Evening Star Newspaper, April 28, 1929, Page 91

THE SUNDAY STAR. WASHINGTON. D. €. APRII gxing No Brutal Sp _1929-PART 1. ort in the Opinion of George Bernard Sh k Dempsey, who,says G. Jack Dempsey, who, <a)<(.v.m “With Tunney’s character,” says G. B. S, “Carpentier would have beafen Dempsey.” Discussing the Boxing Matches of Yester- day and Today, the Renowned Drama- tist Gives His Reminiscences of the Ring and Expresses His Views on the Great Battles of the Century. BY NORMAN CLARK. | ERE it possible to decide the | netic! He has the power of infecting {others with the delight he takes in | himselt. 4 Georges ¢ Frenchman, who revived George Bernard Shaw’s in- § 4 terest in the prize ring. U. & U. Photo. “Disappointment and exhaustion brought down Tunney’s opponents,” says Shaw. P. & A. Photo. st Carpentier, the Tunney and Dempsey talking in the office of a New York fi u. | A recent photograph of George Bernard Shaw. 'U. & U. Photo. “And the great Birmingham ama-! teurs, Tom Hill and Anthony Diamond.” Diamond! Yes, 1 remember him W . well,” said Shaw. And he then told ASKED Shaw if he ever went to|me that there was a formidable ama- boxing contests nowadays. teur, brother of a well known scholar “Oh, very rarely,” he replied with|and publicist, who competed in the Before I wrote ‘Cashel By- | Queensbury heavyweight championship ron’ I used to frequent the old Queens. | 0ne year and had a walkover. He then berry contests at Lillie Bridge, and the | €ntered for the assoclation champion- early boxing association contests at the | Ship at St. James' Hall. On that occa- old St. James' Hall, which grew out | $ion Diamond, having already won sev- of them, with a poet friend of mine, | who, like all poets, had an incorrigible passion for fighting. The chief arenas be navigated, whilst without me people would not know what to think of themselves.” I matter, I suppose it would be found that Bernard Shaw at present the most famous | B3| man in the world. His dra- matic works are performed in practi- cally every country where any theater | exists. 50 keen was I on meeting their | suthor that no advice would have dis- suaded me against this purpose; so, | after sending him a number of my writings, and receiving a couple of kindly postcards in reply, I boldly wrote informing him I was coming to Lon- don. and intended to call and see him My various journalist friends, when told of this, shook their heads, and re- minded me of the journalist who had written asking Shaw for an interview. “Certainly: come and dine with me to- | night,” Shaw had replied; but when | the journalist turned the card over he found the postmark was some very re- mote village in the Scuth of France! | However, as events proved. I knew my man. In two days' time there came a| postcard: “I have not a moment be- | tween meals. Come to lunch with me tomorrow (Thursday) at 1:30. Ring| 4 up—as soon i conveniently can But this docs not alter the es and say whether we may expect you.| sential nature of the process, &5 you G. B And this time the postmark | show clearly when you talk about ‘hav- was all in order ing a man guessing,’ meaning, in effect Need I say that I reached 10 Adel- [ that you have him beaien because his hia Terrace well on time, and after ; conscious mir arresting sub &:nx let through the barrier Shaw has ! conscious.” Then, after a pause, he guarding stairs, I was ushered into | added: "It is not very different with the room that has scen so many celeb- . other types of abili Give me an rities. and after filling es for half an hour wrong answer; but give it to A born mathematician’ and he will solve it as quickly and surely as Shakespeare or myself would find eal words to express some particular- ‘The main specific ability * ok % UT despite his vivacity and easy| DIAI0S ! | charm, Shaw struck me as some- | my | what shy; or, more accurately, conscious of my thyness, and this had much the same effect on him as when you address him as “Sir.” He, there- fore, took refuge in a flood of con- versation, In which he showed that he had read ail the letters and writings I had sent him, and remembered them quite well. “You say in your article on my ‘Cashel Byron's Profession,’ " he started, evidently choosing the subject to put me at my ecase, “that I am wrong when I say that pugilistic genius is no more remarkable than respiration or, say, the bees building their hive Well, why am I wrong? The boxer's assets dre ability to judge and time blows, and select alm instantaneous- ly the right move at the right time, and this is just as instinctive as the processes I mentio No doubt the ability is rarer; therc are a thousand can breathe to every one effectually knock another - * * * very tastefully fur- The pictures were mostly | bv