Pugilistica: The History of British Boxing, Volume 2 (of 3): Containing Lives of the Most Celebrated Pugilists; Full Reports of Their Battles from Contemporary Newspapers, With Authentic Portraits, Personal Anecdotes, and Sketches of the Principal Patrons of the Prize Ring, Forming a Complete History of the Ring from Fig and Broughton, 1719-1740, to the Last Championship Battle Between King and Heenan, in December 1863Miles, Henry Downes
History
Pugilistica: The History of British Boxing, Volume 2 (of 3): Containing Lives of the Most Celebrated Pugilists; Full Reports of Their Battles from Contemporary Newspapers, With Authentic Portraits, Personal Anecdotes, and Sketches of the Principal Patrons of the Prize Ring, Forming a Complete History of the Ring from Fig and Broughton, 1719-1740, to the Last Championship Battle Between King and Heenan, in December 1863
Miles, Henry Downes
Boxing
“May I request you will contradict a statement which appeared in
your paper of Saturday, in a letter signed ‘Paul Spencer,’ in which
it is stated that during my stay in Cork I was challenged to fight
an English soldier for £150, and that I did not accept the
challenge. I have not been challenged by any person whatsoever, and
therefore the statement in the letter signed ‘Paul Spencer’ is
utterly without foundation. There are certain persons in Dublin with
whom I would not associate, and who, in consequence, have felt a
soreness that fully accounts for the occasional squibs which now and
then appear in print to my prejudice, and which I hold in the utmost
contempt.
“I remain your obedient servant,
“JOHN LANGAN.
“_April 22, 1826._”
For some months Langan was completely lost sight of by the London Fancy;
at length he was heard of as the proprietor of a snug public-house in
Liverpool. Here his lively disposition, civility of demeanour, industry,
and attention gained him hosts of friends. Langan sang a tolerably good
song, and told a story well. He was the first to prevent a brawl, the
last to provoke any one, or to suffer any one to be insulted in his
house, and ever ready to lend a hand to any one in distress—colour,
country, or profession disregarded. He gained the esteem of all who knew
him; he accumulated money, and took an hotel, which he termed St.
Patrick’s, at Clarence Dock, from whence he after some years retired
with an ample fortune. At his house he had a large room; in this place
he nightly placed beds of clean straw, rugs, etc.; it was a nightly
refuge for every Irishman that chose to apply. Let the tongue be but
tipped with a bit of the brogue, “Come in and welcome,” said Langan,
“only, lads, let me take away your reaping hooks and shillelahs—there is
a clean bed, a warm rug, and lashings of potatoes, for the honour of the
land we all come from.” This Langan did, unaided by any subscription,
for years. Such a fact needs no comment. We could enumerate a hundred
acts of his charity—he did not wait to be asked.
Here, for many years, he lived honoured, respected, and prosperous; but
latterly his health failed, and he retired from the bustle of business
to a house at Five Lanes End, Cheshire, where, on the 17th of March (St.
Patrick’s Day), in the year 1846, he departed this life, aged
forty-seven.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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