Christopher Keyburn (February 23, 1831 – December 19, 1870), commonly known by his alias Kit Burns, was an American sportsman, saloon keeper and underworld figure in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

during the mid-to late 19th century, he and

Tommy Hadden Thomas Hadden ( fl. 1840 – 1881) was American saloon keeper, criminal and underworld figure in New York City's infamous Fourth Ward during the mid-to late 19th century. He was the owner of a Cherry Street dive bar, a popular underworl ...

being the last-known leaders of the

Dead Rabbits The Dead Rabbits was the name of an Irish American criminal street gang active in Lower Manhattan in the 1830s to 1850s. The Dead Rabbits were so named after a dead rabbit was thrown into the center of the room during a gang meeting, prompting s ...

during the 1850s and 60s. Burns also founded Sportsmen's Hall, also known as the Band Box, which served as a popular

Bowery The Bowery () is a street and neighborhood in Lower Manhattan in New York City. The street runs from Chatham Square at Park Row, Worth Street, and Mott Street in the south to Cooper Square at 4th Street in the north.Jackson, Kenneth L. ...

sporting resort and dance hall during this time. It was also a central meeting place for the New York underworld in the Bowery and old Fourth Ward areas for nearly two decades until it was finally closed following a campaign by ASPCA founder

Henry Bergh Henry Bergh (August 29, 1813 – March 12, 1888) founded the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) in April, 1866, three days after the first effective legislation against animal cruelty in the United States was passe ...

in 1870.

Biography

Early life and the New York underworld

Born Christopher Keyburn in New York City on February 23, 1831, Burns joined the Dead Rabbits as a young man and, by the late 1840s, co-led the organization with Tommy Hadden. Both men started their own businesses in the Bowery with Burns opening his Sportsmen's Hall on Water Street. Asbury, Herbert. ''All Around the Town: Murder, Scandal, Riot and Mayhem in Old New York''. New York: Alfred A. Knoff, 1929. (pg. 126, 129-130) Batterberry, Michael. ''On the Town in New York: The Landmark History of Eating, Drinking, and Entertainments from the American Revolution to the Food Revolution''. New York: Routledge, 1998. (pg. 104) His establishment was widely known for holding illegal

bare-knuckle boxing Bare-knuckle boxing (or simply bare-knuckle) is a combat sport which involves two individuals throwing punches at each other for a predetermined amount of time without any boxing gloves or other form of padding on their hands. It is a regulated ...

prize fight Professional boxing, or prizefighting, is regulated, sanctioned boxing. Professional boxing bouts are fought for a purse that is divided between the boxers as determined by contract. Most professional bouts are supervised by a regulatory autho ...

s as well as featuring such entertainment as the infamous "rat pit" where

blood sport A blood sport or bloodsport is a category of sport or entertainment that involves bloodshed. Common examples of the former include combat sports such as cockfighting and dog fighting, and some forms of hunting and fishing. Activities char ...

s such as

rat-baiting Rat-baiting is a blood sport that involves releasing captured rats in an enclosed space with spectators Gambling, betting on how long a dog, usually a terrier, takes to kill the rats. Often, two dogs competed, with the winner receiving a cash pr ...

and dogfighting took place. In these events, large gray

wharf rat The brown rat (''Rattus norvegicus''), also known as the common rat, street rat, sewer rat, wharf rat, Hanover rat, Norway rat, Norwegian rat and Parisian rat, is a widespread species of common rat. One of the largest muroids, it is a brown or ...

s were captured and set against dogs. These dogs, mostly

terrier Terrier (from Latin ''terra'', 'earth') is a type of dog originally bred to hunt vermin. A terrier is a dog of any one of many breeds or landraces of the terrier type, which are typically small, wiry, game, and fearless. Terrier breeds vary ...

