1961-08-01 — Page 9

Page

FAME in their

FISTS

PART FOUR

THE CHINA MAIL, TUESDAY, AUGUST 1, 1961:

Tape Recorder

'JOHN L'-king of the TRANSICORDER TR

prize ring

In his ferocious prime he was a great blarneying, barrel of a man who ··

drank champagne by the quart and whisky by the bottle.

At the beginning of the twentieth century he was an American institu- tion-the greatest national hero, next to old Abe Lincoln, the United States had ever possessed. "Champion of Champions" they called him the finest fighter who ever lived.

His JAMU พร JOHN I Sullivan....

"John 1...... The Buston Strong Buy." In those days it was distinellon just to shake hands with o man who could bonst he had clasped the huge, red mist of John Lawrence Sulpivna.

Sullivan was an immortal: a giant of the qualight tra; un lucredible. awashbuckling Agure with bristing. waxed nioustaches and сус that glowered like hot coals.

When he strodu into some plush Victorian saloon and bawled: "My name is John L. Sullivan and I can lick

alive," leaser

Any

blanches and To one risked

even the ghost of a grin.

Indeed,

frean right beginning. Sullivan

צמיגי

the

ก

bourtful, overpowering charac fer but on Herculean times.

J21

INVINCIBLE

hirnsill--and

int:ver

-by-

ALAN HOBY

This was the blg: raw, bel- lowing ham who was as con descendingly famlilar with royalty да he Was with

commoners.

'Sullivan

allowed

INCON

he feared no

JOHN L. SULLIVAN was a giant. man, and once knocked out 60 challangers in eight months. He earned thousands of dollars-but had only 15 when he died at 60.

Almost to a man they adored and doted on old "John L. 'und here ht was, to their Intense relief, in the pink, his skin glowing and gleaming with health.

But the carly rounds favour- ed the tough Kilrain, and the buzzing tongues of the crowed wore frozen into a mesmerised silence.

HAYMAKER

Meanwhile the scorching gun hamatered down and Krain's seconds held an umbrella over his head between rounds.

But Sullivan, contemntuous, spliting Insults, not only scorned such elfete aids. He wouldn't even sit down.

"What the hell's the use?" he growled. "I only got

to get right up again, ain't

- Blatt-way through the gruelling brawl, Sullivan drank some tea laced with whisky.

He was immediately sick, and Kirain, approuching, suggested the contest should be called of in Kilroin's favour.

In the seventh Kilrain tore William Sullivan's cur almost from his Muldoon, one of the strletest head with haymaking right tramers in the business, to take and then, laughing, went to him in hand,

carta without being letched, Muldoon was utterly ruthless, This was perfectly permissl- He was not scared of this ble under Prize Bing rules--the hobbling wreek they called modern Queensberry code was "John L Moreover, the human not yet in force-but KBrain's body to him Was ukin to a smothering, hit and go-to- ground tacties only increased Sullivan's choler to breaking by point.

When he visited London he was introduced to the Prince of Wales, later King Edward VII. The meeting took place in the Guards zymnasium near sacred edifice, James's Barracks, and the story goos that Sullivan addressed the future King of England In the following homely term

"How are ye, Prince?" said John aftably. "Gilad to meet

LOATHED IT

"I will get Sullivan Atler thun he has ever been in his life." Muldoon promised, "but only on one condition-that he obey's

ye."

When, after a late breakfast, me implicitly." it consisted of hot cuts, cold In vain Sullivan ranted and

and un joista,

Scotch salmon raved and growled his liverish Even as a bay he had instinctive and invincible belief washed down with bitter ale, unce, purter, and French wines the during his long and uproarious Prince of Wales, a keen sports- extraordinary man, felt the muscles in the eatcer it this superiority complex desert hit. mighty arms, the fighter offered

His father, who stood only another pleasuntry. Sft, in, cane from Tralee, Co. Kerry, in "the

than on

Huess you'd rather teet country"; thew with yer fingers while this mother, who weighed yer nose-eh? Haw! Hawl 13st., and has been described as What His Royal Highness

hailed "glantess,"

Athlune.

form

Was

from replied is not known.

