The Secret Underground Boxing Ring
A reporter hides in an attic to witness a clandestine sparring match while the city maintains a facade of propriety.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
An ill-timed remark caused a reporter for the Herald to secret himself in the garret over a knot-hole in the ceiling of the 'Aberdeen Athletic Club' rooms last Friday night and there be an unobserved witness to a sparring exhibition that had been quietly arranged by the aforesaid club. Three surgeons, the time-keeper, referee and a few intimate friends of the principals were the only known witnesses of this 'brutal' exhibition of the manly art. The pseudonyms of the principals were the 'Washington Spider' and 'Michigan Wonder.' With trembling limbs the principals were urged to the center of the ring, and commenced the combat that was supposed to furnish work for the surgeons, if not for the undertaker; but after five brutal and bloodless rounds had been fought the referee called it a 'draw,' and all concerned, except the secreted reporter, adjourned for a 'schooner.'
“Three surgeons, the time-keeper, referee and a few intimate friends of the principals were the only known witnesses of this 'brutal' exhibition.”
In an era of tight social control and temperance movements, 'the manly art' often had to be practiced in the shadows. This illicit match reflects the tension between the city's rough industrial roots and the 'respectable' facade it sought to project.
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