Throwing things

SEELEY LAKE – The number of presidential candidates apparently has stabilized, but for a while it seemed like every newscast announced someone new had thrown his or her hat into the ring – even though no candidate actually wore a hat and most spoke from podiums rather than from rings.

Before the phrase "throw your hat into the ring" became an idiom, it was an actual occurrence in the world of boxing.

An 1804 London newspaper, "The Morning Chronicle," reported; "The champions arrived at Wilsdon Green at eleven o'clock in two hackney coaches. Belcher first threw his hat into the ring over the heads of the spectators, as an act of defiance to his antagonist, who received him in the ring with a welcome smile. The champions then stript and set to."

Less official boxing venues proceeded with fewer frills and formality. Unlike the raised, roped off square of modern pugilist spectacles, boxing arenas of the early 1800s often simply consisted of the empty circular space created by a crowd of onlookers.

The "Mirror of Taste," a Philadelphia publication of 1810, recorded how the contenders were chosen: "A young fellow threw his hat into the ring and followed, when the lame umpire called out "a challenge," and proceeded to equip the challenger for the game. ... He then walked round the ring till a second hat was thrown in, and the umpire called out, "the challenge is answered."

Throwing of the hat has its origins in the proclivity of Renaissance gentlemen to respond to perceived insults by slapping the offending fellow across the face with a glove. That action resulted in a formal duel, either with swords or rapiers or later with pistols. Glove-slapping, in turn, had its origin in the medieval practice of challenging someone by throwing down a gauntlet, which is sort of a metal glove. That action often resulted in a sword duel or perhaps a joust between the two offended parties.

From gauntlet to glove to hat, the custom eventually entered the metaphorical realm. The earliest example comes from the town of Reading in Berkshire, England. The September 1820 issue of the "Reading Mercury, Oxford Gazette" apparently refers to an editorial column, or possibly a Letters-to-the-Editor section, called the Reading Address.

In response to complaints made in two prior articles, the editor (or another respondent) wrote: "Now, Sir, I throw down my glove, or according to the more modern fancy, throw my hat into the ring, and challenge you to produce PROOFS from the Reading Address, of what you have thus upon two occasions so confidently advanced, and if I do not answer you satisfactorily let me be stigmatized as an enemy to TRUTH."

Another activity related to boxing provides the expression "throw in the towel," which in turn is probably related to waving a white flag to indicate surrender when one has given up all hope of winning. In boxing, a towel was always available to wipe down the sweaty opponents in between rounds. When a boxer was too battered and beaten to give up or continue being pummeled, the coach would throw the white sweat towel into the ring, thus signaling the referee that the boxer admitted defeat.

Considering the number of candidates who have thrown their hats into the 2020 presidential ring, doubtless it won't be long before many of them throw in the towel.