Sartoris. with one by Flandrin. There were portraits of Des- cartes, Einstein, Schopenhauer, Nietz- sche, Strindberg, with a stack of phot graphs which, on being turned over li a pack of cards, proved to be portr of Rodin, Wells and Shaw_himself, w several caricatures. But I had not time or presencs of mind to examine things at all caref: Suddenly door swung open and a tall, very right man bounded in flufty beard and so ful vitality that his entrance pulling up the blinds on & sunr morning. “Ah, here we are!” he exclaimed, his eyes still dancing as he shook hands briskly. “You have made a mis! coming to see me” I was about to stammer an apology; but he waved me | into the settee. and. settling himself in his chair, added: “In the theater there must always be a certain amount of give and take, you know. What would become of your great boxing shows if the spectators knew how few were getting home and what damage they really did? Well same in my profession. You she ways avold seeing the artist sible.” Then he lay back in his wreathed in the kindliest sm 1 thought of Max Beerbchm's "Mag- T HE nished landscapes room was characteristics of ar re that it comes easy to those who possess it, and is remarkable in pro- portion to the number of creatures who do not possess it “But are not different types of ability different standards?” I suggested P “AM. that's a diff question,” said “ shaw. “Broadly, values of spe | cific types of ability may be judged in three ways—thelr rarity, thelr com- mercial value, and how they stand in the evolutionary scale. Mr. Jack John- profession when it carried no money with it used to be regarded as e Jowest profession; but if money alone is test it should now be logi- y erior to mine or the Astron Yet from the e utionary Astronomer Royal and myself may perhaps be pardoned if we claim superiority over Jack Johnson And what of utility?” I asked. N Shaw replied iegs feels he is but of son's limited it's the Id al pos- hair b 1 an astronomer with then,” Shaw explained, “were Bob Hab- bijam’'s school of arms and Bill Rich- ‘Blue Anchor’ (immortalized ‘Admirable Bashville’); but 1 | never went to these places. The N. 8. | C. did not then exist, and I have never | witnessed a fight In it. The most bril- iant boxer of that day was Jack Burke but he was killed in a bicycle acciden It was an exhibition spar of his th: | ested the exploits of Cashel Byron.” 1‘ “Then there would be Ned Donnally, | the royal professor,” I suggested, “who. | when commanded to spar before the| king, immediately bought a new top- | hat and frockcoat.” “I knew him.” said Shaw taught all my friends. Ned Skene, | ‘Cashel Byron,' owes something to him Fights I Have Attended. | in he was | Is Boxing Brutal? | il | What I Think of Beckett. What I Think of Dempsey. What I Think of Tunney. | | My Opinion of the Dempsey Norman Clark is the British Bozxing Board of e | his gloves came off ‘and had to be re- | This article has been revised and corrected by Mr. Bernard Shaw himself. In it the famous dramatist discusses: The Essentials of a Good Boxer. Is the Jaw Knockout Painful? Different Types of Boxing Ability. | How I Came to Write “Cashel Byron.” What I Think of Carpentier. My Opinion of the Carpentier-Dempsey Fight. secretary and certified referee of the Control. amateur contests, in a number of which he has won honors. eral lightweight champlionships, was due | to box in the middles, but found some one boxing he did not want to meet, mi jumped up into the heavies and was drawn against the Queensbury Giant. ‘The big man hadn't a chance. Being a gentleman, he wouldn't make a bull rush and comsit murder, and Diamond was 80 much too quick for him that it was a relief to every one when one of | placed.” Diamond won the competition | easily and impressed G. B. S. as being | among the best boxers he had ever seen. | -Tunney Fight. He has bozxed in some 50 ght promoter., & U. Photo. T suggested that an exhibition lke that perhaps made him feel boxing was rather a brutal sport. “‘Oh, boxing is rarely more distress- ing than running a mile or rowing in the boat race,” Shaw answered. “It was the bloody-minded newspaper reporters who gave that impression, just as it was the people who clamor against the cruel- ty of the ring who are incidentally the best propagandists for its box office. A | bruise soon healed and the jaw knock- out, far from being painful, was the most perfect form of anesthetic. No, I gave up going to boxing because I found the second-rate boxing one usu- aly sees so tedious, while as to mere siugging exhibitions, which have neither the brutal realism of a genuine fight nor the interest of a skilled game, these re- duced me to such a condition of deadly boredom that even disgust would have been a