BOXING.
We will first give briefly some of the reasons why we have determined to mention this branch of the manly exercises. Firstly, we do so because we have a great personal esteem for the art, though none can be more sternly opposed to its abuse. Secondly, because it affords one of the finest exercises in the world, employing every limb and every muscle in the body, giving at the same time readiness of hand and quickness of eye, while it tests and improves the patience and endurance. And, thirdly, because every one likes to know how to use the weapons which Nature has given him, and will contrive to acquire the desired knowledge whenever he can find an opportunity. All Englishmen, and therefore all English boys, are proud of their natural weapon, and compare it with the knife, the loaded stick, the knuckleduster, and the pistol of other nations. The principle of fair play and justice is strongly developed in an English breast, and in nothing is the principle so thoroughly carried out as in boxing. No unfair advantage is allowed to either side, no striking upon the vital parts of the body is permitted, and the use of the foot, tooth, or nail is forbidden under the severest penalties. Even in the very prize ring, where men are trained for the express purpose of hitting each other with the utmost force of which human arms are capable, there is little harm done, and in a few days both combatants look as if nothing had happened to them. It is not so even in a wrestling county, or in some few parts of our own land where men fight like brute beasts, and use their best endeavours to maim or blind their adversaries for life. A well-known American writer has expressed, in his own humorous language, the astonishment which he felt at witnessing a short “turn up” at an English cattle-fair. The grave propriety of the affair, and the admirable order in which it was conducted, struck him with profound admiration, as contrasted with the “inglorious and inevitable Yankee clinches, followed by a general mêlée,” which in popular language is termed a “free fight,” and in which every one attacks every one else with any weapons and in any manner.
Before proceeding to our genuine English Boxing, we must just mention the French “savate,” of which we have heard so much of late. We have seen it practised and taught in the salles d’armes, and for it, as a system for boxing, we have the profoundest contempt; as also for that execrable French custom of striking upwards with the knee when at close quarters—an atrocity for which we should like to see a man soundly horsewhipped on the spot.
Now, the savate simply consists in this. You make a feint, as if to strike in the usual manner, and then, instead of striking with the fist, you kick with the foot. Or, when your antagonist is pressing you sharply, you send the point of your toe into his chest, and stop him. Or, you retreat from him, suddenly turn round, and kick at him backwards—of course being quite unable to tell where the blow will alight, and possibly inflicting an injury the effects of which will be felt for life.
Those who are practised in this manœuvre will employ it with wonderful skill. They will hit you on the nose or on the forehead without the least apparent effort, and with the greatest certainty; they will fling you back from your advance with stunning force, and the effect of the lash-out is terrific. Indeed, if the object of boxing be to use all means of offence and defence, the savate is indispensable.
Having many opportunities of visiting several schools of arms, we carefully considered this system, which was then totally unknown to us; and after watching it well for some time, during our residence in Paris, we came to the conclusion that the savate is useful enough in case you are attacked by ruffianly fellows, whom you must needs maim, lest they should maim you; and that by the combined use of the savate and a stick, or even the fist, a man may knock over a couple of assailants simultaneously and effectually.
And if a Frenchman who uses the savate were opposed to an Englishman who never heard of it, the probability is that the former would win, because the latter would lay himself open to a mode of attack which he had always been taught to consider unfair and unmanly. But we do not believe that it would be of the slightest value against any one who knew that his antagonist would employ it, and think that the person attempting to use it would find himself hurled to the ground, and probably discover that his leg was violently sprained. So much for the savate.
It is not easy to teach any branch of the science of arms in a book, and boxing is perhaps as difficult to be learned from books as fencing. Still, something can be done even through the medium of ink and paper; and the reader can, at all events, learn to avoid the errors to which a total novice is subject.
The first and most important point is the position in which the boxer stands.