Conan Doyle Defends Prize Fighting
Conan Doyle Defends Prize Fighting is an article published in The Chicago Tribune on 10 december 1893.
Conan Doyle Defends Prize Fighting
The prize-ring has found an ardent defender in Conan Doyle. He believes it has done much for England. It has bred, he says, in the latter day and race of men an indomitable courage energy. He adds:
It must be borne in mind that fewer men have lost lives through the ring in the whole generation than are killed by football or hunting in one season. During the whole time when the ring was at its height I can only recall one fatal fight — that between Curtis and Ned Turner. On the other hand the exhibition of systematic fair play must have been an object lesson to the hundreds who saw and the thousands who read it. It is time enough to discourage any instinct when it has ceased to be of use to the community. With all Europe one armed camp the fighting instinct is as necessary in this country now as it ever has been, and the day may be coming when we will find that out. Our ancestors had reason for its systematic encouragement. It is really the ring and the betting and ruffianism who have killed the ring, but pugilists themselves were, I think, men who had much of the heroic in the natures.
