practise with Bat when he was home from South Africa. 

 Couper might have retired with £10,000 or £12,000; but he 

 lost the most of his money speculating in mining shares ; his 

 chest became permanently weakened by the irritating dust of 

 Johannesburg ; and he had a run of particularly bad luck in 

 other respects. Out of the ring, as well as in in it, he took his 

 punishment like the brave, honest fellow that he is. I may 

 mention that although he was a professional prize fighter, he has 

 always been warmly welcomed as a guest at the Randt Club, and 

 at all other places where gentlemen congregate at Johannes- 

 burg. Not long ago he published a novel, which shows a 

 great deal of literary ability, and is specially interesting to 



