St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1888-10-18
nr'LAUGHLIN's GREAT WRATH
Over the Remarks Made About

Over the Remarks Made About
Him by George w. FIogg.
To the Editor of the Globe:
BOULDER, Mont, Oct. Through
the kindness of friend in your city,
/ have Just received a copy OF your
paper. dated Sept. 80, which contains
an article rejecting very much upon
me on account of the miSdeedS OF an
other, which, with your permission, l
will explain and in order to do the
matter justice. / will start back OF the
occurrence in question, and be as brief
as possible. i became professional
wrestler in April, 1865. when l defeated
Homer Lane, of New York, for the
championship of America. AT Utica,
n. Y, held the title against all COM
ers until March 10, 1870, where belt
was put up at tournament
at Detroit, Mich. There were
thirty competitors. the tournament
against all, and won the belt, never
losing fall, as the records will show. l
have held the same belt against all
corners ever since, there being but one
other name inscribed thereon besides
my own. That was that of II. NJ. Dufur,
on which occasion the belt was out Of
my bands but a few weeks,
when l won it back, and have
held it ever since, and still hold IL.
There never was within the history OF
man champion of any kind who held
his ground and title One-quarter as long
as have mine, over twenty-five years.
And now it is said by scarcely known
third-claSS man that | am skin, duff
fer, no good, never met a good man, etc.
And by whom and why l will now eX-
plain. Seven Or eight years ago one u.
W. Flagg,
A CRAZY SHEEP HERDER
of Braintree, VT, began to write me
letters asking Inc to take him with. me
and train him and fit him, as he was
anxious to become a wrestler. | have
now at least twenty of his letters.
which may publish. He persisted
in writing me for years. l would
not even answer his letters.
At last he secured a state belt. for
mixed wrestling, and the pond being
fiShed dry at collar and elbow, con-
Guided to extend my territory, so L
challenged him, met and defeated him
easily and took from him the much-cOv-
eted belt, which | also held against all
Corners until, of my own free will, pre-
scented it to IL. NJ. Dufur at st. Paul after
/ had defeated him, and was obliged to
retire from the business to resume
my railroading, as the people we'll
know. | had published my retirement
in st. Paul papers. Dufur being anX-
iouS to have one more trial with me.See-
ing my notice of retirement, at once
challenged me, sending on forfeit with
the challenge. | consulted the Supern-
tendent of the road. who granted me
several days eXtention OF time
that | might meet Dufur.
Then | must report for duty at
once. The match took place in St.
Paul, as all are aware. defeated him,
then presented him with the mixed belt,
the one | won from Flagg long before.
| said from the platform that l then
and there retired from the arena, for
the reasons heretofore given, at once.
Evan Lewis showed up to challenge me,
but was through. Then man call
ing himself Dunbar arose to challenge
both Dufur and myself. | paid no at
tention to it, for if l accepted another
WAS IN FOR IT
for all time to come, and l was obliged
to quit then and there. Dunbar and
Dufur had short bout. They met the
next day and made a match. Now here
let NE say that up to that time | was in
total ignorance as to whom Dunbar was,
and when asked by Mr.. Roche and
others if it was not Fiagg. i said it was
not the Flagg l met and defeated i'll De-
troit. and in saying so l was sincere
(for here let me state that Mr.. Flagg'S
hair and beard are white. for learned
afterwards that Flagg was tramping
around the country fixing up
job matches, and seeing that Dufur
and myself were to meet at
St. Paul he dyed his hair and beard
black and came on to st. Paul to take
advantage of the excitement and fix up
a job with me, knowing. as he after
wards said, that was sure to defeat
Dufur. Now, here was all L had to do
with the affair between Flagg and
Dufur. Dunbar came to me at
the Ryan hotel the next day
after my match and asked me
if | knew him. | said no. He said it
was my treat. i asked why. He said
if | would give my hand and word of
honor that | would not expose him he
would tell me who he was. Remember
his snow white hair and whiskers were
cOlored to nearly coal black. l prom
Used him / would not say word or in
terfere with his business one way or the
other. He then told me he was Flagg,
and told me all about his hair dye, etc.,
and then asked me
TO FIX Up MATCH
with him, saying that he was hard up
and would be satisfied with $40 or $50.
| positively refused to do any such
thing. He then asked me to referee for
him and Dufur, which also refused to
do. said to him: Il have washed my
hands completely of it," and the people
will remember L did not stay in the
city to see the match. Now, all
| had to do with the match
on earth was simply to keep my word
of honor, and did not give him away.
No one lost one cent on the match. |
did not see either of them afterwards.
Flagg was beaten. Now, | would ask
what had to do with it or his coming
there. The article states that MIR.
Roche met Flagg in Vermont
and accused him of being Dun
bar, etc. and he seemed to
be innocent of the accusation.
suppose he will charge me up with that
: too. After he had done all the low dew
iltry he could he turned upon me and
called me all the names he could think
of, but said nothing about himself or
nufnr who carried ont the burlaSoua