Although "John 1." John's parents wanted him to proud to have met the Prince, became a

prospect his opinion prista

of the Engilsh, which led him with alarm,

being a good Irishman, was riot Instead, he was apprenticed high. He once said: "There

of plumbers, and not 15. he had his first full-blooded cannot whip In three rounds."

un Englishman living I scrap with the boy next door.

There was one

Englishman Naturally, John L. Sullivan won however, who punctured Sulbi- -what other result could there

ego at Chantilly, possibly be--and soon he was

he tought him stretching opponents stiffer than

and more than plank in local hauls all over Bosion.

In the ral. The his first paid night final round lasted more than for 10 dollars, and then, like a half an hour. gathering storm, his name--and inre-began to spread for be- yond Boston,

He had

תווכ]

van's bloated

France, where for 39 rounds three hours

SPREE ENDS This Was Charly Mitchell the contest fought He

Dwyer, and when, at last,

The was called off with both fighters Krandiosely ktowa B5 Terror of Boston," and in John's crouching and shivering inder awn modest description of the ine downpour, it was decidco

draw. encounter. "knocked his block the result should be off.".

The verdict "disgusted" the S not yel 21, he boxed in furious Sullivan who had done a benen exhibition with the most of the pressing; but not world middle-weight chamoioh, as much as the night he spent Mike Donovan and hit afterwards in a French prison Donovan so hard in the third after being arrested by a troop round that when the latter fell of French police. Prize fighting to the canvas he broke his nose was outlawed in France at that and strained a wrist.

time.

Indeed, there was no caging

"John L." was never down-

the youthful Sullivan., who, hearted for long, however. once aroused, his face pace After being released from juit *an paymeni of a fine, he got For ve thunderous years he drunk for three solid weeks, chopped

with fury, was an awesome wight in the ring.

+

whole

string of

victims to pieces like firewood uncorked

protests.

Sullivan's reply was charac teristlo. With one thunderbols blow he knocked Kilrain Bai on his back.

The hands of both men were now mashed and bruised. Sullivan wrote later: "My hands Were swollen to three times the size. A friend who normul watched the Aght commented: "The pain was excruciating."

Klain, however, was in even .worse shape. He was in such

he had to be agony

given and morphine.

Grimacing nostrils twitching "John L." blurted his outraged protests to the referee-only to bu jeered at by his arch-enemy Charlie Mitchell. who was one of Kilrain's seconds.

As the rounds reeled off and

two the

grunted mun

any

can lick

alive...

man

In vain he swore he groaned; hit and swore, i was obvious that Kilrain, with his would retire, quit, toke up a

glittering

dented, punch-pocked face, was alc curver

the better wrestler.

new

vaudeville.

in

In the end there was nothing

for it. He had to get it or be branded R hopeless drunk, ravaged and blear-eyed, a fallen idol who had made liquor his god.

the next few months Sullivan lived on Muldoon's He did eight miles road- work at first light every morn- ing-aud he had always loathed rondwork.

For

form.

He drank milk all day and all detested the stuff.

He skipped and punched the bag for hours. He went to bed at nine every night. He was allowed no friends, an entertain meni, nu friendly fog of cigar smoke, no nocturnal safaris to the booze and bright lights of the big city....and no women.

FIT AGAIN

"John L." hated every ghastly second of this purgatory but, gradually, the soft fubby toper disappeared and, in his place, stood the old perfectly-propor2, oned Uzer who had quclled the best fighters on earth.

Sullivan met Kilrain on Q

lumber estate 100 miles from New Orleans,

In 1888, of curse, prize Agh- ing in the Unlied States was illegal.

Bottle after bottio was and its contents down his capacious

called "the włekedest man in became a familiar And then, at last, on February the world"

before clubbing them sensible poured The prize fighter they followers had to make their

with a right hand like a batter throat. ing rom.

