Chapter II: Jem Mace, of Norwich (champion) (4)

Our tale is well-nigh told. In 1870, Jem Mace, being in America, met Tom Allen for 2,500 dollars a side. They fought near New Orleans, on May 10th, when Jem polished off the Birmingham bruiser in style in 10 rounds, 44 minutes.

As the design of “PUGILISTICA” is to supply a reliable and honest history of the British Prize Ring and the deeds of its worthies, we shall here drop the story of New World rowdyism. The Ring had finished its career――had died in the country of its birth; its last expiring flicker had sputtered out, and _exit in fumo_, exiled for its misdeeds to a land where its true merits and principles never had an existence. Having thus traced it to its ignominious end, we return, for a single chapter, to the doings of Tom King, whom we have already styled “_Ultimus Romanorum_.”

[34] See PUGILISTICA, vol. i., p. 33, _et seq._

[35] The career of Joe Goss shows that even in the last days
of its degeneracy the P.R. had brave men who would have gone
straight, had they not been warped from the direct course of
honesty by knaves who sought only to make the pugilist the
instrument of their own nefarious ends. Goss’s birthplace
was the file-making town of Wolverhampton, on the 16th of
August, 1838; and he made his _début_ at the age of
twenty-one, in a battle with Jack Rooke, of Birmingham, for
£25 a side, on the 20th September, 1859. His defeat of Rooke
in 1 hour and 40 minutes, after 64 sharp rounds, was a
promising first appearance, seeing that that boxer had
recently beaten Tom Lane――brother to the renowned “Hammer”
of that ilk. His next match was with Price, of Bilston, a 12
stone man, who has been often confounded with Posh Price, of
Birmingham――also, at a subsequent period (1862) beaten by
Goss. This battle ended in a forfeit by Goss, he being
arrested at the instance of his father when going to scale,
November 9th, 1859. Joe was determined not to be baulked,
and at a meeting between himself and Price, the latter
offering to fight him for £10, as a solace for his
disappointment, the money was posted, and the men met on the
10th of February, 1860, near Wolverhampton. Joe’s activity,
power of hitting, and fearless style soon brought his
opponent down to his own weight; and in the short space of
25 minutes, in which 15 rounds were fought, Price was
consummately thrashed. Bodger Crutchley, who was in high
esteem for his victories over George Lane, Sam Millard, Bos
Tyler, Smith (of Manchester), and who had last fought Posh
Price a drawn battle (interrupted by the police), was Joe’s
next opponent. They met near Oxford, July 17th, 1860, for
£100 a side, when, after a gallant struggle of 120 rounds,
lasting 3 hours and 20 minutes, Goss was hailed the victor.
On September 24th, 1861, Joe met and defeated Bill Ryall,
for £50 a side, in 2 hours 50 minutes, during which 37
tedious and shifty rounds were fought; and on the 11th of
February, 1862, Joe a second time faced Bill Ryall for £100
a side (on the Home Circuit), for _three hours and eighteen
minutes_, when, as neither man could or would finish, the
referee declared “a draw.” This brings us to his battle with
Mace for £1,000, detailed above. On December 16th, 1863,
Goss entered the ring with Ike Baker for £100, whose
pretensions Joe disposed of in 27 rounds, lasting 80
minutes, the punishment being all on one side. Joe’s next
two matches were defeats by Mace. On March 6th, 1867, Goss
was matched for £100 a side with Bill Allen, of Birmingham.
This was a remarkable muddle; after fighting 34 rounds in
three different rings, time inclusive 1 hour and 54 minutes,
darkness came on, and “a draw” was declared. Soon after
Allen sailed for America, landing at New York, July 21st.
Joe, who considered he had been treated unfairly, and robbed
of the fair reward of his milling superiority, followed him,
and, notwithstanding his voyage, issued his challenge to
Allen on the 8th of April, six days after his arrival. This
was promptly accepted, and the match made for 5,000 dollars
(£1,000), to be fought for on the 7th of September. We need
hardly remind the reader that the Irish newspaper Press of
the United States is in the hands of expatriated Irishmen,
whose buncombe and bombast is only exceeded by their
prejudice and ignorance. These worthies magnified the
contest into a battle for “the Championship,” but as Goss
had been two and a half times beaten by Mace, and Allen had
done nothing in England beyond drawing the stakes in a
forfeit with Posh Price, and failed to do the same in his
draw with Joe Goss, it would puzzle “a Philadelphia lawyer”
to know how this could be a “fight for the Championship of
the World,” except of Irish America, to which title they are
both welcome. The “Cincinnati Fight” ended by a “foul” blow,
Tom Allen hitting Goss when on the ground! _Sic transit_,
&c.

[36] We need not say that this gentleman was not the
ex-recorder of Brighton, ex-member for Marylebone, and
ex-Q.C., who about this period had left this country for the
New World.――ED.

[37] See Vol. I., Preface, pp. viii. and ix.

[38] No doubt many of the weak-kneed brethren, the disciples
of a flabby, invertebrate pseudo-humanitarianism, will feel
surprised, if not scandalised, at this claim of Lord
Shaftesbury as a patron of pugilistic practice. His
lordship’s Christianity, however, has always been practical,
and of the order called “muscular.” Witness his gallant
successful efforts to emancipate the poor little white
slaves in our factories by his glorious Ten Hours Bill, and
other humane legislation――legislation, let it never be
forgotten, opposed by John Bright and the Gradgrind social
reformers of the doctrinaire and politico-economical kidney.
The friend and benefactor of the Street Arab, the Shoe
Black, and the founder of Ragged Schools bore outspoken
testimony of his admiration of boxing only a few weeks since
in a speech at Exeter Hall, at the Young Men’s Christian
Association, wherein he recommended sparring with the gloves
as a gymnastic exercise of high value, and recalled, at
eighty years, the days when he was himself accounted no mean
antagonist, and “reckoned a good boxer among those who were
judges of the art.” His style was worthy of a Homeric
hero――a Nestor of the Ring.

[39] Some who remember “old times” and “the Kentish Town
match,” may like to hear that on his annual visit to
England, in December last, we smoked a pipe and recalled
faded scenes and memories over a cheerful glass with
“Temperance” Drinkwater; his activity, mental and bodily,
being phenomenal for a man in his 77th year.――ED.

[40] The clerical Editor’s “presumption” is equal to his
gullability. We have already pointed out that these
gentlemen are “two Dromios.”――ED.