A REMINISENCE OF THE P.R.

Thames Star, Volume VIII, Issue 2868, 25 April 1878, Page 3

A REMINISENCE OF THE P.R.

The writer of " Sporting Notes from Borne" in The Australasian contributes the following :— 1 Talking of Mace reminds me of a scandal which has lately caused some excitement here; and as some young Melbourneites seem rather 4I gone " just now on fighting men, it may be interesting. After King beat Mace in their second fight, the. former, was, it will be remembered, matched against HeenAn for £1,000 a side, and the fight came off on the 10th December, 1863, and ended in King giring the American a terrible dressing in 33 minutes. The astonishing part of the whole affair was that Heenan, who in his memorable fight with Savers had shown such great . hitting, here seemed quite unable to act, as, although he showed his enormous bodily strength by once taking King up as though he were a baby and hurling him to the ground, he never once led off, hardly •truck a blow during the contest, and confined his exertions to wrestling solely; in fact so auspicious was the whole thing that there-were rumors of foul play—the American papers, especially, insisting that he had been hocussed.and accusing M'Donald ; (his second) of being at the bottom of it. Well, years hare rolled on, and the whole thing has been forgotten, and Heenan is dead ; but a few weeks ago the ■ Sportsman, which, for want of matter in these dull times, has been republishing the accounts of memorable prize fights, when describing the one under notice, mentioned the rumor referred to above, and this the next day drew forth the following letter from Jack M'Donald :—

"TO THB IDITOB OF THE BPOHT3MAN.

"Sir,—lf yoa will allow me a few lines to clear myself with the public in reference to the part I took in the fight between King and Heenan you will do me a great favour. I had intended not to refer to so unpleasant a subject again, but your description of the battle last week quotes statements calculated to do me injury, and my friends have advised me to make public the real facts of the case. It is not pleasant to speak evil of one who is dead, but I am compelled to state, and I do it without fear of contradiction, that Heenan deliberately sold the battle- I also state that he received no less a sum tbaa £4000 for so doing from a person still alive, and well known; that an agreement was written out by a solicitor; that the money was lodged in this solicitor's hands before the fight, and that it was paid by him to Heenan afterwards. I regret to write thus of a. man who is dead, but two gentlemen (whose names I here give you), who are well known on the turf, can verify everything I have •tated.—l am your obedient servant, " John M*Donai,d. "January 25." These statements are, as tbe Sportsman says, more than suprising, they are startling, and there is no moral doubt of the truth of them, as all the names have b£2n lodged, and no contradictions are forthcoming. The most wonderful part of the whole thing seems to mo to bo that a man, a perfect athlete, a Hercules in fact (as all who ever saw Heenan stripped must admit he was) could stand there and allow himself to be battered very nearly to death "for a consideration," when at any moment he might have turned the tables with one of those tremendous right-handers. It is really almost past belief, and enough to make anyone admit the truth of the saying that money will do everything.