While it may seem astonishing to find a women’s boxing school in 1886, this program was not the first, nor the only, of its kind. The article states that, “sparring is no new exercise for women,” and that many famous actresses used sparring to stay in shape. Moreover, in New York, there was a school for society girls to learn the “art grown womanly of self-defense.” In 1895, the Police Gazette reported on a ten-round bout at a Chicago gymnasium in which two young women fought to a knockout. The paper claims that new members fainted, and the rest of the girls, including the two contestants, cried together in the dressing room; however, they had a seemingly “lovely time,” because everyone was “eager for the next bout.”[25]
Hattie Stewart
In 1884, Hattie Stewart, a woman of Germanic descent, was featured in the Police Gazette as a champion of boxing who was “eager to box any of the many female champions of America.”[26] As previously mentioned, this challenge suggests that numerous women had already claimed to be the championess of boxing, and that Hattie was an up-and-coming fighter. That same year, Anna Lewis, another prominent female boxer, was described by the Police Gazette as a “tall, stately woman of masculine bearing” with a “pleasing face.”[27] The paper also included details of Anna’s measurements, similar to what many Hollywood gossip websites do today. As listed by the Police Gazette, Lewis was five feet, six inches tall and weighed 155 pounds, and although she was willing to fight any woman at any weight, she refused to cut below 140 pounds. Lewis trained with a man named Eddy for four months and was waiting for an opportunity to test her skill in the ring.
Unlike today, where promoters and managers arrange bouts between fighters, it seems that most women used the press to find an opponent. Lewis planned to submit a challenge to the Police Gazette, which she hoped, like many of her cohorts, would lead to a bout, but at the point when Lewis’s description and image appeared in the Gazette in October 1884, she had no fight experience and no record with which to assert herself a “championess.” Her wish was fulfilled when she met and was defeated by Stewart in the ring. Lewis had irked Stewart by claiming that she was the championess of the world. The women were supposed to fight eight rounds with the standard Queensberry rules for a $200 purse, but Stewart knocked Lewis out in the second round.[28] Hattie claimed that Anna, and the other Hattie, Hattie Leslie, were trying to mimic her game but were unable to live up to the reputation and skill of the great championess, Hattie Stewart.[29]
The Omaha Daily Bee interviewed Stewart in December 1887, and titled the article, “She Loves to Fight,” a true sentiment expressed by the woman the media would dub the “Female John L. Sullivan.”[30] The paper declares that no one would suspect that the attractive Stewart was the female prizefighting champion of the United States. She is described as soft-spoken, yet proud of her accomplishments. Perhaps the most interesting aspect of this interview is the history of Hattie’s experience as a fighter in training, the details of which are typically missing from this time period. For historians and scholars, it is frustrating that while we read descriptions of fighters and their various bouts, we have little to no information regarding their training.
Stewart explains that she began to fight early in life while at school in Philadelphia. In 1876, at the age of twenty, she learned “boxing and club-swinging,” a typical accompaniment, like fencing, to nineteenth-century boxing lessons. She also taught boxing to other women, apparently making her living from fighting, as well as coaching, much like fighters do today. She married Richard Stewart, who was the swordsmanship master at the gymnasium where Hattie taught boxing. But while Hattie may have trained herself and other women in the art of pugilism, she claimed that her opponents simply should not have been in the ring, saying, “Most of the women I meet in the ring are no good. They won’t stand up and give the people the worth of their money. After one or two rounds, if they get a ‘straight’ in the head, they go off crying.”[31]
Her description appears to be apt in some cases, for instance, the 1888 fight between Mary McNamara and Julia Perry, during which technique quickly fell to the wayside after the first round and was replaced by hair pulling and scratching.[32] In fact, McNamara knocked Perry down and then dragged the woman around the ring by her hair until the end of the round. Perry and her second, who was also her brother, were obviously upset. Yet, for some reason, they called on the police to settle the dispute. Instead of siding with the scalp-sore Perry, the policeman arrested them both, along with McNamara and her second.[33] Thus, it appears that Hattie Stewart’s claim that many of her female opponents did not belong in the ring was correct.
When asked about a future opponent, Mrs. Alice Robson, Stewart responded in a manner similar to modern fighters; she revealed a detailed knowledge of Robson and her training: “Mrs. Robson, I am told, is twenty-seven years old, is a brunette, five feet six, who fights at 150 pounds. Her husband is a master painter at Crafton, near Pittsburg. She’s taking four lessons a week in boxing, I hear, with Tom Connors, the wrestler, as her trainer.”[34] This information reveals that many female fighters in the late nineteenth century not only trained to fight, they trained with experienced and well-known male coaches.
Stewart also discussed her fight weight, which was 150 to 160 pounds. She informed the paper that she was currently 190 pounds, but that was because she had not been training. She explained, “I can soon get down to 160 pounds by banging away at the sand bag a few hours each day. I can take off 15 pounds a week if it’s for a fight.” Prior to discovering this interview, it was unclear if American female fighters underwent “cutting” for fighting. Stewart admits to being able to cut a great deal of weight, and through the use of heavy cardiovascular training that seems so current, so incredibly modern, especially to those of us training today.[35] The image of Stewart working the heavy “sand bag” in an effort to lose fifteen pounds a week seems normal to those who have cut weight for a fight. Of course, the difference for her would have been her attire, which, based on figure 2.1, would have made movement more difficult than if she would have been dressed in the stretchy attire worn today.
