Prizefighter

“ That ‘the reward lies not in the prize but in the race we run’ is probably more true of sport than of any other pursuit, and yet even in big game shooting there are prizes to strive after which serve at any rate to remind the winners of the races they ran to obtain them. To the man who has won them fairly, the mighty antlers and fierce masks which hang in his hall or study are treasures beyond price. As to the men who buy such trophies, they are not of our guild, nor is it easy to comprehend them or their motives. ”

“ It seemed to me that it is so generally understood that prize-fighting is full of crookedness, that I cannot understand how you, one of its chief exponents, could be ignorant of it. I thought as a matter of course that you would know all about it, and now you have convinced me that you never dreamed of it. You must be different from other fighters. ”

“ An enthusiastic determination also to excel in the practice of this perfectly national sport animates the score or so of professors in both sexes who have hitherto borne away the palm of merit and struggled for the champion-medal, the first flight, the crême de la crême, of England’s modern bowmen and bowwomen. To win and wear for more than a very brief period this prized distinction of archery merit, is a stroke of good fortune not likely to fall to any single competitor. ”

“ Since even in the contests that are without, the crown is not only for him that striveth, but for the trainer, and the attendant, and all that help to prepare the athlete. For they that strengthen him, and recover him, may fairly participate in his victory. And in wars too, not only he that wins the prize of valor, but all they too that attend him, may fairly claim a share in the trophies, and partake of the glory, as having shared in his conflict by their attendance on him. ”

“ Do you approve of the other sports, running matches, jumping matches, and all the rest?”
“Yes, Sir, of course I do,” said I.
“And you see no harm in one man beating another in a race for a prize?”
“No, Sir, no harm at all.”
“Well, but I suppose one must have activity and endurance to win in any of them?”
“Yes,” said I, “and good pluck, too, Sir. It takes as much heart, I’m sure, any day, to win a hard race as a bout at backsword.”
“Very good,” said he. “Then putting every thing else aside, tell me which you think the best man, he who doesn’t mind having his head broken, or he who does?” ”

“ She turned and looked at him with quiet affection of boredom.
"What is the use?" she asked. "Prize-fighting is prize-fighting, and we all know what it means. The fight did end in the round I told you it would." ”

“ What guerdon must be paid, what thanks offered, to him who lacks the prize of courage? Who has ever garlanded with ivy the weakling in War, or decked him with a conqueror's wage? Valour wins the prize, not sloth, and failure lacks renown. For one is followed by triumph and honour, the other by an unsightly life or by a stagnant end. I, who know not which way the issue of this duel inclines, dare not boldly anticipate that as a reward, of which I know not whether it be rightly mine. For one whose victory is doubtful may not seize the assured reward of the victor. ”

“ A prize-fighter? Well, I'll tell yuz I ust to be a fighter, but I don't know if I wuz a prize-fighter. No, I don't t'ink I wuz a prize-fighter, for I'll tell you why. Every time I went into dat graft yuz call prize-fighting de best I got wuz only for de odder fellow.
Say, I'll tell yuz something about de time when yours truly wuz in de graft.
I ust to hang out in a joint in Chinatown. It wuz a gin mill, and de bloke dat run it, he ust to deal in bum booze and dat class of prize-fighters. We ust to call him de manager, see. ”

“ I have never concealed my opinion that the old prize-ring was an excellent thing from a national point of view—exactly [Pg 267] as glove-fighting is now. Better that our sports should be a little too rough than that we should run a risk of effeminacy. But the ring outlasted its time. It was ruined by the villainous mobs who cared nothing for the chivalry of sport or the traditions of British fair play as compared with the money gain which the contest might bring. ”

“ If, in such a moment, someone vested with authority comes forward to offer us a medal or a prize, he is the important destroyer of our real reward—"And who are you?" our vanished illusion shall cry, "Who are you that recalls me to the fact that I am not the first among men? Who stands so far above me that he may give me a prize?" The prize of such a man in such a moment can only be Divine. ”

“ There are prizes for all, and all can play. There is gold for the man and fame for the boy; rank for the maiden and pleasure for the fool. So walk up, ladies and gentlemen, walk up!—all prizes, and no blanks ”

