THE PRIZE RING 237 



against the rails. Once again Jackson caught him by the 

 hair, this time with the right hand, lifted him clean off 

 his feet, and, with a thundering smack from his left, sent 

 Dan on his back. 



It was evident that Mendoza had no idea how to meet 

 this novel form of attack, so utterly opposed to all his 

 theories of the art of fighting. In the ninth round Jackson 

 walked up to him and simply did what he pleased with 

 him. So fiercely did he punish the unfortunate Jew that 

 the spectators thought Jackson meant killing his man. 

 How Mendoza managed to keep his feet under the storm 

 of blows was a mystery. Twice Jackson lifted him by 

 the hair and contemptuously struck him with the palm of 

 his open hand, as one would box the ears of an impudent 

 urchin, then, with one smashing hit on the face knocked 

 poor Dan out of time and shattered his reputation for ever. 

 The fight only lasted twelve minutes, and in that brief 

 space Mendoza and the school of boxing he had founded 

 were wiped out, and the once popular gladiator dropped 

 into obscurity and ended his days in poverty. 



From that time forward Jackson was supreme in the 

 pugilistic world. He founded a new style, which he from 

 time to time improved till it became recognised as the 

 only true method of scientific boxing. His rooms at 13 

 Bond Street became one of the most fashionable lounges 

 for the men about town, and Jackson for many years made 

 an income of considerably over a thousand a year, and this 

 in days when professional incomes of a thousand a year 

 were rare. 



Jackson was, as I have said, a remarkably fine-looking 

 man, and he dressed extremely well. His manners, too, 

 were perfect ; and, in illustration of the quality which 

 earned him the title of " Gentleman," I give the following 

 anecdote, for which I am indebted to Captain Horatio 

 Ross, the famous rifle-shot: 



" I knew Jackson," writes Captain Ross, " and can vouch 

 for the truth of this story. A man who only recently died 

 — a great politician in his younger days — was a patron of 

 the Ring, as, indeed, we all were then, and he was a first- 

 rate man, either with or without gloves. His wife did not 