In an interview with the Washington Post in October 1898, Stewart claimed to have fought several men and beaten them all.[36] Stewart boxed George La Blanche, Hattie Leslie’s boxing instructor, and “accidently” stuck her thumb in his eye after six long rounds. She attempted to fight Leslie herself but claimed that the other Hattie preferred to fight through the press rather than with her hands.
Stewart did not limit her pugilistic experiences to professional engagements; she claims to have beaten numerous men in public places for disrespecting her. When trying to set up a fight with another woman’s male promoter, the man, Billy Manning, argued with her about the terms of the match, so Stewart “made a roughhouse finish by using Billy’s 158 pounds for a feather duster.”[37] But Stewart claimed that she was not trying to brag about her immense success. Instead, she wanted to regale the public with some of her more interesting victories.
The article continues with Stewart explaining a rather progressive feminist attitude toward women’s rights and women’s fights, although the term feminist is anachronistic. Interestingly, in 1888, women’s rights advocates spoke out against female prizefighters, arguing that women’s suffrage would not be helped by physical violence.[38] But Stewart believed that women could gain more independence and agency through empowering their bodies. She explained that boxing was not “too mannish” for women to practice and, in fact, was better exercise than tennis, golf, or bicycle riding because it “exercises every fiber of the body and imparts a certain amount of self-reliance in the woman of today.”[39]
Stewart advocated that everyone should exercise for a half an hour daily and try all types of exercise, from calisthenics to fencing, although she thought that boxing was best. Rather humorously, for anyone who has ever been hit with any type of boxing or mixed martial arts (MMA) glove, she claims that a “rap” from a specially made ten-ounce boxing glove would not feel like more
than a “straw tickle.” She explained to the paper that women were becoming increasingly independent and that part of that freedom required them to learn to protect themselves. Stewart remained the most prolific and famous female boxer of the late nineteenth century, although she shared the spotlight with another Hattie for a short time.
Hattie Leslie
Elizabeth Wilkinson Stokes remains Britain’s most prized championess, but in the United Sates, the first lady of boxing, Hattie Leslie, has been totally forgotten in the annals of pugilistic history. Born in 1868, in Buffalo, New York, Leslie was, according to the National Police Gazette, considered the “champion female pugilist of the world” who “challenge[d] any woman in the world.”[40] A veritable Amazon, Leslie weighed 199 pounds and stood five feet, seven and a half inches tall, and she was described as a “good-looking brunette” who “[did] not look tough.”[41] Per the Cincinnati Enquirer, Leslie was a “boxer of unusual ability” who “knocked out pretty fair fighters in practicing with them.”[42] Leslie met Gussie Freeman in the ring in 1882, and the formidable Leslie reportedly frustrated Freeman to no end.
On September 16, 1888, Leslie boxed Alice Leary at eight o’clock in the morning on Navy Island. Both women are described as actresses, but they apparently had enough pugilistic training to be knowledgeable of the Queensbury rules. Leary was described as “very hard with her fists,” “more quarrelsome,” and “more of a slugger” than Leslie.[43] The bout was highly publicized, although the title of the Cincinnati Enquirer article on the upcoming fight on July 11, 1888, proclaims, “Both of them should be arrested.”[44] This invective may have been steeped in sexism, since the two fighters were women, but there was legal precedence for arresting prizefighters.
The Daily Inter Ocean published the story of the bout, dubbed it a “disgraceful affair” where “Leslie knocked out her opponent—not so good looking now.” The women fought seven three-minute rounds for a $250 purse. The article describes the fight in detail, beginning with the women’s outfits: “Hattie wore white tights and a sleeveless shirt, and Alice had on black ones.”[45] The National Police Gazette writes that instead of padded boxing gloves, the women wore “driving kids, lined with a thin coating of flannel . . . the ends of the fingers and thumbs were clipped, and the cording was taken out to avoid cutting the faces of the fighters.”[46] While it may be assumed that these early MMA-style gloves would have done less damage to the fighters’ skin, most modern fighters would not want to be struck with them.
Although the Daily Inter Ocean labels the battle “disgusting” and the competitors “disfigured,” it also admits that the women fought well. According to the article, Leslie and Leary “slogged each other in regular male professional style. . . . The women fought like tigresses at times, but hit no foul blows. After the fight both made their toilets, came back to Buffalo, and had their disfigured faces and bodies attended to by physicians.”[47] The headline for this bout appeared at the top of the page, directly above a short article about famed boxer John L. Sullivan, who was, says the paper, in ill health at the time. Sullivan, a famous pugilist with a history of debauchery, was often cited in newspaper stories. The positioning of the post on the Leslie–Leary fight above the blurb on Sullivan would have been significant in 1888. They were, in fact, headliners of the fighting world.