“ I have heard of more than one case of a well-known herculean player, accustomed not only to big money but applause and hero-worship, seriously wondering if fighting were not his real duty and if he ought not to make a bolt for the Front, but being compelled to acquiesce in the Government's plans and go on drawing his salary for the public pursuit of an air-bladder. ”

“ They say that every form of knowledge comes useful sooner or later. Certainly my own experience in boxing and my very large acquaintance with the history of the prize-ring found their scope when I wrote “Rodney Stone.” No one but a fighting man would ever, I think, quite understand or appreciate some of the detail. A friend of mine read the scene where Boy Jim fights Berks to a prize-fighter as he lay in what proved to be his last illness. ”

“ Prize fighting is a manly art and some of my fondest recollections are battles of the old guard—'Lanky Bob' Fitzsimmons, Tom Sharkey, Peter Maher, Jim Corbett—fighting men who fought like men. Jeremiah tells me that you are handling him. ”

“ Since first the honour of champion was a coveted and distinguished prize for men of bold heart and iron sinew, for men of forbearing coolness and pain-defying fortitude, down to these evil days of wrangle, chaffing, bullying, and shifting, a more straightforward, excellent, simple-hearted, generous, and brave man than Tom Cribb, never held the hard-won trophy. ”

“ The professional sportsmen, which were such a curious feature of your day, we have nothing answering to, nor are the prizes for which our athletes contend money prizes, as with you. Our contests are always for glory only. ”

“ THE GRANTING OF MEDALS One illustration will suffice to show the working of this new invention by which the general-in-chief was still further removed from the commander-in-chief, whose chief military adviser he was supposed to be. An act of Congress authorized the President to confer medals of honor upon soldiers of all grades who might be most distinguished for bravery in action. It is the most highly prized of all military rewards because given to the soldier, without regard to rank, for that service which every true soldier regards as of the greatest merit. ”

“ Were I but apparelled for this tourney I would be bold to enter it, and would so bear myself that with the aid of God I should win the prize; and since I see myself deprived of all that is necessary, and so placed that I cannot obtain it I die of passion, for I am losing all that I might have gained. ”

“ The public distribution of the prizes is an occasion of great interest. I have been present at the two last anniversaries, and have witnessed the proceedings with lively satisfaction. The cheering of the boys that fills the hall as the successful competitors ascend to the platform and receive the prize books from the hands of the head master, surrounded by the whole corps of teachers and examiners, and the audible or visible sympathy of the elder portion of the audience, are enough to animate a casual spectator with the spirit of the scene. ”

“ In place of one person, the honor may be bestowed upon a society; or it may be kept back entirely, but each prize must be given once in every five years. Besides the cash prize, each winner receives a diploma and a gold medal bearing a portrait of Alfred Nobel.
The prizes are a real factor in increasing the dignity of a scientific career, and in encouraging such work. The money value is large, but the fame attached to the honor is all but priceless. ”

“ The hardy courage and humanity of your action in springing overboard in a squall of violent wind and rain, at the peril of your life, and saving this stranger, cannot fail to be appreciated, and fully deserves the public recognition and esteem which the award of a medal to you, involves. In sending you this testimonial to your brave and humane conduct, I am deeply gratified that it was so well won, and by a seaman of the revenue marine. ”

“ A prize-fighter is usually a man of naturally ferocious disposition, who has acquired some reputation among his associates as a bully; and who, by constantly quarrelling, has acquired some practice in fighting. On the strength of this reputation he can generally find some gambler willing to stake a sum of money that he will vanquish a pugilist of established fame in single combat. ”

“ It is perfectly true, that to thrash a prize-fighter unnecessarily is not a virtuous or glorious action, but I contend that the capability of doing so is an admirable and enviable attribute. There are grades of physical as well as of moral perfection ”

“ The young lady then informed me that she had received a prize at my hands at a great school, and that in handing her the prize I had remarked, "You have well earned the prize, and it is a branch of art that, if continued, will prove very useful in after life." ”

