Democratic Sentinel, Volume 5, Number 44, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 December 1881 — A Prize-Fighter’s Preparations for the Ring. [ARTICLE]

A Prize-Fighter’s Preparations for the Ring.

‘'How do you train?” asked a New York reporter of a noted prize-fighter. “Well, I generally rise at daybreak, and when I want to take a sweat I muffle myself up in heavy flannels, put on heavy boots, tako a short, thick stick and start off on a two-milo run, leaving Dooney Harris, who is a little bit old, to tako care of my things at home. When I get back I am bathed and rubbed, washed with a decoction of arnica, borax and Jamaica rum, and bathe my face with white vinegar mixed with alum and borax. Then I lie down on my bed, and after reßt go down to breakfast with an appetite. I generally polish off two mutton chops, four slices of toast, four fresh eggs, and a bowl of English tea. After breakfast I rest, and then I put on heavy flannels for a run of twelve miles at a ten-mile-aii-hour gait. I get another good rubbing down, and dine on roast beef or leg of mutton or broilod chicken, with greens, potatoes aud toast, a bottle of Scotch ale, and calves’ foot jelly and custard pudding to fill up with. After an hour’s rest I play with light dumb bells, fight tho bag, or kick a football. At 3p.m. I start off on another long tramp at an easy gait, and hammer with my stick at every object I meet to strengthen my wrists, so that when I tight I can savo my knuckles and prevent the small bones on the back of my hands from breaking. After tho afternoon’s walk it is generally supper time. Then I take a sponge bath and rub down. The supper is generally toast, gruel, port wine and currants, or boiled eggs and tea. At 9 p. m. Igo to bed and sleep, with my trainer in the same room. “ You can’t imagine,” tho bruiser added, “the torments a man goes through in fitting himself for a fight, but neither can you have any idea of the glorious feeling a man has when he gets himself in condition. It is impossible to get a game man into bad humor when lio is in such a condition. Ho fools frisky and colt-like, and wants to kick up his hocls or throw out his fist and hit a man, and have a good time.”