Rensselaer Republican, Volume 16, Number 15, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 December 1883 — GULLY. [ARTICLE]

GULLY.

The English Prize-Fighter Who Reformed and Became a Member of Parliament. “For instance ?” said I. “Take the case of Gully, the English prize-fighter, wlio sat so very long in their Parliament," continued my acquaintance. “He got to be a standard member of Parliament, elected from time to time. You will find a reference to him in Greville’s memoirs, which came out a few years ago. Gully was taken out of prison during Jefferson’s Administration by a backer of prizefights to fight a man named Pierce, whose other name was ‘The Game Chicken.’ Gully had been a butcher’s apprentice. He was lifted out of jail on promise that he would fight. Prizefighters were getting scarce in England, and the Prince of Wales had a great passion to see fighting of that kind. Gully was licked in the first fight, but being well backed he fought the celebrated Belcher and whipped him, and then fought a big fellow named Gresson; and when he left the prize-ring Gully was considered the best man in it. He stood just like John Morrissey after he whipped Yankee Sullivan and John C. Heenan.” “What did the retired prize-fighter go at next?” I asked my Ohio friend. “Why, he took to the turf, became a gambler and bookmaker, and went up to Newmarket, the great racecourse of England, and started a gambling-hell. He not only kept this establishment on Morrissey’s pattern, but he added the Plunger’s style to it, and began to corrupt trainers, jockeys, and boys, and so became possessed of all the secrets of Newmarket, which he sold, out or gambled on them, and in a few years lie got to be very rich. Therefore he combined, three-quarters of a century ago, two of the prominent characters we have recently seen on the American turf, and whom I need not name.” “What did Gully do next?” “Why, he went to the stable of a Mr. Watt, a raiser of race-horses in the north of England —some such a man a Lorillard or Harper in our day—and he made an arrangement withrWatFto' back his horses and to bet Watt’s money. Watt had then the best stabls in England. The two men won enormous amounts. Gully was the talk of all England in that day. ” “ What was his next step ?” “By shrewdness and observation he saw that there was money to be made in some of the big staples of that time, and he took his gambling money and pgtit This coal or coal laud went up immensely and made him still richer. He had a wife, a very low woman, and she fortunately died, so that he was enabled to marry again, and he took a tavernkeeper’s daughter young and pretty, and with very decent breeding. Under her influence he drew out of the coarser forms of gambling. From a blackleg he began to keep horses, though he still bet occasionally, but only very big sums. Finally he bought a fine estate in England, near Pontefract, called Ackworth Park, and settled down as John Gully, Esquire.” “Did he then go into politics, like Morrissey?” “He did just that. He had considerable influence with the sporting class of ’Squires and farmers, and the politicians saw it and tried to tempt him to ran for Parliament. He hud been watching men of breeding, and concluded that he had better decline. (When he declined to run for Parliament of course his character for modesty ad-f vanced. Therefore, when he did run—and he wanted to do it all the time—he came out for reform, and put up his money gamely. The second time he declined a noniininion, and finally a nobleman withdrew in his favor—that is to say, the man who was running against him backed out of the race, and some said he was bought off. Gully went to Parliament.” “Did he behave himself in Parliament?” 1 “Yes, he behaved about as ■well as Morrissey did, but he had more social ambition than Morrissey, and stuck to it longer. Gully was a tall, well-formed man, rather graceful, yet powerful. He had delicate hands and feet, his face was very coarse, and his expression bad. He had npt a bit of education, but he did have some dignity, aud imstrong sense, reserve, discretion, and he cultivated his taste, particularly to the point of never intruding himself where not asked, and when invited never becoming immodest. He abandoned his blackguard and blackleg acqjraintances, assumed dignity toward them, and finally dropped most of them.” “Did he acquire any consideration in Parliament?” ‘ ; Oh, yes; he finallv ceased to be an olqect of curiosity, and when he died there were but few persons who remembered much about his earlier rascalities. At the same time his record j was as black as hell. In his earlier days he had plundered the young, the dissolute and the rich. He had done every dishonorable thing that could be done on the race-track. His importance only shows that politics is a game that blings in every kind of man.”—Guth.