AMERICAN PASTIMES.

Feilding Star, Volume III, Issue 26, 13 September 1882, Page 3

AMERICAN PASTIMES.

To pedestrianism has succeeded pu-: - gilism- The greatest audiance ever" gathered together in Gilmore's huge garden — 12,000 per_ons at one and two dollars each— assembled last wjeek to witness a , soft-glove contest between- prize-fighter Sullivan of Boston and "Tu_>" Wilson, the redoubtable champion of England. Everybody was. ;there<— judges, .bankers, lawyers, brokers, doctors, artists, men ot letters ; and ( every pickpocket within a radius of 500 miles. The Hon I ug- Wilson secured COOO dollars for his evening's work Already another meeting has been arranged between these doughty warriors, and if they c^n succeed in making the public believe that they are fighting on their merits, and at the same time score a victory first for one and then for the other, they may share a large fortune. It is curious to notice how strong a passion for these gladiatorial exhibitions still survives. The fact remains that a Uowell or a Wilson is a greater attraction than even a Parti or a Booth. Of course the taste of such shows has been stimulated by the great athletic revival of the last SO years Three young, men but of lour now belong to an athletic or base bail club, and at early morn in Central Park the casual rambler may meet. scores of half-clad youths doing their- daily run. Most large stores can ; boast the possession of at least one employe renowned in. some branch of sport, and rowing* and base ball matches are frequently arranged between rival firms. All this is a vast improvement upon the old days, when it was accounted disreputable for a business man to know how to catch a ball or sit in a racing shell, and physicians say that the happy results of such pursuits are plainly perceptible in the rising generation. — Sydney Morning Herald.