“ Here I cannot help regretting that the interruption given to sports occasionally by parsons and other ill-advised magistrates, should render it a matter of prudence to adopt such a course to prevent a numerous assemblage on such national occasions. It is depriving an immense mass of the lower orders of the benefits of the lessons of valour, forbearance, perseverance, and manly spirit, to be learned around the prize ring, and nowhere else. ”

“ What do you want the Gold Medal for?”
“He’s crazy, don’t you listen to him!” Pee-wee shouted at Dub. “You win the life-saving badge by rules and you win the Gold Medal by being a hero. And if you get the Gold Medal, that doesn’t give you the life-saving badge.” ”

“ It is customary every year to distribute prizes to the scholars on Saint Catherine’s eve. It is always some married lady of rank [Pg 63] who gives them away. The pupils contribute towards the expense of the prizes, each giving one louis. We were then a hundred and sixty-two in number, which made a large sum of money, and was all spent on books. There are three prizes for each class, the prizes being regulated as follows: Three prizes for history and geography, three for dancing, three for music, three for drawing. ”

“ Surely such a spectacle, continually repeated, would produce even in the minds of the mass of non-competitors a sense of the value of instruction, when they should see, as see they would, that the benefits obtained were not confined to the victors, but that even the vanquished gained some prize, though not the one expected. ”

“ Never attempt slippery things, and thou wilt not fall; walk upon firm ground, up with thy head, up with thine eyes; these commands the trainers give to those who run. Thus thy strength is supported; but if thou stoopest downward, thou fallest, thou art relaxed. Look upward, where the prize is; the sight of the prize increaseth the determination of our will. The hope of taking it suffereth not to perceive the toils, it maketh the distance appear short. And what is this prize? ”

“ The prize is of no value save to the winner. Who can paint the feelings that he enjoys, however, as he sits and contemplates this poor old dried bit of skin and hair, and looks back on the beginning and end of the run in which his hand, without aid, won it? ”

“ The prospect of securing so valuable a prize was an incentive, and men who were so weary that the near approach of an enemy would not have kept them from falling out of the ranks, marched night and day without a murmur of complaint. ”

“ The case is frequently the same with prize fighting. Professional boxers at the beginning of the nineteenth century were to a great extent rough fellows, who were only after money, or at best notoriety. But Conan Doyle has recently given us in his Rodney Stone a masterly description of a blacksmith who was a good husband and a skilful workman, yet even in his old181 age could not resist an invitation to take part in a public prize fight. ”

“ Item, whoso breaketh three times, in the sight of the helm, shall have the prize. Item, whoso meeteth two times, coronal [72] to coronal, shall have the prize. Item, whoso beareth a man doun with stroke of spear shall have the prize. How many ways the prize shall be lost.
First, whoso striketh a horse shall have no prize. Item, who striketh a man, his back turned, or disarmed of his spear, shall have no prize. Item, whoso hitteth the toile [73] three times shall have no prize. Item, whoso unhelms himself two times shall have no prize, unless his horse do fail him. ”

“ At an interval in the performance the prizes were presented. The prefect of studies would begin to read from the printed prize list, which all the visitors were supplied with, the names of all the fortunate prize winners in succession, from the highest to the lowest. As the name of each prize winner was called he stood up, walked to the table at which the prizes were presented, received his, and, after making a polite bow, returned to his seat.
When the prefect of studies reached the class to which I belonged he called out: “Grammar, first prize. Aggregate for the year, Joseph M. Gordon.” ”

“ And the prizes, as I said before, are not small things—to be applauded by the spectators, to be the mark of all eyes and fingers as the best of one's contemporaries. Accordingly, numbers of spectators, not too old for training, depart with a passion thus engendered for toilsome excellence. ”

“ Then let fine gilt books be given as prizes to such boys as distinguish themselves, and excel the others in any branch of learning, making three degrees of comparison: giving the best prize to him that performs best; a less valuable one to him that comes up next to the best: and another to the third. Commendations, encouragement, and advice to the rest; keeping up their hopes, that, by industry, they may excel another time. The names of those that obtain the prize, to be yearly printed in a list. ”