Disappointed in thus failing again to bring Allen to a square encounter, Ben fell back upon his old resource, and opened a gymnasium in Pittsburg, on Fourth Avenue. In response to a telegram, George Rourke went to the city for the purpose of giving a sparring exhibition with Hogan. Great excitement was awakened in Pittsburg over this proposed match, but the Mayor refused to grant a license for the exhibition. Ben therefore lost seventy-five dollars on a speculation which he had hoped would return him a fat thing.
The week following, however, Rourke succeeded in getting a license to give an exhibition at the Academy of Music, and on that occasion Ben made his appearance, winding up the show by a bout with Rourke. The latter proved to be a clever boxer, and the set-to was an interesting one.
Why the Mayor of Pittsburg should have refused to grant Hogan a license, does not make itself wholly apparent. He may have been influenced by others, although it is at least certain that he entertained no very friendly feelings toward Ben. This was shown on numerous occasions, when the Mayor had an opportunity to molest or annoy Hogan.
Ben called upon the official, and spoke his mind pretty freely.
“You have no right,” he said, “to refuse me a license. I have done nothing out of the way here, as you very well know, and I am trying simply to make an honest living. You may be the Mayor of Pittsburg, but you are not king any more than I am. You are a common citizen, with the same rights as others. It may be well for you to keep that fact in mind!”
Some hot words followed on both sides, and the result of the whole thing was, that the Mayor soon after had Ben arrested and locked up—for what offense it would have been exceedingly difficult to tell.
In the same cell with Ben were a couple of strangers, with whom he naturally fell into conversation.
“What are you in for?” he asked.
“Don’t know!” was the rejoinder.
“What are you in for?”