The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, July 16, 1905, Page 7

THE ' $AN 'FRANCISCO” SUNDAY CALL. He Is Still Champion of the World in One Class—Downfall of George La Blanche, the Marine—Red Mike Comes to Jobm L.’s Ald—Teddy Re- calls the “Real Old Stingo From Santa Demingo.” LL who remember that I am the undefeated champion of the world under the London rules will please I don't see many to 7, I am still the rid in that class, fighting that has The top- and side- ng time, on the I &m spavined and have on’t know what real fight- t up under the London and when those rules MEN fought. The ove-pats house work you know -breaking right to a boxers of to- I'm going to London prize overboard, y that I wrote to Dr. Osler, hrough a door ranteeing b in the ugh to put head there on d I'm 46. I haven't The Dowsnfall of La Blanche, the Ma- rine. George La Blache, r the Great no did well another ith a rel show, s at the high tide of brought Gleason oston to see mi ¥ k Dempsey had - d when they met put Demp- ut with the pivot punch, This clout was an e Marine tried hard to r that he was justified In it to Jack. He never got the defeating Dempsey right, and t fight put both the Marine on the toboggan. George ed on all sides because he de- Jack, who was liked by every- at clout seemed to take all of Dempsey, who was stored ky Bob, after the latter had * to Jim Hall in Australia. he same, George La Blanche was man in his trade, and deserved & good better thanm a shut-out from tue game eo early. It would have been better for the Marine had he lost to Jack Dempsey instead of winning with & punch that wasn't on the square. There's a lesson this for fighters as well as other people. Buccess gained by foul work don’t pay in the long run. Better go down and out for the time being, in fighting or business, and be square, than to win and wear 2 tag that you'r a shyster. Rea] 014 Stingo From Santa Domingo. Teddy's attempt to play horse with Santo Domingo has interested me as much es enything since the Boer war. I'm not sure just what part of the map owns this country with the funny name, ued From Page Six) (Contin nin’, and she guessed she'd sorry to disappoint you, Mr. you'll see I'm advertisin’ s held his right hand under the ght, and a diamond ring flashed finger. I could have was not there five minutes be- sman had a disappointed face, a moment it brightened as he ex- the value of that ring and on hie people had accepted for it. d to guess the figure, but I liscreet head. I have seldom e taciturn in my Mfe. ve pounds,” cried the jeweler; uld be cheap at 50 guineas.” right,” assented Raffles. cad cheap, 1 allow. But 7, you gotten ready cash, and orget it.” t dwell upon my own mystifica- I merely pause to state enjoying that very ele- g could have been more typica! of Raffies and the past. It was only my own attitude that was changed. It eppeared that the mythical lady, my sister, had just become engaged to Raf- fles, who seemed all anxiety to pin her down with gifts of price. I could mot "I BET THAT I'VE GOT MOEE FAME TUCKED AWAY FOE USE AFTLEE 1J1 DEAD THAN CAENEGIE OE EOCKEFFLLER CAN BUY WITH ALL THEIR SAVED-UP EOOT OF ALL EVIL ” but I get interested just the same, fot the President keeps us all guessing. It sounds like old ‘times, too, for it puts you in mind of that celebrated drama, “Ten quite gather whose gift to whom was the diamond ring, but it had evidently been paid for, and I voyaged to the moon, worndering when and how. I was recalled to this planet by a deluge of gems from the jeweler's bag. They lay alight in thelr cases like the electric lamps above. We all three put our heads together over them, myself without the slightest clew as to what was coming, but not unpre- pared for violent crime. One does not do eighteen months for nothing. “Right away,” Raffles was saying. “We'll choose for her, and you'll change ;aanyzhlng she don't like. Is that the ea 7" “That was my suggestion, sir.” “Then come on, Ezra. I guess you know Badie’s taste. You help me choose.” And we chose—Lord! What did we not choose? There was her ring, & dlamond half hoop. It cost £%, and there was no attempt to get it for £90. Then there was a diamond necklet—200 guineas, but pounds accepted. That was to be the gift of the bridegrocm. The wedding was evidently imminent. It behooved me to play a brotherly part. I therefore rose to the occasion, calculated she would like a dlamond star (£116), but reckoned it was more than I could afford, and sus- tained a viclous kick under the table for either verb. I was afrald to open my mouth on finally cbtaining the star for the round hundred. And then the fat fell SOONSSY] OSSO T Nights in a Barroom,” or *Ten Barrooms in One Night,” as they say in Kentucky. Bvery time Sample Switchell, one of the heroes of that good old play, would go In the fire, for pay we could not, though & remittance (said Raffles) was ‘‘overdue from Noo York.” “‘But I don't know you, gentlemen,” the Jeweler exclaimed. “I haven't even the name of your hotel!” “I told you we was stoppin’ with friends,” saild Raffles, who was not angry, though thwarted and crushed. “But that's right, sir! Oh, that's dead right, and I'm the last man to ask you toytake Quixotic risks. I'm tryin' to figure a way out. Yes, sir, that's what Fm tryin’ to do.” “I wish you could, sir,” the jeweler sald with feeling. "It isn’t as if we hadn't seen the color of your money. But certain rules I am sworn to observe; it isn't as if I was in business for myself, and—you say you start for Paris in the morning!”’ “On the 9 a. m. train,” mused Raffles, “and I've heard no-end yarns sbout the Joolers’ stores in Parrus. But that ain't up to the bar he and the bartender in the play would take a drink. When they'd pour out the rum—five fingers of it every time—they'd raise their glasses, look at 1t, then look at each other, and this is what they'd say: . Sample: “Real old Stingo.” Barkeeper: “From Santo Domingo.” Both together: ‘“Down she goes, by Jingo!” And the Senators have called the Presi- dent a jingo, and they’ve stung him be- cause of Santo Domingo. The whole thing is funny: as the poem Gus Willlams wrote on a boiled dinner a friend of mine, who has a hotel in Boston, served for him one day when Gus was good and ‘;n the hotel in Milwaukee, where I am trying to write, there is a great push of people trying to get in to hear me re- for my part, still sat prepared to spring any moment at our visitor's throat. ““We could mail you the money from Parrus,” drawled Raffles at length. “But should we know you'd hoid up your end of the string and mail us the same arti- cles we've selected to-night?"” The visitor stiffened in his chalr, The name of his firm should be sufficlent guarantee for that. . “] guess I'm no better acquainted with thelr name than they are with mine," re- marked Raffles, laughing. ‘“See here, though! I got a scheme. You pack ‘em in this!” He turned the cigarettes out of the tin box, while the jeweler and I joined won- wering eyes. “Pack '‘em In this,” repeated Raffles, “the three things we want, and never mind the . fair; don’'t you take no notice o’ that. g I'm tryin’ to figure a way out. Yes, sir!” He was smoking clgarettes out of & twenty-five box; the tradesman and I had cigars. Raffles sat fro with a pregnant eye, and it was only clear to me that his plans had miscarried, I could not help thinking, however, that .a they deserved to do so if he had counted upon buying credit for all but £400 by a single pmuto{nmwm again unworthy of and I, lease language. I have had to shoo them away . because writing takes time with me and these jolts don't come as easy as they might. I have to crook my el- bow to work a pen, and every time I crook it T am reminded .aat I am on the water wagon. Some of my well wishers have got over the trocha the hotel clerks have put up to make writing easier. Several fellows have got upstairs by the enterprising scheme of paying for 2 room in advance, and then, instead of going to the rooms, they have swooped down on my quarters with the glad hand. One sport who got through offered to put up $§1000 o. any forfeit I might re- quire if I get a chance at any of the actors now suffering from stage fright who say they are in the heavy-weight class. This fellow says he owes e the money because: A few years ago, in the fall, I met him in New York. He was shaking In & summer suit, hadn't eaten in two days, was about to be evicted from his boarding-house and was to the bad generally. “I want $5,” sald he. He got it, but first he got a square feed. With the V he went to a gllded place where the lid was off, bucxed the tiger, won from the start, and at 4 o'clock in the morning was $700 ahead of the game. Since that time he told me he was all to the good. “I owe you a ‘thou,’ John L.,” said he (Red Mike, we call him), “and there’s my address when you need it.”” Funny how things come to the man who waits long enough, {sn't it? He Kept No Books on the Money He SJent. I never trimmed any of my gifts with arc lamps and this particular case I re- call because of the quick profits ‘“Red” made on my investment. Not all the bread I have cast on the waters has come back in the form of dough, but a Iot of it I've spent has done a lot of good. Whenever I meet a Sister of Charity on the street I give up all the money in my clothes, and it's the best money I ever spent. Seeing a worthy case, I've passed out the coin for present use, not tingling 1t in red tape with regulations as to how large my name would have to be In brick or stone. tradesman did not like it; the precaution was absolutely unnecessary; but since hé was taking all his goods away with him, the sold with the unsold, his sentimental objections soon fell to the ground. He