The Cincinnati Enquirer deems Leslie and Leary “female brutes” in their coverage of the fight.[48] But most surprising were the legal hearings in the aftermath. On October 3, 1888, the New York district attorney brought charges against the men who participated as seconds and the managers of both Leslie and Leary. Per the Chicago Tribune, they were charged with aiding in a prizefight, which, while sometimes “tolerated” with men, was never allowed between women. The district attorney did not necessarily blame the women as much as the men, whom he believed incited the women to compete in the violent event. He explained that the men who abetted in this fight
must have forgotten the mother that bore them. They must have forgotten that their mother was a woman, and I trust as an outcome of this affair that these men shall be severely punished at the hands of the law, and that never again can it be said that men can get together and pollute the honor of womankind.[49]
Everyone involved, including the women, was tried, and their defense was that the fight was a “sham,” an event performed as entertainment rather than a true fight; however, the previous descriptions of the bout and the women’s bruised and battered faces indicate that the fight was, indeed, a reality. The jury agreed with the district attorney, and the men who seconded the fight were found guilty and instructed to pay $500 in fines. While the district attorney seemed hesitant to blame the “softer sex,” he must have mustered up the courage to indict them, because both women spent six months in prison for their wrongdoing.
Nonetheless, this was not the end of Leslie’s pugilistic career; in fact, it was just getting started. She would continue to be a source of fascination and disgust in late nineteenth-century American culture. One of the interesting things about Leslie is that her image appeared in various publications from time to time. The September 6, 1890, edition of the National Police Gazette includes a full-page layout of pictures of various boxers, including Leslie. Beneath the images of five male boxers, a full-sized profile of Leslie appears on the left, while on the right, there is a picture of two black women facing off before a judge. Leslie, the “handsome female champion pugilist of the world,” stands with bare arms in what appears to be fitted breeches, an uncommon outfit for a woman in the late nineteenth century (see figure 2.1).
“She Hits Hard” in the National Police Gazette. Courtesy of National Police Gazette Enterprises, LLC.
In the same publication, to the left of Leslie’s picture, the Police Gazette published a photo and brief snippet of the renowned professor Alf Ball and his “famous colored boxers” (see figure 2.2). The women were “creating such a furor by the scientific display they [made] with the gloves” and could “hit, stop, counter, and upper-cut equal to Hattie Leslie, the female champion of America.”[50] Unlike Leslie, they did not receive personal recognition; their names are noticeably absent from the announcement. In addition, it is Ball, the white “professor” of boxing, who is lauded for his skill in teaching the women to fight instead of recognizing their aptitude to do so.
“Colored Female Boxers” in the National Police Gazette. Courtesy of National Police Gazette Enterprises, LLC.
There are several occasions where black fighters are mentioned without their names, as though their identities were tied solely to their skin color. But in 1882, Bessie Williams and Josephine Green, both heavyweight boxers, fought in Salt Lake City.[51] Williams and Green are both described as weighing in at more than 280 pounds and being expert in the manly art of pugilism. The fight was highly anticipated, as both women were reputed to be excellent and brutal boxers. With a $20 purse and the title of colored lady champion on the line, the women knocked one another around the ring until Williams succeeded in knocking out Green with a hard right to the nose. The ladies were lauded for their skills, but the majority of nonwhite fighters at the time were routinely ignored and marginalized, both for their sex and skin color.
As a white woman, however, Leslie continually had her name and picture in print. Another portrait of Hattie Leslie, published in the National Police Gazette on October 8, 1892, features the recently deceased fighter in a more revealing outfit, legs and arms bare. Posing in the typical boxing stance, her tight-fitting blouse and short skirt are prominent, while her face, partly hidden in the shadows, recedes; however, Leslie’s face is unmistakably beautiful and her features sharp and striking (see figure 2.3).
Hattie Leslie in the National Police Gazette. Courtesy of National Police Gazette Enterprises, LLC.
A year after her bout with Alice Leary, Hattie Leslie was once again in the news with the announcement of an upcoming bout with Ethel Marks. An article published in the Cincinnati Enquirer on December 19, 1889, announces tha
t this “novel match” would indeed be novel, because instead of their usual manner of boxing, Leslie and Marks would wrestle in the Greco-Roman style.[52] According to the paper, this would be a first for this type of exhibition, so the fighters and their backers met to agree to terms, which were as follows:
Articles of agreement entered into by and between Hattie Leslie, party of the first part, and Miss Ethel Marks, party of the second part. Said parties hereby agree to meet in a wrestling match on a day to be named hereafter, under the following conditions: The said party of the first part agrees to throw the said party of the second part four times in an hour, actual wrestling time, or forfeit a purse of $100.[53]
The agreement also stipulates that “all dangerous locks, such as the hang and strangling holds, are hereby barred by mutual agreement.”[54] As always with female fighters, the clothing was part of the prefight negotiations: “Both contestants also agree that they will wear costumes appropriate to the occasion, that will be presentable before any kind of an audience.” Even more interesting, the weight of the fighters was agreed to before the fight, just as weight classes are contested and settled today. The women simply agreed that neither would weigh in at more than 220 pounds at the time of the match.
She's a Knockout! Page 10