s, were sometimes starved for several days beforehand and set against each other as well. Asbury, Herbert. ''The Gangs of New York: An Informal History of the New York Underworld''. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1928. (pg. 45-46, 53-55, 298) Doutney, Thomas Narcisse. ''Thomas N. Doutney: His Life-Struggle, Fall, and Reformation, Also a Vivid Pen-Picture of New York, Together With a History of the Work He Has Accomplished as a Temperance Reformer''. Boston: Rand Avery Company, 1887. (pg. 355-356, 358)Martin, Edward Winslow. ''The Secrets of the Great City: A Work Descriptive of the Virtues and the Vices, the Mysteries, Miseries and Crimes of New York City''. Philadelphia: Jones Brothers & Co., 1868. (pg. 388-392)Isenberg, Michael T. ''John L. Sullivan and His America''. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1994. (pg. 84, 89, 96) Burns had two of his favorite dogs stuffed and mounted over the bar. The first, a black and tan colored terrier named Jack, reportedly set an American record by killing 100 rats in 6 minutes and 40 seconds. The other dog, Hunky, was a champion fighting dog "that expired after his last great victory".Burns, Patrick. ''American Working Terriers''. Morrisville, North Carolina: Patrick Burns, 2006. (pg. 45-46) Sportsman's Hall occupied an entire three-story frame house, and the "rat pit" took up the first floor. The pit was described as being "arranged as an amphitheater, with rough wooden benches for seats. In the center was a ring enclosed by a wooden fence about three feet high." His son-in-law Richard Toner, known as "Jack" or "Dick the Rat", would regularly bite the heads off rats; he would bite the head off a mouse for 10 cents and a wharf rat for a quarter.Gems, Gerald R., Linda J. Borish and Gertrud Pfister. ''Sports in American History: From Colonization to Globalization''. Champaign, Illinois: Human Kinetics, 2008. (pg. 156-157) Another Bowery character, "Snatchem" George Leese, served as the bouncer and official "bloodsucker" during prize fights, or more precisely, sucking the wounds of the participants to prevent

blood loss Bleeding, hemorrhage, haemorrhage or blood loss, is blood escaping from the circulatory system from damaged blood vessels. Bleeding can occur internally, or externally either through a natural opening such as the mouth, nose, ear, urethra, ...

and allow the fight to continue for as long as possible. The hall was especially popular in the city's underworld, not only in the Bowery but throughout Manhattan, and was referred to by James William Buel in ''Mysteries and Miseries of America's Great Cities'' (1883) as "an eating cancer on the body municipal, and within its crime begrimed walls have been enacted so many villainies, that the world has wondered why the wrath of vengeance did not consume it. But with all its festering and mephitic odors and criminalities, together with its votaries of

Jezebel Jezebel (;"Jezebel"
(US) and ) was the daughte ...

and

Nana Sahib Nana Saheb Peshwa II (19 May 1824 – 24 September 1859), born as Dhondu Pant, was an Indian Peshwa of the Maratha empire, aristocrat and fighter, who led the rebellion in Kanpur (Cawnpore) during the Great Revolt of 1857. As the adopted s ...

, the proprietor prospered and waxed rich. His rat and dog pits were known far and wide, and nowhere could the molochs and thugs find such delectable divertissement as Burns' pits afforded". Behind the building was a small space, which reached through a narrow doorway that could be defended against a police raid, which was built to seat 250 people, but attendance often reached 400.

Role in the Water Street revival

Burns was one of several saloon keepers targeted during the public crusade against John Allen, then called the "Wickedest Man in New York", and it was soon reported in the press that he and others had been "reformed" by religious leaders and agreed to hold

prayer meeting A prayer meeting is a group of lay people getting together for the purpose of prayer as a group. Prayer meetings are typically conducted outside regular services by one or more members of the clergy or other forms of religious leadership, but the ...

s in their establishments. Though he had declined their offers several times, he eventually allowed his "rat pit" to be used for a high fee. It is claimed he rented out the building for one hour each week in exchange for $150. One such meeting held at Sportsman's Hall in September 1868 was described by the ''

New York World The ''New York World'' was a newspaper published in New York City from 1860 until 1931. The paper played a major role in the history of American newspapers. It was a leading national voice of the Democratic Party. From 1883 to 1911 under pub ...