packed necklet, ring and star with his own hands in cotton wool, and the cigar- ette box held them so easily that at the last moment, when the box was closed and the string ready, Raffles very nearly added a diamond bee brooch at £51 10s. This temptation, however, he ultimately overcame, to the other’s chagrin. The clgarette box was tied up, and the string paid for. “I'l chance you having another ring in the store the dead spit of mine,” laughed Raffles as he relinquished the box and it disappeared into the trades- , chance for such a pot, ALZ SHAPES Some hundreds of thousands have gone that way, and I kept no books on it. A lot of it went to no-goeds, but a lot of it went to do real good. Tnere's one man who has made a fortune in mining, and the money that gave him the start was mine. I could name one who went from Denver to New York on a railroad ticket I bought for him, and he sold a mine that put fortunes into a dozen pockets. I forgot to call on him to make come true the promises he swore to give me a fist full of the stock. A fellow near Bos- ton I supported for six months while he was putting together an invention that started him riding in his own carriage. He ducked whenever he'saw me coming, after the stage was set his way. But pish tush and fudge! What's the use of yelling fire or calling the cops? I have my health, my appetite, and there's a dog in Connecticut named ‘Sul- livan'’s Punch,” and they say he's a corker. T'll bet that I've got more fame tucked away for use after I'm dead than Carnegie or Rockefeller can buy with all their saved-up root of all evil. What? ‘With a bunch of pugs, I made a tour of the country in 1888, when the sports were curlous to see the Boston boy who had lowered Paddy Ryan to second place. A lot of things happened. That was a famous tour. The coin rolled in almost as fast as Rockefeller gets it. More than $150,000 to the good was the record during the nlne months we were out. At every stand I hung up $1000 for any mark who would stay four rounds with me. That thousand never got away. It was on duty all during the tour and I never let it get further than the place where it was hung up. All kinds of tricks were played to get that money. All kinds of punchers, gen- tlemen boxers with highfalutin® notions of how much better their system was than mine, bums who would take any husky citizens from the prairles, Montana miners, roughhouse wrestlers from the moun- tains, Texas cowboys, eity foot racers, gpeculators. with courage to burn, and many others tried for it. They came in all shapes, but they all looked alike to we. A Long String of Knockouts. There were between fifty and sixty chaps who came up to get that thousand. No two of them fought the same way. All gct a lot of experience and none of the money. Every man of them got knocked out. Some fo them rung in on me wken they thought I wasn't in con- diticn to battle, but I was present with the gcods every time. One alec followed the sfow for two weeks before he thought he saw his chance. When he came on he got it good and swift. “The rounds were longer than I reck- oned on,” was his explanation when he came to. Each man had a different ex- planation when it was over, but there ‘was only one right explanation for all. Professor Mike Donovan, who now gives boxing lessons to President Roosevelt and his sons, good old Pete McCoy, Her- bert Slade (who got religion and shook us to join the Mormons in Utah, and who is now prospering in Australia, I belleve), Steve Taylor, now dead, and Mike Gfl- lespie, were in the round-up to show the sports what good men could do with their dukes. The Alleged Attempt to Kill Him In Texas. It was thought by some in the party that a certain foxy New Yorker who gave an alum-studded dog collar to advertise a picture paper, was nutty to get some- body to trim me and had ringers trail- ing us, aiding the ambitious to go against me. If this was so, they got snowballs instead of glory. During tnat swing around the circle more than one attempt was made upon my life. In Fort Worth, Texas, we were invited to a cock fight. At that time Fort Worth was young and gay, not the serious and proper place it is to-day. I guess it led the world in cock-fighting, and the cowboys came to town strong for this spoxt. As a small return for the nice way we had been treated in the town I made a rather stiff bet on one of the cocks. ‘While making the bet I sald something which the cowboys took as an Insult. For the life of me I can’t ses how they with the man from Regent street and ‘was naturally inquisitive as to the mean- ing of it all. But I held my tongue until we had regained the flat in the cautious manner of our exit, and even there, until Raffles rallied me with a hand on either shoulder and an old smile upon his face. “You rabbit!" sald he. “Why couldn’t you wait #lll we got home?” “Why couldn’t