As a runner, Hickman was known before his ring _début_, and won several prizes at this and jumping. The early career of Hickman we take upon the credit of “Boxiana,” “the historian” being his contemporary. [Illustration: THOMAS HICKMAN (“THE GAS MAN”). ] Thomas Hickman was born in Ken Lane, Dudley, Worcestershire, on the 28th of January, 1785. His nurse thought that he showed something like “fight,” even in his cradle; but when Tommy felt the use of his pins, and could toddle out among his play-fellows, he was considered as the most handy little kid amongst them. His skirmishes, when a boy, are too numerous for recital; but it will suffice to state that, in the circle in which he moved, when any of them were in danger of being beaten, it was a common observation amongst them, to intimidate the refractory, that they would fetch “Tom Hickman to lick him!” Hickman was apprenticed to a steam-engine boiler maker. His first regular combat was with one Sedgeley, in a place called Wednesbury Field.[19] Sedgeley was disposed of with ease and quickness by young Tom. John Miller, a coppersmith, was his next opponent in the same field. This match was for one guinea a-side; but Miller proved so good a man that Hickman was one hour and a half before he obtained the victory. Miller was heavily punished about his nob. Jack Hollis, a glass-blower, a hero who had seen some little service in the milling way at Dudley, was backed for £5 a-side against Hickman. This turned out a very severe battle. Hollis proved himself a good man, although he was defeated in twenty-five minutes. Luke Walker, a collier, entertained an idea that he could beat Hickman “like winking,” and matched himself against the latter for two guineas; but, in the short space of nineteen minutes, Walker lost his two yellow-boys, and got well thrashed in the bargain. Hickman now left his native place for the metropolis, to follow his business, and took up his residence in the Borough. It was not long before a customer of the name of Bill Doughty, a blacksmith, offered himself to the notice of our hero, and was finished off cleverly in thirteen minutes, in a field near Gravel Lane. An Irishman of the name of Hollix, the champion of “the Borough”—then, as in later years, noted for its fighting lads—fancied Hickman, and a match was made for six guineas a-side. Miller seconded Hickman upon this occasion. This was a tremendous fight, in the same field as the last battle, occupying thirty-two minutes, in the course of which Hickman was thrown heavily in nineteen rounds, owing to the superior strength of the Irishman, experiencing several severe cross-buttocks. Hickman at length got a turn, when he caught the Irishman’s hand, held him fast, and planted such a stupefying blow under his listener, that poor Paddy was so much hurt and so much frightened that he requested the bystanders to take him to the hospital.