The Great International Wrestling' Match.

Cromwell Argus, 18 May 1870, Page 7

The Great International Wrestling' Match.

ENGLAND V. FRANCE. (From the Evening Staniarih January 23.) Last evening the Agricultural Hull was visited by as large a crowd ot interested spectator’s as probably las ever been seen there before. For sometime past a troupe of French wrestlers hare been there, and such curious additions to our received axioms of the game were made by them, that the question was raised as to the superiority of the English over the French game. A true Briton, under such circumstances, invariably backs his opinion with a bet, and in this matter there was no exception to the rule, as a match was soon arranged for £IOO between the two best Frenchmen of the troupe and tire two best Englishmen that could be found. The two Englishmen selected —W. Jamieson and R. Wright—have for the last ton years or so retained the open championship between them, and although last year both were thrown in the All-Comers prize on Good Friday in London, they have on all subsequent occasions vindicated their character, and Jamieson lias publicly challenged any man in the world. The two Frenchmen—Dubois and Le Bceuf—were enormous beings. The former is a dark, curlyheaded, swathy athlete, verging on thirtylive summers, and with what the medical profession would describe as a marked tendency to enbonpoint —in fact, his intercostal muscles and their surrounding tissue were so largely developed as to render it all bnt an impossibility for Jamieson to get hold. He is said to weigh all but 19| stone, and stands sft 11 in in his stockings, The muscles of his neck and arms are positively enormous, and should it come to be a question of hugging between him and a bear at any time, it will be odds on the man. Le Boeuf is a fatter made man than his comrade, though with far more activity. He is fortv-seven years old, stands about sft. 10in.,‘ and weighs all but seventeen stone. His grey hair looked strange for an athlete picked to meet the best of England’s wrestlers. Jamieson stands about sft. 9in., and weighs nearly seventeen stone; but he carries his weight more evenly disposed about his loins and legs. Wright stands sft. Biin,, and weighs nearly two stone less than his partner ; he is also a fine made man about the legs and back, but his arms look weak comparatively.

Wright came on with Le Bocuf, and after shaking hands they went for a hold, English style. This was rather a long proceeding, as Le Bceuf was too wary to let Wright lock until he could do so himself with a firm foot-hold. However, after loosing three times, they got a quick hold. After two rapid turns they went down, a dog-fall, seemingly ; but while in the air Wright managed to get his opponent under with a clever click on the outside, but from practice the Frenchman so quickly recovered himself that the public were at first in doubt. Jamieson next came on with Dubois, and from the well-known power of the former and the somewhat ungainly movements of the latter, it was thought that the Englishman had an easy task. Luck, however, came in and spoilt what would have been a desperate encounter. Jamieson was the first to get hold. His burly opponent, seeming to have some other tactics in, view, rather closed up for a hug, but Jamieson was too wily, and, bearing a great strain on Dubois’ right side, he was all but getting him over with a hipe. Dubois, to prevent this, forgetting the rules, let go Ins hold, and the fall was at once given to Jamieson. The English had thus won the falls in their own style ; but Wright, again meeting Le Bceuf, had a difficult task set him, and though Le Bceuf held up his arras high to entice him into a close, he was too wary at first, but running in soon after, he turned his opponent quickly on to his knees, and the crowd shouted as if the event was won. A short struggle ended in the Frenchman claiming the fall, as he stated that Wright had held him by the leg. He left the platform, but on the representation of the umpires be again came on, and as if determined to show Ins superiority, he put Wright down with a swinging chest in regular English fashion/

Jamieson then faced Dubois, and now it was that the true power of the Frenchman appeared. They, were not long in closing, but for full ten minutes did they struggle all over the platform ; Dubois, with a dogged pertinacity, following up Jamieson whenever he gave round to get a new hold. In vain did Jamieson jtry to get a hold round the back of his ij|fSslis(r-op-pouent. At last a clever rusoyf Dubois’, by letting go his left arm, and tunUng as if to retreat, tempted Jamieson to close and try an outside click, and while thus off his balance Dubois twisted round on him and bore him down, thus winning the fall.

So far, then, the bouts of last night end in a draw; to-night they each have the same number of falls, and then, if they are once more equal, the final throws will have to bo tossed for, as to whether French or English styles. The English rules, after once a bold is taken by both men, assign defeat to the man who loses hold first or ground first in a fall, or with any paro of his body in a struggle. m By thof French rules, if one man fallsljn knee, sidci or shoulder, they begin ag:A. A. fall isi obtained when both touch thejpjynd at the same time, from a paragraph in anotl n w Vtch on the ft

Sonething now about; Lord B/roii Tie Byron affuir has produced some strauje stories, but none so curious as that reoenty committed to tho Madras Mail by “ CEdijus,” who, with regard to his “ tmo story,” itarcs that his * lather had it from one of lord Byron’s most intimate friends. From sc many sources wo have heard that on his Vedding day Byron told his wito she had Harried “ a devil,” that the words are acceded as true. But “ <Edipus” avers the* were physically accurate. Ho writes :— 1 Lord Byron was in a sense a devil. * Incredible as the thing may scorn to the thoughtless, the handsomest man in England hai a small tail and a pair of rudimentary horns, and short, squab feet, divided forward from tho instep into two parts instead of being furnished with toes. Before he had been born his mother had been once greatly terrified by seeing, when iu a very delicate state ot health, the pmtuio of “ Satan Spurned” iu the gallery at La Haye, and tho lesult had been tho fashioning of the child to some extent after tho monstrous form of which the continuous recollection couU' not. be effaced by any means known to her physicians. At tho time of her coufimment at first suggested that the monstrosity not ba suffered bo live, bm the child’s body, as a whole, was so perfectly shapecl and ins face so wondrously beautiful, Vhat tho suggestion was forthwith put im England was not deprived of what was to ' become in due tuns one of its chiefesb ornaments. Poor Lidy Byron never recovered wholly from the shock caused by her discovery of what her husband really was, and partly through excess of imagination, partly in consequence of bad advice from persons who shall be nameless, she felt it to bo her duty to insist upon her husband subjecting himself to certain painful operations. But this Lord Byron obtinately refused to do. Ho urged, and with considerable force, that the way in which he wore his abundant curls effectu ally hid from view the rudimentary horns, and that as he never appeared iu public without his boots and trousers none wouldever suspect the existence of his other defects, except his valet, in whom ho placed implicit confidence. Lord Byron was firm, and unhappily Lady Byron would not give way ; and so it came to pass after a year or more of tears, entreaties, and remonstrances, that the unfortunate woman made up her mind to quit her homo for ever. This, I am absolutely certain, is the true story of Lord Byron’s separation from his wife.” What will this noisome controversy next produce 1 The “ true story of “ CEdipus” looks like tho result, upon a coarse mind, of brandy-pawnee.