you tell me what you were going to do?” I retorted as of yore. “Because your dear old phiz Is still worth its weight In innocence, and be- .cause yoy never could act for nuts! You TFEIEY CAME IN twisted my remark inte an insult for I certainly didn't intend anything of the kind. That night word was passed to us that the cowboys were loaded for Sullivan and enthusiastic to bury me as a memento of the occasion. Chased Out of Town by the Cowboys. My friends couldn’t see any way out of it except o quick duck for mine. I want- ed to stay and reason with the boys, knowing that they would fight fair. But I was jammed into a wagon, held there, and driven beyond the danger line. I believed at the time that it was a case of stage fright on the part of my friends. I couldn’t convince them of this. They strenuously stuck to it that I'd have been a dead one before daybreak had I stayed in the town. A doctor who looked me over the other day said I was fit to fight at the drop our condition is wonderfully &ood, so good that I wouldn't belie unless I saw it with my own eyes,” he. Then he told me that he thought my fine shape was because I had never gone stale through over-training and be- cause I had never been severely punished in the ring. This backs up what I bave always claimed. Look back over the fighters that have gone and you'll find that few of them have ever “‘come back™ after they once got it good. Jeffries has never yet got a larruping. When he gets a few good clouts, he’ll frazzle up like a puff of smoke. Corbet has never done anything since Fitz hit him, except to get up games on the public. After a boxer has received a hard punching on top of the strain of much training, he's in for keeps unless he's a freak, like the Cornishman. To-day I can take and give more than any of them, bar none. I didn't need a doctor’s certificate to show me. I knew it before the doctor, and here, from the highest place on the water wagon, I repeat my defi to the best of them. These duckers are trying to drive me to fighting some of the chocolate-col- ored heavyweights as the only means left for me to show the country that I'm good fighting timber to-day. But they’ll neves drive me to that. I've never fought a negro and I never will. I came near doing it once, In self- defense. While seeing the sights In a town In Georgia, some years ago, & pow- erful negro who had come into town with a pair of mules and some stuff loaded onto a crazy-looking rig, offered to fight me right there and then. He looked husky, and it did seem that I couldn’t sidestep a go with him, for he insulted me something stupendous. I had my right slung into position to give him his when a slim Southerner—a sure enough white man—hopped between us. The negro looked big emough to eat the Southerner, but when the latter be- gan to talk to the owner of the mule craft, the warrior weakened at once. In two minutes, the colored champlon was back on the hurricane deck of his outfit, looking two feet smaller and sorry he spoke. His View of the Race Problem Down South. I have often thought that this affair was a good picture of the race situation down South. The white people thers ought to be lef to settle things their own way, for tBey understand what to do and they can do it with the least trouble. They are a flne people, the white men down South, witk heaps of troubles of their own, but with the know-how to settle them, if let alome. After he bhad saved me from doing up the colored brother, the slim Southerner sald: “Ah'm sorry, sub, that you shud get any wrong ideah of Southern hospitality. We suhtainly don’t go for to let visitahs be subjected to annoyances of this kind. This boy (meaning the chocolate-colored brother, who was more than six feet high and old emough to repeat) must have gone plumb crafy to do what he did. He knows very well that we doun't allow anything of the kind, sub.” Hand back the battle-flags, says I and stop fussing about the way these white men attend to their dark affairs. When Northerners will take the time to get the story the South has to tell and get it straight, there will be a few snide poli- ticlans out of jobs, but the whols country will be healthier. TS OONG0000G00000000008s) bee brooch at the end, and you were too puzzled and the other Johnny too keen. It was the cheapest shot in the®game. The dear ones were sending old Theobald to Southampton on a fool's errand yes- terday afternoon, and showing one's own nose down Regent street In uroad day- light while he was gone; but some things are worth paying for, and certain risks one must always take. Nice DboxXes. aren’t they? I only wished they contained & better cigarette, but a notorious brand was essential. A of Sullivan's would bave brought me to life to-morrow.” “But they oughtn’t to open it to-mor- row.” “Nor will they, as a matter of fact. Meanwhile, Bunny, 1 may call upon you