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Containing a full account of his thrilling and remarkable experiences, together with a complete report of his triumphs in the prize ring, and his career in the oil regions, in the far west, and on the sea
Written under Mr Hogan's immediate supervision by George Francis Trainer, 1878.
This is a ripping yarn about a famous boxer, con artist, fitness trainer, pirate, pickpocket, brothel owner, card sharp, gambler, and liquor seller - and the reasons why you shouldn't grow up to be as naughty as him, dear.
This is a novel that promotes the importance of fitness and regular exercise. And it's also a novel about the success story, if an offbeat one, of an immigrant. Benedict Hagan's parents brought him from Würtemberg, Germany to America at the age of eleven; the name then became Ben Hogan. Hogan began his deeds on the wrong side of the law when he concocted a scheme to revenge himself on a man who robbed his father as a recent immigrant - he ensnared the man in a plot to rob yet another green immigrant, and waylaid him when he walked into the ambush. Finally, this is a real life sensation novel about a constant career in all sorts of terrible, horrible, no-good, yet desperately interesting things!
Above all Hogan's life story is an entertaining read. Recommended if you want to learn more about methods for fleecing the sheep and common slang terms for nineteenth century prostitution in the Americas (such as 'sporting girls'). I especially liked the counterfeit money con job. Steps involved in this are:
Another dodge is to get a group of friends together, dress up as surveyors, go out to a remote farm, and fake that a railroad is about to run right through a farmhouse - unless the farmer indulges in some bribery.
And then there's the fake physician gag - masquerade as a fashionable doctor for the wealthy hypochondriac, dose them with something nasty-tasting but harmless, and then show up as a different character claiming the physician is a poisoner. Then charge a fee for saving the hypochondriac's life from the would-be poisoner!
One of Hogan's lovers is French Kate, who's supposed to be a former spy in the Confederate army - although this book explains that verification of this rumour is hard to find. Another lover is Kitty O'Brien, who seems to have a lesbian lover on the side - Julia, who shares her bed but is apparently a country cousin. Hogan is quite incensed to find them together.
There's also the Floating Palace - the famous aquatic brothel and speakeasy. Hogan was under legal difficulties such that he was not lawfully allowed to open a project in the town of Parker's Landing...and so he bought a boat and fixed that up as his new place! The lady waiters were obliged to bathe each day at sunset, with the customers charged a fee to attend and sometimes assist them in their ablutions. On one occasion, when Hogan was involved in further legal difficulties, he was able to lure a number of prominent lawyers and jurymen aboard the Floating Palace and then sail away from shore, leaving them all very late for their court appearances. The boat made enormous profits until it was sunk.
Hogan comes across in this book as humanitarian and compassionate to people in need - perhaps because he wrote this book, but he comes across as having a wide generous streak. He'll give to beggars, fallen women, and generally can't manage to hold onto the least part of his ill-gotten gains for any length of time. (Clearly doing his bit to stimulate the local economy.) One of the reforms proposed in this book is for fallen women to be welcomed back to their families, rather than treated as forever unworthy and cast off; as Hogan astutely points out, shunning women for sexual impropriety is only going to force them into lives where they'll do what they have to in order to survive. Another proposed reformation is for licensed brothels which require regular medical testing - partially implemented in some places with legalised sex work nowadays.
There's a passage with slightly obscure wording in the book which came across to me as 'abortion in 1878 Pittsburg'. Perhaps I am incorrect.
[A] girl came to him [Hogan] on one occasion in sore distress. She had gone astray; had lived a short, wild life of sin and pleasure, and was now reaping the terrible harvest of her wayward career. Forsaken by friends, with no home to go to, she had come to Ben as a last refuge. She was then pregnant and suffering from a loathsome disease. Her cup of wretchedness seemed greater than she could bear, and like many another poor unfortunate, she had resolved to end her misery by taking her own life. She had gone so far, even, as to procure the poison, which she fully intended to take.
Ben talked to this woman in a way in which no stiff-necked puritan could have talked. He told her there was still hope for her in this world; that she must put all thoughts of suicide out of her mind, and that he would help her out of the slough into which she had fallen. A gleam of hope finally dawned upon the black pathway of this miserable girl. She found in Ben a friend who did something more than preach. He gave her sound advice, and backed this up with aid of a more substantial nature. Through his influence she obtained admittance to the Pittsburg Hospital, and there, in the course of a few weeks, she was fully restored to health. Then Hogan took it upon himself to bring about a reconciliation between the girl and her parents. He visited the latter, who lived in Butler, pleaded with them in behalf of the outcast, and showed them how, by receiving her back, they might yet save her from further disgrace. These pleadings were not in vain. The girl returned to her parents’ roof, abandoned her old evil ways, and is to-day the wife of a lawyer, loyal and true.
The girl is pregnant, the girl goes to a hospital, and then the girl is 'restored to health' and reconciled to her parents...but with no mention that her parents have a grandchild. Does this mean that Hogan helped her procure a miscarriage? This seems a good story with a happy ending.
Hogan is also very keen on promoting the health benefits of fitness training for both men and women, and the last section of the book is all about the importance of regular gymnastic exercise and Hogan's exact prescriptions for it. (Which are pretty good and would still make a decent trendy exercise advice-book today.) His own lifespan was circa 1841-1916 - certainly above the classic threescore and ten.
As far as a Google search can tell, Benedict Hogan was a person who really existed - although the extent of the truth in his life story is up for grabs. The pirate section is notably lacking in detail. Here is a further reference to this novel.
Written under Mr Hogan's immediate supervision by George Francis Trainer, 1878.