+ "I have never seen

man

7. 1882. on the banks of the gure in Paris restaurants and Mississippi, before -a frenzied bistros, audienes which included Oscar Wittle and the trigger-happy drink as he did," declared his bandil Jesse James, Sullivan trainer and second. George inet Paddy Rynn for the bare- McDonald. "Indeed, he Con- knuckle title of the world,

tinued to drink happily and merrily until 1 got him

on the boat back to America:"

The

ONE ROUND

Then just as suddenly Sullivan's alcohalle spree ended He wanted-he said"to return

Aghting, a mixture of Waltting Aridi wrestling-under the old London Prize King rules o round lasted unit one of the home sober...." contestants threw or knocked

That was in 1888. A year

down the other-lasted only later, on Monday, July 8, 1889,

John L. Sullivan took part nine founds before, to quote the insk great bare knuckle Agh: "John L." #gain: "Hynn was so disabled the best care of physiat Richburg. Mississippi. clans was required,

It was of this slaughter that

RUMOURS

one electrified winess wrote:- His opponent was the famous 'He was as relentles as a Juke Kilrain, the contest WEB calarpet and as fearless as billed as "for the championship Nlagarn. There wasn't moh of the world" and cach man

Sullivan, Kirein and thir

way to the rendezvous in secret, In special trains,

By the time the Just perspiring load had arrived - the temperature was 103 In the shade the onc avaliable stand WRA crammed. The remaining 3,000 spectators sel or stood as best they could. It was a motley and extra-

ordinary scene. The Negro who had taller through the night setting up the ring and scale watched in amazement na gamblers and gunmen, adven- turers and gentlemen, mitled and fought for senta.

fell out

A boy who had climbed a tree to get a better. view and broke a leg.

A Journalist, hearing before- hand that the militin had cut the telegraph wire lo New Orleans, brought along a loft of carrier pigeons, sending off one every 15 minutes.

A fal cardsharp, over- whelmed by the excitement and

on God's green earth who would deposited a 10,000-dollar alde- the heat-drugged air, collapsed

stake backing himself to win. und died.

have licked John L. Sullivan on that day."

A champlon who believed in Aghting, Sullivan barred body except Negroes.

по-

But muny thlogs were

happen before Sullivan cimbed Info the ring with the lowering, grim-faced Kürain.

10 With one oxesplich, it was

an all-male audience

The solitary wenan present was Sullivan' mistress, ex- On one royal progress through

Soon after his return to

burlesque queen Ann Livings- The States ho fellened 80 hulk- America he was taken ill neat. ten, wilo watched The fight ing opponent out of 60 in eight his birthplare, Boston.

disguised as a moti, months more than seven a He had for "Jolm L." never

more than a round,

month. Fow of them lasted did anything by holves A 75 ROUNDS

aging lever, chronie

terrible pains, trouble, partial paralysis,

The

Today, of course, in an age of machines and grey conformity, mould whilch produced John 1. and his kind been broken-probably for ever, But in Sullivan's rumbustious and outspoken times boxers, like

has

Prime Ministers and "Prealdents,

atomach

a hundred miles from Thus, and the nickering gas-lit saloons and enticing Creule bogaties The rumours dashed from of New Orleans, began the last end to end of the Blates that championship ounter! under he had a parilst stroka,, that Prize Bling rules. He would hover fight again. For 70 vlclous, shuddering

He was in bed for two months roundy John L. Bullivan and surly, millen Kilrain

stage betors and prenehers, were and, at one point, was convinced the

he was about to die. When, at smashed at one another with

expected to be epic figures, con- length, he fever and paralysis their naked fists,

siderably larger than life.

And of all the Olymplan heroes who struited the stage In the heyday of the bustle and the moustaclie .qulte grandiore, both in worda and sellons, as "John L."

began to diminish, he could get about only with the crutches.

Wha eup none

This was the prodigious sinner who, in a stern, sirali leed society, Ilved blatantly with an unmarried woman an exburlesque queen al that, This

blustering was character who thumbed his nore at the lut-lulling Puritan, and regularly dronk a bottle of bourbon after breakfast "to Battle my stomach,"

than over,

Night from the stort Kilrain, Aid of his eyes slits of blue, surprised. the champlon by moving to obese, looking close quarters at cat-like speda." Depressed,

Clinching. the challenger twice his age he was then 30-

with th Martled he began to drink more heavily grappled

Bullivan and flung hins head.

to the ground with I wan this sodden ruin which tong

hultock him backst had to thrash into bond jarring cros shape for the

most important throw.

Karared snorting like fight of his life.

insensed bull, Sullivan tallated by hugging Kärkin In The sisel tentacles of his mema and kurting him to the boarda in the following round. Tho crowd howled their plessure.

