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Alley Grappling, Circa 1900 by Mark Hatmaker

 


Let’s talk street-wrestling, alley grappling, urban scufflin’ but…

Let’s forget what the word “wrestling” implies in today’s parlance.

Let’s use a formerly more common word—grappling.

Today, grappling and wrestling are used interchangeably, whereas formerly, in a time where most were familiar with whaling, the fishing industry, dock work, stevedore work, freighting, bale-work and numerous other “blue collar” occupations pre-labor saving devices from cranes, to, hell, even dollies to move loads.

In these times a vast array of designated tools to grab, pinch, lever, and handle loads from Point A to Point B were in use and not in a mere one or two professions.

The tools may go by many names from the cotton-freighter’s baling tongs to the fireman’s peavey, the logger’s cant hooks, to the fisherman’s and whaler’s grappling hooks.

To grapple was to get hooks in with mechanical leverage and get the job done.

To wrestle was the sportive aspect of mano y mano; to grapple, well, less pretty, less nice, but no less scientific.

Workmen who knew how to move a 150-pound load from dock to cargo net day-in, day-out, well amongst some of these were a cadre of wrestlers [amateur, a few pros, and a huge contingent of “for fun” scufflers] well, they knew how to put hooks in.

Just as some of these folks knew the clean game, some knew the less than clean.

Just as some with boxing skill knew how to alter their game for the street into an art termed street dentistry by some, Alley Grapplers were the associative contingent. Many were combination streetfighters, that is, they knew how to use the street dentist’s tools and the Alley Grappler’s tools alike.

[For an article on Street Dentists.]

The “Unsavory Aspect”

Many of these street dentist and Alley Grapplers were not interested in mere, self-defense, “If it goes bad, I’ll just have to do this.”

More than a few, a surprisingly large few, were attracted to the better money and high living that the criminal element can bestow.

“Street Dentists” were/are enforcers who were skilled with their hands. They could pop out teeth with well-timed, precision placed punches that also saved their own hands.

Missing teeth is a far wiser business model for you, Mr. or Ms. Loan-Shark, as the welsher can still “earn” and thusly pay you back keeping your territory running and the missing teeth act as a walking, talking still earning billboard of encouraging reinforcement.

Street-Dentists were also skilled at working the body with debilitating pinpoint blows that incapacitated immediately and put the welsher down for a couple of days, but getting back to earning was a matter of 2-3 days of blood in the urine and slow movement, but the money could still be rolling.

Alley Grapplers were the flips-side of the contingent but…seldom used by the mob or other loan-sharks.

Why?

Economics.

Street dentists were utilized to punish but not destroy. They needed “clients” to pay up, not turn off the money tap.

Alley Grapplers were found more often in the less judicious, less foresightful gangs of the 19th-century.

They were employed to put rivals down and out.

They were there to break limbs.

They were employed to maim.

They were, at times, asked to kill.

In Alley Grappling, Circa 1900: Volume 1 we begin a lengthy sojourn into the tactics used by these unsavory ones.

It is grappling NOT wrestling.

It all stays on the feet.

It is all snap, no tap.

It is all maim or…

The tactical vocabulary here is copious. Below is provided a list of just a few of the gangs researched and referenced for this Black Box Volume.

If you wanna go ahead and start delving into this world of Old School Street Mayhem, well hit that link and enjoy!

A Brief List of 19th-Century Gangs

Baxter Street Dudes

Boodle Gang

Corcoran’s Roosters

Humpty Jackson Gang

Molasses Gang

Crazy Butch Gang

Tub of Blood Bunch

Whyos

Yakey Yakes

Plug Uglies

Kerryonians

Daybreak Boys

Potashes

Sydney Ducks

Dead Rabbits

The Forty Thieves

The Bowery Boys

The Five Points Gang

The Eastgman Gang

The Molly Maguires

Bummers Gang

Fleagle Gang

Society of Bandits

Bermuda Gang

Resources for Livin’ the Warrior Life

The Black Box Store

The Rough ‘n’ Tumble Raconteur Podcast

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