This is a ripping yarn about a famous boxer, con artist, fitness trainer, pirate, pickpocket, brothel owner, card sharp, gambler, and liquor seller - and the reasons why you shouldn't grow up to be as naughty as him, dear.
This is a novel that promotes the importance of fitness and regular exercise. And it's also a novel about the success story, if an offbeat one, of an immigrant. Benedict Hagan's parents brought him from Würtemberg, Germany to America at the age of eleven; the name then became Ben Hogan. Hogan began his deeds on the wrong side of the law when he concocted a scheme to revenge himself on a man who robbed his father as a recent immigrant - he ensnared the man in a plot to rob yet another green immigrant, and waylaid him when he walked into the ambush. Finally, this is a real life sensation novel about a constant career in all sorts of terrible, horrible, no-good, yet desperately interesting things!
Above all Hogan's life story is an entertaining read. Recommended if you want to learn more about methods for fleecing the sheep and common slang terms for nineteenth century prostitution in the Americas (such as 'sporting girls'). I especially liked the counterfeit money con job. Steps involved in this are:
- Assemble a small stack of genuine money (so that you are not actually guilty of counterfeiting).
- Privately advertise that you have a lot of convincing counterfeit bills available.
- Show your clients a bag with the genuine money on top and newspaper stuffed below it. Offer to sell at one-third of the bill values or so.
- Arrange the transaction by a railway suitcase ticket. Receive your payment.
- Leave your client an empty suitcase. They can't complain because they were trying to buy counterfeit cash, and you should be taking a train off to the next city by now - with your original cash as well as the payment!
Another dodge is to get a group of friends together, dress up as surveyors, go out to a remote farm, and fake that a railroad is about to run right through a farmhouse - unless the farmer indulges in some bribery.
And then there's the fake physician gag - masquerade as a fashionable doctor for the wealthy hypochondriac, dose them with something nasty-tasting but harmless, and then show up as a different character claiming the physician is a poisoner. Then charge a fee for saving the hypochondriac's life from the would-be poisoner!
One of Hogan's lovers is French Kate, who's supposed to be a former spy in the Confederate army - although this book explains that verification of this rumour is hard to find. Another lover is Kitty O'Brien, who seems to have a lesbian lover on the side - Julia, who shares her bed but is apparently a country cousin. Hogan is quite incensed to find them together.
There's also the Floating Palace - the famous aquatic brothel and speakeasy. Hogan was under legal difficulties such that he was not lawfully allowed to open a project in the town of Parker's Landing...and so he bought a boat and fixed that up as his new place! The lady waiters were obliged to bathe each day at sunset, with the customers charged a fee to attend and sometimes assist them in their ablutions. On one occasion, when Hogan was involved in further legal difficulties, he was able to lure a number of prominent lawyers and jurymen aboard the Floating Palace and then sail away from shore, leaving them all very late for their court appearances. The boat made enormous profits until it was sunk.
Hogan comes across in this book as humanitarian and compassionate to people in need - perhaps because he wrote this book, but he comes across as having a wide generous streak. He'll give to beggars, fallen women, and generally can't manage to hold onto the least part of his ill-gotten gains for any length of time. (Clearly doing his bit to stimulate the local economy.) One of the reforms proposed in this book is for fallen women to be welcomed back to their families, rather than treated as forever unworthy and cast off; as Hogan astutely points out, shunning women for sexual impropriety is only going to force them into lives where they'll do what they have to in order to survive. Another proposed reformation is for licensed brothels which require regular medical testing - partially implemented in some places with legalised sex work nowadays.
There's a passage with slightly obscure wording in the book which came across to me as 'abortion in 1878 Pittsburg'. Perhaps I am incorrect.
[A] girl came to him [Hogan] on one occasion in sore distress. She had gone astray; had lived a short, wild life of sin and pleasure, and was now reaping the terrible harvest of her wayward career. Forsaken by friends, with no home to go to, she had come to Ben as a last refuge. She was then pregnant and suffering from a loathsome disease. Her cup of wretchedness seemed greater than she could bear, and like many another poor unfortunate, she had resolved to end her misery by taking her own life. She had gone so far, even, as to procure the poison, which she fully intended to take.
Ben talked to this woman in a way in which no stiff-necked puritan could have talked. He told her there was still hope for her in this world; that she must put all thoughts of suicide out of her mind, and that he would help her out of the slough into which she had fallen. A gleam of hope finally dawned upon the black pathway of this miserable girl. She found in Ben a friend who did something more than preach. He gave her sound advice, and backed this up with aid of a more substantial nature. Through his influence she obtained admittance to the Pittsburg Hospital, and there, in the course of a few weeks, she was fully restored to health. Then Hogan took it upon himself to bring about a reconciliation between the girl and her parents. He visited the latter, who lived in Butler, pleaded with them in behalf of the outcast, and showed them how, by receiving her back, they might yet save her from further disgrace. These pleadings were not in vain. The girl returned to her parents’ roof, abandoned her old evil ways, and is to-day the wife of a lawyer, loyal and true.
The girl is pregnant, the girl goes to a hospital, and then the girl is 'restored to health' and reconciled to her parents...but with no mention that her parents have a grandchild. Does this mean that Hogan helped her procure a miscarriage? This seems a good story with a happy ending.
Hogan is also very keen on promoting the health benefits of fitness training for both men and women, and the last section of the book is all about the importance of regular gymnastic exercise and Hogan's exact prescriptions for it. (Which are pretty good and would still make a decent trendy exercise advice-book today.) His own lifespan was circa 1841-1916 - certainly above the classic threescore and ten.
As far as a Google search can tell, Benedict Hogan was a person who really existed - although the extent of the truth in his life story is up for grabs. The pirate section is notably lacking in detail. Here is a further reference to this novel.