"Indeed, when at inst they nonaged to get Sullivan to sign articles to meet the redoubtable Kirein, he weighed more than

17 at-most of it puré tel,

It was with grudging, teichy reluctance, therefore, that

20-

But he was NOT the stronger man nor could he hit with the brutish fury of "John L.“

In the 13th round Sullivan caught Kilrain with sledging right to the head which lifted the challenger clean off his feet. Kilrain was beginning to wilt under the plastering Sullivan was giving him to the body. He felt old and wrecked inside — as if was broken — and something hard to be fed sips of whisky between rounda to keep him going.

Altogether it was estimated that Kirnin drank a quart of whisky during the fight.

the

The

In the 88th round, after near- ly three hours, Sullivan ut last

challenger. Jatter was going to earth once again when Sullivan, feinting with his left, smashed a terrific right uppercut to the jaw.

OUT-PUNCHED

Kilrain, sobbing, staggered, fell tottered by sheer instinet to his feet and was steam- the head hammered around again.. but, by seme miracle, be managed to stay upright.

For the brief remainder of the fight Kilrain was a sickening nud frightening figure. Sullivan's leg-of-mutton fista had beaten. him to a pulp.

Finally, in the 75th round, afler Kilrain had gone down

Four D. Jones NO GOOD YOU BY MADDOCKS

NEVER DARKEN MY SURGERY STEP AGAIN,

YOU FIEND

السلاما

FERDINAND

NANCY

NUMEROUS

FLYING SAUGERS

HAVE BEEN

SEEN LATELY

BLAMING ME DEARIE, IT'S THIS

HAIRY LITTLE

FINE FIGURE OF A

WOMAN,

THAT

from no more than a lap, Mike Donovan, his chief second, fear- ing his man might be killed, tossed in the sponge.

Losted The fight which had two hours and 15 minutes in the furnace of a Mississippi mid- day, was over. "John L" could still out-punch and outlast any man alive.

But even then his adventures were not at an ond, On his way back to New Orleans' the ery went up that the millu had boarded the train.

Sullivan, still in his fighting clothes, jumped through the carriage window and hid in the Dearest swamp. But i was false alarm and the champion wearily holsted his battered Hmbs back on the train.

7

Three years Inter A portly, I ageing Sullivan-he was 34 -*** inst, in his own words "o that Fittle dude frem California," James J. Corbelt in the first world title contest held

uzikler Queensberry rules.

TEETOTAL

But such was the power of his personality that, to most of his countrymen and certainly to every true Irishman breathing he was silit THE Champion.

"I'm' st John

would roar.

right? Haw! Haw!"

L. Sullivan."

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Then to whoever might around: "Have some champagne, boy!"*

retirement

In

afler

un-

The Hong Kong Story

storming round the world, ap- Chinese Croods & Customs Vol. III pearing in minstrel shews, hay Baby Book ing one love affair other, giving ortures and get

ing ingloriously drunk-"John L" renounced the devil.

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1.00

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35.00

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and

He became cetotaler

Rupert Magazines reformed. And he never touched another drop.

Ton Points About Pearls Even his death-lie had ex-Points on Judging Jado actly 15 dollars left died-caused an uproar. When Giles Annual (1960)

when

he

they buried him, it the age of

00, it was so cold they had to Hong Kong Business Symposium use dynamite to break open the Gombols Annual (1960) grave.

NEXT WEEK:

The world's gamest fighter

HORIZONTAL HUMANS~ I'LL NEVER! IIVE IT DOWN, MATE,

NEVER

SAY

THE WORD FRIEND AND

| SHALL. RELEASE THE EVIL SPELL

HAVE YOU SEEN ANY

FLYING SAUCERS, MISTER ?

BRICK BRADFORD

ROTIAN, HOLDS A MUTAR

I PULL THIS „TUISEER AND THE BE IN CONTCOL. HORM

DON'T BE SILLY--- OF COURSE NOT

WAIT... WHATG "THAT' ROAR!?! SPACESHIPS! THAT MUST BE BATURN LBARE'S FATHERS

London Express Service).

SNIP

OKAY!

YOU WIN_

SPLENDID DOWN YOU COME!

THERE'S NO SUCH THING

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