relief. Shaw, however, was persuaded to re- visit the glimpses in 1918, when Carpen- tier met Beckett at the Holborn Sta- dium, and apparently was much struck with the Frenchman. Writing me shortly afterward, he said, “I am grati- fied to find that your estimate of Beck- ett as being centrally a sensible chap (and not fitted for fighting) tallied with mine. Carpentier is a genius hors con- cours, not comparable with boxers like Mitchell, because he is not really in the same street with them. The transfigura- tion which takes place when he stands up to fight is amazing: he becomes a being of a different order. A great boxer would rise to him and say, ‘Here, at I BY STEPHEN LEACOCK. T seems that this present year, 1929, 15 going to be a year of encyclo- pedias, what with the new editions | announced for the current year. | If this is so, the moment is ripe for a little discussion of the encyclo- | I pedia question. A few timely sugges- | Quite £0,” T interposed, “as, stance, in for in- the inscription on a golden , I believe, at Praeneste,” she he year 1886. Exactl; I answered with some warmth, “but not differing markedly from the letter A in the inscription un- carthed in the Roman Forum- s tions fo the editors and publishers might be of great assistance hefore they g0 to press. Personally, I can properly | claim the right to give a little advice of | this sort. My encyclopedia is my con- | stant friend.” I spend many a dreamy hour burted in its pages. I never go |out to dinner without first hunting up |a few topics of conversation in it, and | when it says a thing, I believe it. But even at that I think it could be | improved. In the first place, I'd like to that the new encyclopedia ough [ fed up with A. We know it too well zverybody who buys an encyclopedia | always begins with reading up the letter ! | A, and each time he stops and starts over he begins with A again { Thus tne other night at dinner, anxious to make conversation with the lady next to me, I sald. Your mentioning the month of April reminds me of a ra‘her curious fact in connection with the letter A. | It ‘appears that this letter of ours cor- responds with the first smybol of the Phoeniclan alphabet, and represents not |a vowel, but merely a breathing.” | “Indecd,” she replied, “and has not the form of the letter varied consider- {ably? It was, unless I am wrong, in o " the earliest of the Phoenician, Aramaic, |and Greek inscriptions (the oldest | Phoenician dating from, perhaps, 1000 B.C). The letter rests upon its side But as borrowed by the Romans, it out the latter his ships could not very early assumed an upnzbb}gm.' modern Umes (see Time), was born ab gin with Z. We have all got. pretty well | “In 1899." she said with a sigh, and then added: “It seems a little sad, |does it not, to think that the upright | form of the A never seems to have been i found in the early Boeotian and Locria ! dialects of Greek——" “Or only sporadically, which there was silenc To break it, I turned to my neighbor | en the other side | “You were in Europe this Summer were you not? Did you visit the River she replied. “We went all the from Aalberg to Aalen, though as a matter of fact the name Aa is applied to a number of small European rivers and is perhaps derived from the old German Aha! | “Which, I imagine” I replied, “is | cognate to the Latin Aqua.” But I spoke { without any great enthusiasm. I real- | tzed that I was blocked on both sides. | When I get my new encyclopedia I am | going to talk about the River Zizz and | he alarming growth of zymotic diseases | That ought to prove the last word. | * ok ok Another liftle bit of advice that T | want to give the encyclopadia editors is | to_suggest that they cut out all this SEE—SEE—business. Al readers will know what I mean. You no sooner get | started reading something in the en- | cyclopedia than it jmmediately says: | Sen something else.” Thus. Napoleon, the greatest general of Now Overhaul the Encyc Ajaceio in Corsica (turn to Corsica and | see Ajaccio). He was educated at the Royal Military School at Brienne, whers he showed a marked talent for mathe- | matics (see Long Divislon). Entering the French Army at the outbreak of the Revolution (see it), Bonaparte rose rapidly in rank. His victory over the English at Toulon (see Toulon and hav~ A laugh at the English) earned him promotion. In 1798 he invaded Italy at the head of a French Army, and in a few months the plains of Lombardy lay at his feet (see Feet). He was made first. consul of the republic (see Repub. lic, Public, Public House, Publication and Publishers) and in 1804 Emperor. Within 10 years he conquered all Eu- rope (see All Europe); but his crushing defeat by the Scotch at Waterloo (sce | Scotch, Hot Scotch, Gin and Soda) led | 1o his