A special advance glimpse of Miss Persephone Wright, radical suffragette and Bartitsu-trained bodyguard, who stars in the Suffrajitsu graphic novel trilogy to be published by Jet City Comics.
Instructor Mark Donnelly will be teaching another seminar in Connecticut on June 15. Interested parties should RSVP to Twin Dragons Martial Arts by calling (203)265-1516.
A promotional postcard featuring Bartitsu Club wrestling and physical culture instructor Armand Cherpillod, shown posing in typical early 20th century jujitsu garb.
According to his 1929 biography, Cherpillod was invited to teach at the Bartitsu Club by his fellow Swiss martial arts instructor, Pierre Vigny, who had traveled to Switzerland at the behest of E.W. Barton-Wright specifically to find a champion wrestler. Upon arriving in London, Cherpillod quickly made his mark in the wrestling circuit and successfully represented the Bartitsu Club in several significant challenge matches. He also cross-trained in jujitsu with fellow instructors Yukio Tani and Sadakazu Uyenishi.
Cherpillod’s most famous student at the Bartitsu Club was Sir Cosmo Duff-Gordon, an eccentric athlete and aristocrat who later became famous as one of the few male civilians to have survived the sinking of the RMS Titanic.
Following the closure of the Bartitsu Club in 1902, Cherpillod returned to Switzerland where he pioneered the instruction of Japanese martial arts. He also wrote several books on that subject, including one that is the first known manual on jujitsu as self defence for women.
Samantha Swords experiments with a pair of antique Indian clubs on display at the Forteza Gymuseum, home of the Bartitsu Club of Chicago.
This somewhat tongue-in-cheek review/essay, inspired by Bartitsu founder E.W. Barton-Wright’s first self defence articles for Pearson’s Magazine, was originally published in the Australian newspaper Table Talk on April 21, 1899.
Very few people who, having read “Savior Resartus”, do not remember the purport of that passage describing how the philosopher, his meditations beneath the aurora borealis interrupted by a grisly interloper smelling of train oil, puts a stop to any predatory intention by presenting a sufficiently large horse pistol at the head of the intruder. Firearms, of course, are an excellent means for equalising the offensive and defensive strength of antagonists, but the average peaceable citizen has a very wholesome objection to carrying a “shooting iron” in his hip pocket, even if there was no municipal law prohibiting the practice.
Let alone the difficulty of shooting straight in a moment of excitement, the average citizen would rather risk the chance of being robbed than of killing his assailant. He recognises the principle of the law which has abolished hanging as a penalty for stealing. Still, there are few people who would not like to possess the art of defending themselves from assault by a physically more powerful man. Pugilism requires muscle, stamina and training quite beyond the reach of the average citizen who never had biceps worth developing, who was always a duffer in the playground when a schoolboy, and who cannot get up an appetite for his dinner without a tonic.
What is wanted is a power akin to that exercised by the little lady, known professionally as the “Georgia Magnet.” She could resist the efforts of strong men to make her budge, and yet could break down their strength when opposed to her inclination. Mr. Stuart Cumberland, whose feats in thought reading astonished Melbourne some ten years ago, demonstrated that the supposed “magnetic” power was simply a clever adaptation of well known but little heeded laws of balance. Here was the secret of the much desired power which would enable the man of intelligence to cope with the man of muscle, and get the better of him in the argumentum ad hominem, yet it is only within the last month or so that anyone has come forward with a system of tuition based on that principle. (1)
“How a man may defend himself against every form of attack,” is the title chosen by Mr. E. W. Barton-Wright for his very interesting article in the current number of Pearson’s Magazine. Mr. Barton sums up his system of defence and retaliation as follows:- (1.) to disturb the equilibrium of your assailant; (2.) to suprise him before he has time to regain his balance and use his strength; (3.) if necessary, to subject the joints of any part of his body, whether neck, shoulder, elbow, wrist, back, knee, or ankle, to strains which they are anatomically and mechanically unable to resist.
His practical demonstrations prove the irresistible force which a weak man, with a knowledge of leverage and balance, can use against a far stronger man than himself, who has not the same knowledge. Naturally, Mr. Barton-Wright has perfected his system in a professional way, and he has hundreds of devices by which he can extricate himself from the grip of professional wrestlers, or evade the attack or overcome the defence of expert pugilists and swordsmen. Colonel G. W. Fox, an ex-inspector-general of army gymnasia, certifies that Mr. Barton-Wright’s system is exceedingly practical and very scientific. That his system should be brought under the notice of the Chief Commissioner of Police was the immediate suggestion of the privileged few permitted to view his exhibition performances in England.
