The Northwestern standard., 1886-04-10
BOYS AND CEIILDFEnl, !,
You know the place to take your papas and
namma as for a Suit of Clothes for Easter is eight
steps up No. 1875 Central Avenue, where they
sell cheap
SULLIVAN AND THE MINER.

The history of the tour of the John l..
sullivan Combination in the wild West is
an interesting one, but the chief actors in
a,af,y Of the occurrences are not anxious
q make them all public. Sullivan's bust
ness manager, however, is fond of relating
the story of how the great pugilist came
near meeting his match in Colorado.
ait was in one Of the mining towns"
the manager said. 'tYou see, wheneverwe
gave an exhibition we advertised that if
.Anybody in the country wanted to spar
With Sullivan, with or without gloves, he
would be accommodated. Well, when we
arrived in this little place we found a chal
lenge already waiting. There was min
er there who was anxious to meet Sullivan
on the stage and spar four or five rounds
with bare fists. l found that the other
miners had made up a purse of $500 and
were willing TO back their man to that
amount. OF course, lowered it. perfectly
confident that Sullivan would win. We
were going to exhibit that night and Sulli-
van had been drinking pretty heavily for
two or three days, though he had not
missed any performances. Our rule was
to have some OF the other members of the
combination give exhibitions of wrestling
and sparring; and then conclude by letting
one of them wind UP with Sullivan, unless
there was somebody in the audience who
wanted to try (which did not occur very
often. Upon making inquiries in the vii
lage during the day, I heard SO much OF
this man the miners had backed against
Sullivan that | made up my mind to go
and have q look at him. They called him
the 'haiIy man
81 found him training in q whishey sa-
loon, and for the first time on that tour [
was scared. He was six feet three inches
tall, weighed 22O pounds without having
an ounce of supert1uous flesh. and he was
covered over with thick black hair like q
Newfoundland dog. His arms were as
hard as bars of iron, and all the miners
said that he had q great deal of science and
struck q terrible blow. l found that he
had reputation for miles around, and
that there had even been talk about rails
ing money to send him East to challenge
Sullivan. Sullivan had been drinking SO
much that feared he would meet his Wa
terloo, unless I could induce the other to
give up the fight. So told him that Sui
livan had been drinking, that he was very
ugly, and that it would not be safe to fight
with him that night The hairy man
only laughed and said that ii Sullivan
could stand it he could. His confidence
scared me, because every pugilist--no mat
ter who he is--who has ever fought Sulli-
van has been very nervous about meeting
HIM, and this fellow was happy about 1t.
l finally told them that ID forfeit the $500
if they'd keep the hairy man Off the stage
that night of course putting it on the
ground that Sullivan might kill him. But
it was no use: they said Sullivan must
Ha,r oil 4ory l,1.r ri and
feather him.
When told Sullivan that I'd tried to
get the fight off, he was furio us, and &C
tuaIy thought he'd assault me. He ac-
cused me of trying to destroy his reputa-
ton, and said that he was never In better
fighting condition in his life. He was SO
mad that it sobered him, which was one
good effect anyway We gave the exhibi-
ton in hall that was made to hold 1000
persons, but more than 5000 were piled
into it, and hundreds of pc rsons had come
scores of miles for the occ asi on. | found
that all the betting was on the hairy man
and was entirely prepared to see Sulli-
van get whipped. When they came on to
the stage Sullivan could hardly wait for
time to be called, and he glared at the
hairy man like q tiger. The hairy man
was as confident as ever, and his friends
yelled themselves hoarse in admiration.
When tine was called Sullivan made a
furious rush at the hairy man, struck him
just once between the eyes, and knock ed
him senseless off the stage into the audi
torium. | was SO sure he was killed that
| made Sullivan get out or the hall and
prepare TO leave the place In o hurry for
fear he'd be lynched 1t took us twenty
minutes TO bring the hairy man to HIM
self, and we only managed it then by cut
ting off his thumb-naii and making incis
Ions in the quick of the thumb under
meath. And if you ever saw a humbled
and admiring gang it was the friends of
that miner They were all down al the
tram to see Sullivan off in The morning,
aud the hairy man shook hands with him
without saying word, absolutely speech
less with admiration. This was the only
! time / feared that Sullivan had met his
match"