"OLD PAM," alias "THE DOWNINGSTREET PET,"

New Zealander, Volume 8, Issue 641, 5 June 1852, Page 4

"OLD PAM," alias "THE DOWNINGSTREET PET,"

(the well-known judicious bottle-holder.) In presenting our readers with a portrait of this celebrated sporting character we have no intention of going into a detailed account of his performances in the Diplomatic ring. He may be strictly called " a veteran," but he has been such a remarkable steady man, and, thanks to this, is still so fresh, and in such good preservation, that no one would think of clapping on his head more than two-thirds of the 67 years he carries with so much pluck and liveliness. 'l Old Pam,"as he is affectionatelycalled by the nobs of the Fancy, with whom he is deservedly a great favourite, entered the ring in the good old milling times, when a fight was a fight and no mistake. Boney the bruiser was still open to fight all the world, any weight, size, or odds, and Pam made his bow in St. Stephen's, the Tennis Court of those days, just after Boney's great mill with " the Prussian," which came off in Auslerlilz fields, and on the event of which so much changed hands. Pam was trained in the sharp fast-hitting sdhool of poor George Canning, that brilliant favourite of the Fancy. The style of this school, though very showy, was rather deficient in " slogging," and punishing qualities, and Pam early showed considerable judgment in combining with the neat sharp countering of the Canning school a good deal of the straightforward go-in-and-win style, which never fails to insure a man backers in England. It is not, however, as a fighting man, but as a second, and still more as a bottle-holder, that Pam is distinguished. He is great in arranging the preliminaries of a mill though some have complained that there is a good deal of bounce about him, and that as a backer he is not to be trusted, being apt to desert his own man at the last moment, and hedge. It was no doubt a good deal owing to Pam's services that the "Constantinople Slasher" (whom Pam both backed add acted as bottle-holder to) gained his victory over "Old Egypt" in 1840; when " Little Thiers" who did the needful in the same way for " Old Egypt," was such a loser that he quite lost his temper in the field, and wanted to make a match to fight Pam in the same ring. However, Pam never lost his good humour with the little fellow, whose tendency to chaff was well known ; and nothing serious ever came of it. Pam was very busy in 1847, arranging the preliminaries of a mill between Johnny Bull and the late Lewis Phillips, on the occasion of the latter entering into a match with "The Don," | contrary to his engagement with Johnny. Many however thought that neither he nor Guizot, who acted as Phillips's u friend" on the occasion, ever meant fighting, and that neither one nor the other could have made the necessary deposits though they both talked big. Pam is always to be found in his own wellknown sporting crib in Downing-street, where most of the matches and fights tocomearenegociated. Recently there has been a good deal of talk about an affair of unparalleled interest, to come off between two well-known heavy weights, " Nick the Bear" and " Young Europe," in which both sides have applied to Pam, who has always hitherto been looked upon as a backer of the latter, and who if he has any regard for his own character and that of his establishment, will certainly have nothing to say to Nick's backers, who have always patronised a rival house. We trust that whenever Pam appears as bottle-holder, it will be on the right side, assured, as we are, that j this is the only way in which he can continue to merit the support of his friends and the public. We have nothing to say against him, unless it be that he certainly is open to the charge of occasionally bullying men that he thinks can't stand up to him, and that when he wants to get up a mill he is not always careful enough about the character of the man he backs. Thus, in "Pacifico's" fight with "the Greek," when Pam backed the Jew, it was felt by many that Pam did not deal quite fairly; and that though the battle-money was paid over to the Jew, "the Greek" would certainly have won, had Pam gone quite " upon the square."

As a companion Pam is a great favourite — great at chaff, sings a good song, and is seen to great advantage at the harmonic ordinary at St. Stephen's, Westminster, where he is the life and soul of the table, and where, in the sparring soi7*ccs for which the House is so celebrated* " the Downing'strectPet," despite his seven-and-sixty summers, is still one of the quickest and neatest hands with the gloves that ever stepped on a stage. His performance on the occasion of his own benefit, last season, was an example of perfect science ; his quickness in slopping, his? sharpness in countering, and, above all his stylo of getting away from his man, were considered worthy of the best days of the Parliamentary Ring.— Punch.

The Utlle ex Duxce.— ln the strictly utilitarian department of the Exhibition there was aa invention which it would be unpardonable to pas 3 over entirely without notice. It is an America)! " notion," and like most of the American notion^ marked by strong originality and obvious utility of purpose. The visitors to the large court in which the various products of the land of " star* and stripes" are rather thinly scattered, will no t have failed to notice rather cumbrous looking blocks of wood dangling suspended from the roof. He will^ commonly have observed also numbers of mechanics clustering about these unattractive looking objects, and by sudden blows of the hand separating the pieces, and then, with wondeiM and wondering facility, as quickly restoring th."U to their original firmness and cohesion. Now tli ) mystery of all this is, that the exhibitor of tl.'i plain-looking bedstead has brought over in \U joints an invention which is likely, if it obtain fair: play and sufficient publicity, to produce a complete revolution in the construction of house furniture and of all sorts of joinery, whether in timber or metal. The invention consisted of a novel species of dovetail, and an equally novel mortice, which, when fitted, are as close and firm, as all the glue, or bolts, or screws in the world could make them, but which can, when necessary., be separated by a single light upward shake from, the hand, and packed up for removal in the smallest possible compass. The importance of the invention will be obvious to the most casual observer, and indeed the well-worn appearance ofc' the specimen blocks shows how many observers if. has already interested. The inventor boldly asserted that if the invention had been applied in. the construction of the Crystal Palace, many thousands of pounds might have been saved in bolting and screwing in the first instance, while now the question of removal to another site would have been divested of every difficulty. The value of this simple looking article is that it dcv elopes a new principle in mechanics, and that being made by machinery it is calculated to be as economical as it is useful.