Lumley, Mathison, Bat Masterson, and Smith were among the last of the old school of sports writers, which also included Joe Vila of _The Evening Sun_ of New York, one of the most fearless boxing writers in America. Like Lumley, Smith and Mathison revelled in the past. They saw the romance that ended with the commercialization of boxing, and they kept the old days alive with thrilling and absorbingly interesting tales. Arthur Lumley was editor of the _Police Gazette_ fifty years ago. He came into the spotlight at a time when the writers wore long beards, curling moustaches, high boots, and other disguises when they went to cover a fight. I visited Lumley just before his death a few years ago. He had broken his leg in a fall, and this injury, combined with another ailment, had left him an invalid. His failing sight could hardly discern my presence. “Come closer, Nat,” he said to me. “I won’t treat you like they used to treat reporters fifty years ago, when I went the rounds to do my work. You know, prize fight promoters and fighters didn’t want newspapermen about, then. It was too dangerous. Everything had to be kept quiet so that there couldn’t be a give-away to the cops.” He then told me the story of his attempt to cover the fight between Paddy Ryan and Joe Goss in 1880, at Collier’s Station, West Virginia. “I decided that I would report that fight and I went along with the few who knew where it would be staged. When I got to the scene, those in charge drove away every member of the press except me. I seemed to be a privileged character. “They let me stay because I stood in well with several bank robbers who were associated with the promotion. We had an awful time getting to the scene of action and still worse a time convincing the principals that it was all right for me to remain and report the fight for my paper. We took a boat and started across Lake Michigan for Canada, but when we got to the Canadian shore we found a company of British soldiers and six cannon facing us, so we decided it was best not to attempt to land. “We turned back, but before we reached the Michigan shore, the Governor had been tipped off that we were on our way and he had a posse after us, so we couldn’t land there, either. We ran into the same trouble in Indiana and later in Ohio, but we finally made it into West Virginia. “It was a tough fight to stage and tougher to handle because of constant danger of being discovered by the law. The fight lasted eighty-seven rounds, with Ryan the winner. It was the first big event I covered after becoming sports editor of the _Police Gazette_ in 1879.” Speaking of the old _Police Gazette_, which the author of this book bought in 1932 when the Fox family, because of heavy losses, decided to give it up after controlling it for half a century, Lumley remarked: