THE PRIZE RING 243 



London, Birmingham, Manchester, Sheffield, and Liverpool 

 there were public-houses kept by well-known pugilists 

 which were noted for their respectability — houses which 

 decent sportsmen could frequent without fear of losing 

 either their characters or their money. Tom Spring, 

 Peter Crawley, Jem Burn, Owen Swift, Nat Langham, 

 Dan Dismore, and many other prize-fighters were landlords 

 of some of the best-conducted hostelries in the kingdom. 

 In New York there was nothing of the kind. 



And then, in estimating the difference between the 

 Prize Ring in America and in England, there must not be 

 forgotten the influence exercised by Bell's Life. That 

 journal, under its two famous editors Vincent Dowling and 

 his son Frank, had a wonderful effect in keeping the Ring 

 true to its traditions of manliness and fair play. Both 

 those journalists threw themselves heart and soul into the 

 work of elevating British sport in every phase, but 

 especially did they strive to raise the Prize Ring and 

 counteract the evil influences that were sapping its 

 foundations. They were not always successful, but they 

 undoubtedly saved it from sinking into utter degradation 

 and so long as Bell's Life was a power in the world ol 

 sport there was some hope that prize-fighting might hold 

 its own as a manly and honourable British institution. At 

 any rate, in the two Bowlings it had fearless critics and 

 honest counsellors, whose pens were always wielded in the 

 cause of manliness, integrity, and fair play. 



