Page:Athletics and Manly Sport (1890).djvu/38

Rh it came again, it was in the long, light rapier play of the Italian and French schools of fence.

But all this time the boxing skill of Greek and Roman must have come traditionally and practically down from father to son, the only change being in the dropping of the hand-weights and bandages.

When Pollux obtahied the boxing victory at the Pythian games, he wore gloves or leathern bandages filled with lead and iron. When Sullivan defeats his man, he uses soft gloves filled with curled hair. This is the change of time and judgment. The latter is the better test. A chance blow from the heavy cestus cracked a