exile at St. Helena (see Helen of Troy). Here he died in 1821. His re-| mains were afterwards removed to| Paris, where they lie in & stately sar cophagus in the Invalides (sec Sar- cophagus, Oesophagus, Paris, Invalid, Invalid Chalr, etc., etc.). L Now one has to admit that that kind | of thing gets tiresome. There is no time " all these things. Any reader who really looked them up would never get any further. And yet they constant- ly tempt the reader in an alluring way into side paths and on into the woods. * How much belter to let the article itself do all the telling. Let me illus irate it by showing how to write an encyclopedia article on the United States. Any editor who cares to use this article may have it in return for a mplete set of his encyclopedia, a gold watch and a handsome lady's hatpin— cr any lady's hatpin * * * * THE UNITED STATES, a republic of lopedia. North America_situated between the twentieth and the forty-ninth parallels of north latitude. By latitude is meant an imaginary circular line drawn around the earth at a fixed angular dis- tance from the Equator. The Equator means a great circle described around the globe at right angles to its axis. An axis means anything on which any- thing turns, such as, for example, the wheels of a wagon. The use of the wagon is very ancient. We read in Diodorus Siculus that the ancient Etruscans made use of wagons whose ! wheels were made by sawing through the trunks of trees. In many parts of the anclent world trees grew to an enormous size and height, as for ex ample the cedars of Lebanon, which were the admiration of antiquity and were of vast longevity. The best known example of longevity actually recorde is that of Thomas Parr, or “Old Parr, who is sald to have lived from the reign of Henry VIII to that of Charles II and who is buried in Westminster Ab- bey. The abbey itself is a magnificent building, Norman in its original con- ception, but owing much to the later genius of Inigo Jones. Jones may be regarded as perhaps the greatest of the talian architects of the Renalissance, though his work in London is over- shadowed by the more numerous and fortunate creations of the great Sir Christopher Wren. The wren is a small bird found throughout the North~ ern Hemisphere, especially in Europe and in the United States. The United States Is a republic of North America situated between the twentieth and forty-ninth parallels—and there you are round again. ‘To mal the article complete it is only necessary to add: (See Latitude, Equator, Axis, Tree, Longevity, Ab- bey, Jones and Wren). Vrevrisht, 1920.) “This Tunney,” according to a Shavian statement, “is an extraordinarily hard man to hit. i = © Hartls & Eving. Dempsey’s fighting face. U. & U. Photo. last, is the sort of antagonist I want.’ | outshine him. He does not knock out An ordinary boxer would be frightened | his opponents; he wears them out. In out of his wits. Joe the Sensible did not | short, he is neither the smartest boxer concern himself elther way. Carpen- | nor the hardest puncher of his time, tier's second lead was like the kick of a | but he most certainly is the most re- thoroughbred horse in the face. Beckett | markable character, and it is character shook his head violently to convince | that he has won. You might say that himself it was still on his shoulders and | he wins because he has the gocd sense not halfway down Holburn. If the|to win. Fifty years ago he would have fourth blow, a straight right, had not |had too much good sense to be in the | got on the fatal spot. anything might | ring, but today no other profession | have happened, for it looked as if Beck- | could have done as much for him. ett could simply wear out Carpentier's| There! You see, it's no use trying fists with his head and then pummel his | to report me unless you take it down in way to the end, or even bring off a shorthand. An attempt to paraphrase knockout on his own account. As it 'me only ends in twaddle. was, Beckett as a boxer did not exist. | Faithtully, He might as well have been a punching (Signed.) ball.” | - sl ‘I MUCH appreciated Shaw’s kind and | C'ARPENTIER evidently revived h!nte!rpsunz lftlt,er.d Bua:;nnnpt ndlétiw Shaw's interest in boxing, for he | What I wrote to be described as twaddle, has since followed.