'', Burns later mocked the movement calling it "sheer humbug" and said, in reference to John Allen's holding an evangelical meeting in his establishment, "I've known Johnny Allen fourteen years and he couldn't be a pious man if he tried ever so hard. You might as well ask a rat to sing like a canary bird as to make a Christian out of that chap." The general public became skeptical of these meetings at the "rat pit", and a public inquiry was made to investigate the relationship between Burns and the missionaries. It was Burns himself, however, that was the first to turn against them. He and the other Water Street dive keepers were angry at having been paid less than half what John Allen had received. One night, during a nightly meeting, he announced to reporters present that "them fellows have been making a pul-pit out of my rat pit and I'm going to purify it after them". Burns gave the signal and his barman began pelting the congregation of "ladies and clergymen" with rats while the regulars taunted the crowd with insults. Burns mandated a nightly show soon afterwards and "referred to his sacrament as one that 'ratified' the meetings". However, the hall operated a few weeks before the police shut the building down. Prompted by

, founder of the ASPCA, it was Burns'

cruelty to animals Cruelty to animals, also called animal abuse, animal neglect or animal cruelty, is the infliction by omission (neglect) or by commission by humans of suffering or harm upon non-human animals. More narrowly, it can be the causing of harm or suf ...

that led to the final closing of Sportsman's Hall when it was raided on the night of November 31, 1870. It was recognized at the time as the city's largest dogfighting ring and, that same night, Burns held his last event in the rat pit. He offered 300 rats to be "given away, free of charge, for gentlemen to try their dogs with". It was this advertisement that caught the attention of Bergh and who personally led the raid. Burns and all involved were arrested for violation of an anti-animal cruelty law passed by the New York state legislature four years prior.

Death

Though everyone was acquitted at the trial, Burns caught a

cold Cold is the presence of low temperature, especially in the atmosphere. In common usage, cold is often a subjective perception. A lower bound to temperature is absolute zero, defined as 0.00K on the Kelvin scale, an absolute thermodynamic ...

which developed into

pneumonia Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severit ...

and died on December 19, 1870, shortly before he was to go to trial. The funeral service at his

South Brooklyn South Brooklyn is a historic term for a section of the former City of Brooklyn – now the New York City borough of Brooklyn – encompassing what are now the Boerum Hill, Carroll Gardens, Cobble Hill, Gowanus, Park Slope, Windsor Ter ...

home was attended by "a motley crowd of young street urchins, grown-up rowdies, hard-faced men, 'sports' and women" who accompanied the funeral procession from Sackett Street to Calvary Cemetery where he was buried. His Water Street establishment was carried on by his son-in-law Richard Toner and the English rat-catcher Jack Jennings, but they closed Burn's infamous "rat pit" and instead turned Sportsman's Hall, or the "Band-Box", into a full-time saloon. His widow later stated her intentions to apply to the common council, or Judge Joseph Dowling, for compensation when police disposed of a cage filled with rats in the

East River The East River is a saltwater tidal estuary in New York City. The waterway, which is actually not a river despite its name, connects Upper New York Bay on its south end to Long Island Sound on its north end. It separates the borough of Quee ...

in a recent raid ordered by Police Commissioner Bergh. She also wanted damages for a

bullpup A bullpup firearm is one with its firing grip located in front of the breech of the weapon, instead of behind it. This creates a weapon with a shorter overall length for a given barrel length, and one that is often lighter, more compact, conce ...

, valued at $100, which was also seized by police during the raid. Although little of the original structure remains, Sportsman's Hall occupied the land where the Joseph Rose House and Shop, a four-unit luxury apartment house, now lies and is the third oldest house in Manhattan after

St. Paul's Chapel St. Paul's Chapel is a chapel building of Trinity Church, an episcopal parish, located at 209 Broadway, between Fulton Street and Vesey Street, in Lower Manhattan, New York City. Built in 1766, it is the oldest surviving church building in Man ...

and the Morris-Jumel Mansion.Wolfe, Gerard R. ''New York, 15 Walking Tours: An Architectural Guide to the Metropolis''. 3rd ed. New York: McGraw-Hill Professional, 2003. (pg. 49)

In popular culture

Burns was referenced in the

historical novel Historical fiction is a literary genre in which the plot takes place in a setting related to the past events, but is fictional. Although the term is commonly used as a synonym for historical fiction literature, it can also be applied to other t ...

s, ''Play For a Kingdom'' (1997) by Tom Dyja, ''A Universal History of Iniquity'' (2001) by

Jorge Luis Borges Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo (; ; 24 August 1899 – 14 June 1986) was an Argentine short-story writer, essayist, poet and translator, as well as a key figure in Spanish-language and international literature. His best-known b ...

and ''Lucky Billy'' (2008) by John Vernon; his character in the Borges' novel was confused with his son-in-law Jack the Rat, however.

Biography

Early life and the New York underworld

Role in the Water Street revival

Death

In popular culture

References

Further reading