A FIGHT FOR A SWEETHEART.

Waikato Times, Volume XXX, Issue 2459, 14 April 1888, Page 2 (Supplement)

A FIGHT FOR A SWEETHEART.

Af'COItDIXC to a Boston (U.S.) correspondent, a determined fight for a fair one's hand took place in the " Hub of the Universe " on the evening of January 5, The combatants were George Brown, a barber, of Bowdoin-street, nineteen years of nge, and 110 pounds avoirdupois, and Tony Tbomps: :i, a twenty-year-old clerk, who sells silks and velvets for a firm iu that city. The fight was with skin-tight gloves, and was to bo a finish. Tho prize of tho winner was to be the hand and heart of Mamie M'Ginnis, the eighteen-year-old daughter of a. West End grocer, who keeps a store in Leverilt-streot. The young men had long been livals for Mamie's affections, and had often fougbl. Mamie heard of their brawls, and called them both to her homo. She told them that she loved both and wanted to marry both, but as she would not commit bigamy, she had concluded to decide tho doubts of her heart by a fight between the. two, and that tho winner should havo her lasting affection as a reward. In the presence of about fifty persons they met and fought accordingly. Neil Dohort.y was chosen referee, and Eugene Buckley was timekeeper. At nine o'clock tho two men came into the ring. Brown weighed 110 pounds in bis tights ; Thompson tipped the poise at 12f>. They shook hands, but when Doherty called time they sprang at each other like wild cats. They fought several rounds with great fury. Everybody wanted them to stop. Thompson was willing, but Brown said he would die first, and the fight wont on. Finally Thompson clinched Brown and threw him over a chair. Brown fell across a washbowl of water, and cut a big bole in the back nf his head. It was after ten o'clock when they reeled up for tho tenth round. Brown was as blind as a bat. Thompson had one eye closed, and ho was so bloody that his face looked like a "school map of Europe." They passed at each other and fell down, they clinched and fell down. Finally both fell sprawling on tho sawdust and could not rise. When time was called in the eleventh round neither man could got on his feet, and Neil Doherty had to declare the fight a draw. The lady was afterwards interviewed. Says the reporter :— She is a, pretty little girl, and looks very modest and ladylike. " I don't know which one I like best," said she. "I can't tell to save my life. George is good, but awful jealous ; Tony is good and very patient. Sometime* I think I like one, and sometimes the other. I have promised my love to the winner. They must fight it out.'' Both tho combatants were too badly used up to talk, though they will no doubt fight again as soon as they can see.