The San Francisco call., 1895-11-02

the giant Australian, he was but shadow
of his former self. a good course of train
ing built him up TO some extent, but the
vitality that had carried him through
many a hard-fought battle was not there,
and he was an easy game for the Antipo-
dean.
1t was on the evening of August 81, 1889,
that Dempsey long career of victory came
to an end, He stripped for the ring that
night to meet George La Blanche the most
perfect specimen of middle-weight man.
hood ever trained for battle. He had
met and beaten the same man before,
though La Blanche had given him the
hardest fight he ever had. The vic
tory over La Blanche had been one of
the unbroken string of fifty upon which
Dempsey based his title to the name,
The Nonpareil." The men who saw him
that night will tell you that he was practi-
cally invincible. Bar unforeseen accidents
he could not lose. Even La Blanche felt
this, and Dempsey was far and away the
fayorite in the betting.
Knowing what he had to expect, but
capable of taking almost unlimited pun
ishmeut, the Marine" fought waiting
fight as well as he could. For thirty-one
rounds he stood before Dempsey, making
game battle, but growing steadily
weaker, and in the thirty second
he came UP groggy and was perhaps
the most surprised man in the room at the
way it ended. La Blanche knew, when he
rose on his toes and swung his arm, at once
to repel and to retreat from Dempsey's
rush that he was beaten man. The arm
swung like a windmill, and the bone of his
wrist landed squarely upon Dempsey's
iugular.
1.-The Nonpareil" collapsed, beaten
man. He wept and raved when he re-
covered his senses, but, though it was a
fuke and the world knew it, under the
rules of the ring Dempsey was knocked
out and La Blanche had won. The IN on
pareil' begged his enemy to give him one
more chance, and, though La Blanche
had promised in the first flush of victory
to do that, he could never be brought into
the ring again.
1t was years before Jack Dempsey held
up his head after his defeat, and when
| Bob Fitzsimmons gave him chance at
New Orleans to recoup his fortunes he had
passed his prime and he went down before
| the Australian in thirteen rounds. That
! defeat broke Dempsey's heart.
Dempsey as well as many of his friends,
believed that his death was hastened by a
blow over the heart received in the battle
with Fitsimmons, though his physician
maintained that long-standing case of
consumption was the cause of his demise.
Dempsey was almost as well known as a
second as he was as fighter and was in
! Al. ho@&
being fought, notably the one between
Corbett and Choynski on the barge at
Benicia when he was the main adviser of
the latter Dempsey's lighting weight was
LA pounds. which would have entitled
him to stay in the welter-weight class had
he SO desired, but he thought himself able
to handle middle-weights and fought many
men who weighed twelve pounds more
than himself.
Dempsey belonged to an old school of
boxers, and he was about the last one left
His ring style was the latest in vogue W hen
he was at his prime, yet it cannot be said
that he was skilled in the details of the
technique like Corbett or Dixon. But in
the general principles of the science no
one of his class ever lived who could out
point him.
The Nonpareil's fighting qualities were
never called into question. Whenever he
entered the ring high-classed exhibition
was insured.
Cleverness and gameness, two of the
essential attributes of champion, he
abundantly possessed.
His popularity was of National char
acter. Excepting John L. Sullivan. per-
haps, no man ever commanded such a
following Particularly was this true of
him in and around New York. His manly
conduct, together with his staying
powers, made for him legion of admir-
ers.