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
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