[Syd Thrift]

Notes on November 1866:

Tanguy Ruel finally did get himself away like he promised, but only after getting pounded by Nutmeg State fighter "Orange Julius" Perry. His ankle, despite what it says in the fight summary, is just fine. We hear that the lumber trade does wonders for a man's arm strength...

Julius Perry himself was caught in an alcohol "abuse" scandal that won't make a lot of sense unless we explain it. We at Frank's gym, we like to drink a fair amount. We encourage our boxers to do the same. Well, unbeknownst to us Orange Julius had been pretending to get as loaded as everybody else but was actually feeding the beer to his dog that he kept under the table. This way, we think, he was getting the lowdown on what the other fighters' self-proclaimed strengths and weaknesses were. Nobody was any the wiser until the end of this month, when that canine sadly perished of acute liver poisoning. We've decided to give Perry 3 months off to think about his actions. If he's a real man, he won't use his ill-gotten knowledge to land more strong hits when he comes back.

Nathan Rice busted up his knee shortly after his unanimous decision loss to Scott Ross. He was sparring too soon after a fight. Should have known better. He'll be out for a good 6 months with that blow.

The travails of Captain Jack O'Rourke continue. Following his victory over Nicholas Gregory, O'Rourke poked out the eye of the doctor who was giving him his post-fight physical and was suspended from boxing for 30 days. "Yar, I be not havin' a man touch me in that way when I ain't at sea," he said by way of explanation.

Thomas McConkey rolled his ankle celebrating his latest loss. Nothing big; he won't box next month but should be able to start losing again in no time.

Finally, Jesse Jaffe's gloves appeared to have been doctored when our people looked at them in the post-fight inspection. He was immediately banished from Frank's Gym for a year and the 5 Boroughs Belt will be shortly rewarded to someone else. You may wonder why it is that a man who loads up his hands before a fight gets a 1 year suspension while a man who gets his dog drunk only gets 3 months. However, if you wonder about that too much, perhaps you should go back to Canada where people do that sort of thing all the time.