The St. Johns herald., 1892-01-21
WOULD-BE PUGILl8TS.
Conceited Men Who Think They
 Are Born Fighters.
An Old Teacher of the Manly Art Gives a Few Instances of the Folly of Some Aspirants Who Have En-
 tered the Fling.

The leading boxing master in New York. the teacher ia one ot the big athletic clubs. was i3llling ahont the manly art to al Interested group of young men. says tl,c New York Sun.
 One Of the funniest things in life" said lic. is thc fancy t:iat some men have ato:t t'cr ii-,htIns: ahiIiues. You've u0tIccd when Yog attcDd spar ring exhibitions that certain chaps came forward fp box yviso could not stand three minutes agl;n@t the worst plug ever seen. They invent the body, the endurance or the ;itt. anal yet they come up aS tljouGh fighting was thing anybody coul,l do I've observed this f.Iing hundred times n my life, but never had 1t bTo"Tbt sn plainly before me as yvlcn. the other night. went to a down toyvn thcatcr where lot of the best men in the business were eAhii;it- ing. The professionals Were offering prizes to anyone who woull come on the stage and last four rounds. The fellow ti!aI came ont to meet KIlrain. the man that fought Sullivan. was more like a yisp Of hay than aH athlete. Xiii rain looked him over and smiled; then dabbed him on the face a few times, and the poor chap did not know where hewas He staggered of iGnominiousIy, yet he had received no punishment that any man even ordinarily well con structcd could not have taken smiling ly. Now. why did that chap think he could face heavy weight professional prize fighter?
 ''Then two middlc-weight amateurs met each other. One was 9 lightning hitter He was quick. strong and scicn- tilc. The other was So bad that he made yon mad. He was tough, like piece of dead meat. bat the inccssant pounding that he received was enough to make anynnc but fool take off the gloves and swear never to put them or again. In four rounds that cOncciteC ass was struck fairly in the face no les: than forty times and he never got il even an accidental blow in return. Yet he thought he couId fight and probably does so still. Two light-wcights came out next. One struck the other and knocked him nearly across the stage. The little fellow got up and was knocked down again. This action was repeated four or five times, and then the man that was playing the part of shuttlccoclt gropcd away into the wings, amid howls of dcrision. He was another fellow who had not learned even the rudiments of boxing. l find it. the same with the fashionable young men that I teach Many of them can put up a pretty good fight. but these arc not the ones that think they can lick all crea- tion. No: the conccited ones are the hopeless cases, fellows that never can learn to fight, who can never be quick and never last through four thrcc-min- ute rounds the longest day they live.
 "A fellow of this sort asked me re- gently if I would not box with him at an exhibition that the club was going to have I looked him over and his as surancc made ne little angry. l asked him to step into the sparring-room and said that if we were going to box at an exhibition we ought to have a re- hearsal. He put on the gloves and we faced each other. For the greater part of a round did not lead for him once, but allow cd hirn to punch at me. Sev- eral times I put my face forward to meet his glove, for there was no force in it. At last I told him that l was going to hit him and then did so. It was not q knockout blow on the corner of the jaw, but straight hit between the eyes think the man rolled clean out of the room we were in and started to fall down the stairs Tn the hall out side. When he got up he looked about to see where he was. l told him that he could not fight. probably never could learn and advised him to refrain by all means from ever putting on gloves with veterans like myself. l declare, it's the strangcst thing in the world. No one thinks he can play the violin without years of practice, yet the first slim Jim that comes along fancies he can fight"
 And the uld ring hero sniffed with dis gust. The art of smashing mans nose was as sacred to him as the manipula- ton of the bow was to PaEanini.
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