It seems that Mr. Barton-Wright intends publishing a book with illustrations, enabling the student to learn his methods; consequently he is not desirous of giving public performances. The examples he gives in the magazine articles are just sufficient to raise public interest, and inspire the reader with a burning desire to learn more. Quickness and confidence are the essentials of the new art, and Mr. Barton-Wright claims that “one of its greatest advantages is that the exponent need not be a strong man, or in training, or even a specially active man in order to paralyse a very formidable opponent.” Yet it is a class of self -defence designed to meet every possible kind of attack, whether armed or otherwise.
The, first example given will recommend itself to everyone who read of the tragic death of the man Stevens, when the heroic Fredman was stabbed by Medor in the Eastern Market, Melbourne, in the attempt to rescue Stevens from the attack of the frenzied phrenologist (2). Mr. Barton-Wright’s method would have been to fling his coat at the head of Medor, then, in the momentary embarrassment, he would have darted up against the homicide and dealt him a “knock out blow in the pit of the stomach.”
With revolver and dagger to face, the probability is that it would be too risky to rush “square-on” to a man so armed. To meet such an emergency, Mr. Barton-Wright shows that the man should crouch down the instant he has flung his coat, and seize the armed man’s ankle with one hand, at the same time pushing him about the waist with the other. It takes but a small amount of force to throw a man thus unexpectedly assailed, and by retaining the hold on his ankle, and pressing his leg back on the knee joint, the fallen man can be kept still under penalty of his leg being broken if he struggles.
The “chucker-out” is a familiar institution in a certain class of hotel, and is often in much request at political meetings. However efficacious the result, his methods are usually crude and ungainly. Mr. Barton-Wright shows how the operation can be performed with neatness and dispatch by a man much the inferior in physical strength of the one “chucked.” He simply seizes the recalcitrant by the wrist with one hand, raising the other to guard off a blow.
Before there is time for the blow to be delivered, the “chucker” turns on his heels, still gripping the wrist of the “chuckee,” passes his disengaged aim over the arm of the “chuckee,” and locks it by gripping his own wrist with the hand of that arm; “By straightening both your arms you are able to exert such leverage, and to throw such a strain upon his elbow that you could break it if you wished.” The description reads a little complicated, but the feat is very simple and requires very little practice to perform effectively.
Other examples show how the mild, small man can ward off a straight “right” or “left” blow from an expert boxer, and lay him ignominiously on his back. This is a feat worth studying hard by sharp-tongued public men, and editors, who write up to John Knox’s memorable apostrophe. Every politician should also study the art of disengaging themselves from buttonholers. It requires some practice, but it is very efficacious.
Altogether, Mr. Barton-Wright’s forthcoming book promises to be as important in its way as Adam Smith’s “Wealth of Nations”. It “persuaded one generation and ruled the next.” The “New Art of Self-defence” will protect one generation and punish the next.
(1) Co-incidentally, Barton-Wright himself had recently written an expose explaining the “magnetic” feats of the young lady referred to here.
(2) This was a topical reference to a bizarre assault and homicide that took place in Melbourne’s Eastern Market.
A member of the secret suffragette Bodyguard society takes down a London bobby in this illustration from the book Bodyguards!: From Gladiators to the Secret Service.
Written by Ed Butts, illustrated by Scott Plumbe and intended for readers aged approximately 9-12, Bodyguards! is an entertaining and informative survey of personal protectors throughout history, including the Praetorian Guard, the Swiss Guard, gunfighters of the Wild West, ’30s Chicago gangsters and many more.
The adventures of the Jujitsuffragettes will also be showcased in Tony Wolf’s upcoming Amazons graphic novel trilogy, currently scheduled to be published in October 2014.
Members of the French School of Bartitsu undertake an Antagonisticathlon obstacle course.
These excerpts from the article “The Dwelling-House of an Apostle of Health” (“The House Beautiful”, Sept. 1909) offer a further glimpse inside the extraordinary dojo constructed in W.E. Steers’ Hilltop home in Surrey, England.
