And may you, my great-grandchildren,
That gather round my knee,
Ne'er see worse men nor iller times
Than I and mine might be,
Though England then had prize-fighters,—
Even reprobates like me."
XIII.
A LESSON EVEN IN A FIGHT
Then again, there was an object-lesson for England, outweighing even the brutality of a bare-handed fight, in the fortitude and reserved power of Tom King when he defeated Mace for the English championship in 1862.
Mace, a gypsy by race, was a middle-sized man, one hundred and fifty-four pounds weight; but he was the most famous boxer in the world, and he deserved his fame. No man ever used both hands more evenly, or more effectively, in straight body-blows,—the best blows for a small man to use on a big one, if he know how to escape a counter on the head. King was six feet two and one quarter inches in height, and trained down to one hundred and eighty pounds weight. But Mace had won his fame with victories over giants. He had defeated King himself in the