—on the Him-the |and if he persists I shall dlsquality him’ careers of Dempsey and Tunney. The |In effect, his letter really indorses what latter visited him at his town house |1 said, namely, that Tunney is essen- when in London quite recently, and the | tially orthodox in his methods, and pair had a long talk together. Shortly | (regarding Carpentier as scarcely a afterward I happened to meet Shaw in | heavy-weight) the only big man since the street, and he described to me how |Jack Johnson who can really box. Of favorably Tunney had impressed him, | course, I quite agree with G. B. §. when and also gave his opinjon of him as a | he says, “T don't know that Tunney can | boxer. It occurred to me that this| box any better than you could”; that would make an excellent addition to my | Was not to be expected! But to follow interview, so I wrote it up as well as | this with the statement that Carpentier 1 could remember it and sent it to Shaw: | Would outshine Tunney with soft. gloves with a request that I might be allowed | is not only to make an unjustifiable as- to publish it. cumption but to cast an uncalled-for But Shaw apparently insists on pro- | reflection on us. I refuse to say more tecting his guests from any nice things |on the matter. Sha evidently trying he says about them, and he will not on | t0 create mischief among three great any account have words put into his | pugilists. He was very keen to protect mouth, even when in broad effect they | Tunney from me; now, it seems, I have G. B. 8. represent what he said. In due course | to protect Tunney from him. there came the following lctte: (Copyright, 1920, All rights reserved.) 4 Whitehall Cotrt, — e 2 London, S. W. L., - | 21st, February, 1929. Eggs in Sto: Dear Norman Clark: i 88 St rage. 1o 515 Quite out of the question for me | "J\HE hens of the country are applying ve S et seiitran a mny“brlvafe guespts. or themsalves diligently to their ap- |to_criticize them in public in any way. |Pointed task and are averaging some- [ pueeides, you have not got the hang of | thing llke 45,600 eggs a minute, but i i . aboild ;‘ay ihat he 55 an | CYen With such a stupendous output extraordinarily difficult man to hit. | they are not quite holding their own, Carpentier’s rights looked as fatal as;figures released by the Department of |ever, but as they produced absolutely |ASriculture indicate. no effect they cannot have got home.| FOr instance. on April 1 there were Tunney never crouches, always has his | ONLy some 550.000 cases of eggs in stor- I head as far bask as it will go, and has {a pecullar Diff that stalls off every attempt to rush him. He systematically | gets away and makes his opponent miss |until disappointment and exhaustion have brought him down to a conditio of definite inferiority. When Dempsey |after three get-aways had him against {the ropes and managed to get his arms jaround him for his terrible rabbit punch, Tunney simply held him until the referee interposed, in spite of every arm-breaking trick that Dempsey knew His confidence in himself and his sys- tem amounts to something like con tempt for his most famous adversaries Reputations cannot frighten him; per- sonalities cannot hypnotize hin does not need to be a brilliant_boxer like Carpentier or a terror like Demp- sey. He wins by mental and moral superiority, combined with plenty of strength, an inaccessible head, and that very disheartening biff that sickened Dempsey when he rushed for an appar- ently certain victory after the count in the seventh round. With Tunney's character Carpentier could have beaten Demgaey. Carpentier never looked like a baby in Dempsey’s hands, though he was smashed in the first 10 seconds. But Dempsey in the first fight with Tunney, after the first two rounds, did look like & schoolboy larking with an instructor. I never said to you that Tunney was the only big man who can box. 1 don't know that he can box {better than you caiw.In an exhibition rar with sQib gloves Ulugpfifier could age. compared with 1,087,000 on April 1 of last vear, and a five-year average of 1,129,000 cases. As if this were not bad enough, from the poultry point of view. the Depart- | ment of Agriculture is issuing a new booklet, “Eggs at Any Meal,” giving data on various ways and means of utllizing eggs. Many tasty recipes are i included, as well as a schedule of times and temperatures for cooking, in order |that the entire food value may be utilized. = . = |Citrus Tree Records. HE chicken farmer having trap- _nested his hens to check up on their egg production and the dairy far- mer having kept accurate charts on quantity and butter fat test of the milk from the individuals in his herd with excellent results, the eitrus pro- ducer now is following in their foot- steps and is keeping a check on his orchards. Tree records are kept on the oranges, lemons and grapefruits in order that the grower may know which trees are producing in the greatest quantity and best quality. By this method. he is able to select the best trees for his wood. Trees needing individual care are also located by this method. The orchardists have discovered that by taking good bud stock itom ~s0d Guality trees, they can converi old irees inte satisfactory producers, w