To explain the reasons for the inclusion of the beautifully designed gymnasium which is the great feature of the house, it should be noted that during his travels in Japan, Mr. Steers had been enormously impressed with the value of “jiu-jitsu” as a system of moral and physical training. He learned a little of the art in the Land of the Rising Sun; just enough to convince him of its great efficacy in developing all the powers of the body.
He saw, what so few people in England and America are aware of, that “jiu-jitsu” was not a mere method of wrestling, but that it formed the foundation of that extraordinary self-possession, coolness, and adroitness which are the mental as well as the physical attributes of the Japanese. He found that it was not a series of tricks which could be learned by an athletic man in the course of a few lessons; but that it was a highly developed system of education, the professors of which were as highly esteemed
in their own country as are those in western lands, who occupy the principal chairs at colleges and universities.
Hence the gymnasium at “Hilltop,” with its appliances for physical recreation. Several of the most prominent professors of “jiu-jitsu” have been over from time to time to instruct and exercise with the owner of this house of health on the hill. Among them may be mentioned Professor T. Tobari, one of the famous four who demonstrated before the Emperor of Japan the outstanding virtues of jiu-jitsu in comparison with other forms of physical culture, at a time when the government was deciding upon the best system to adopt for inclusion in the educational curriculums of the country.
The gymnasium is a room surrounded on three sides by walls painted to represent typical Surrey scenery as found in the neighborhood of Caterham. The mural decorative scheme was carried out by Mr. Hugh Wallis of Altrineham, Manchester. The fourth side is entirely open to the air and gives direct access on to a grassy exercising lawn, at one end of which is a plunge pool made of concrete and fitted with a spring-board. There are rolling shutters which can be drawn down when the owner is away or when tremendous storms of wind and rain drive in from the East.
The main floor of the gymnasium is constructed on springs like a dancing floor, with Japanese wrestling mats, two or three inches thick, surrounded by a thick cork carpet border, about two feet wide. A sunken bath with hot and cold water supply is fitted at one end of the room, and at the other is an arched fireplace recess. A door at the North end gives access to a dressing room and lavatory. Here the owner keeps his guns and revolvers, some of them being trophies of shooting contests. All the year round the gymnasium floor makes a splendid sleeping place; but Mr. Steers quite as frequently sleeps out on the lawn on a camp mattress.
During the final decades of the 19th century, a cabal of fencers and historians led by Captain Alfred Hutton and his colleague, the writer Egerton Castle, undertook a systematic study and practical revival of combat with long-outmoded weapons such as the rapier and dagger, sword and buckler and two-handed sword. Their efforts presaged the current revival of historical fencing, a rapidly growing movement that directly parallels the modern renaissance of E.W. Barton-Wright’s Bartitsu.
The book Ancient Swordplay details the origins, colourful heyday and ultimate decline of this unusual late-Victorian revival movement. Highlights include reports on many historical fencing exhibitions throughout the 1880s and ’90s, Hutton’s and Castle’s work as theatrical fight choreographers (who paid strict attention to historical accuracy) and Hutton’s determined efforts to revolutionise military sabre fencing with an infusion of “ancient swordplay”, especially that of the Elizabethan English master, George Silver.
Of particular interest to Bartitsu enthusiasts, Ancient Swordplay includes a chapter on Captain Hutton’s collaborations with E.W. Barton-Wright. In his book The Sword and the Centuries (1902), Hutton was moved to note that “the fence of the case of rapiers, as of all the other Elizabethan weapons, is much in vogue at the present time at the Bartitsu Club, now the headquarters of ancient swordplay in this country.”
For all their efforts, though, the Hutton/Castle revival did not directly survive their own generation. The final chapters examine the reasons why, coming to a conclusion that may surprise modern readers, and attempt to trace their legacy into the following decades of the 20th century, via actress/swordswoman Esme Beringer and French antagonisticathlete George Dubois.
Including numerous rare illustrations and a foreword by author Neal Stephenson, Ancient Swordplay is available now from the Freelance Academy Press website or Amazon.com. For a thorough historical context and commentary, please also see the new article Renaissance Swordplay, Victorian-style on the Freelancer blog.
Icelandic wrestler and showman Johannes Josephsson, who exhibited the art of glima wrestling in North American and European music halls during the early 20th century, demonstrates self-defence against not one, not two, but three ruffians.
