The Marietta journal. [volume] (Marietta, Ga.) 1866-1909, 1895-12-05
A SUNDAY WITH JOHN [
Two COmedians' Day of Rest With Bos-
toms Foremost Tragedian.


II don't believe l should care to
have John L. Sullivan for referee"
says William H. Crane. Sullivan
doesn't like to stand by and see any
man whipped; his sympathies are
always with the under dog.
Some years ago Nat Goodwin
and had an experience with Sulli-
van. 1t was in what I call my hal
cyon days. Nat and I had been cele-
brating the close of the season, and
we came ashore one Sunday morn
ing from my yacht determined to
be very circumspect all the rest of
our lives. We went to a seaside no.
tel for the purpose of getting break
fast, when whom should we fall in
with but John L. Sullivan and enc
of his boon companions, a Boston
alderman. Both John and his friend
were pretty we'll corked up, and
they insisted that we should go with
them to call upon another friend, a
Patsy Somebody, who was training
for fight with Mike Somebodyelse
at small country roadhouse about
four miles away.
Goodwin and I did our best to
shake the two, for we feared that,
full of liquor as they were, Sullivan
and his satellite would get us into
trouble. But Sullivan wouldn't take
no for an answer, and finally, just
to keep the peace, we went along in
their wagon to visit the training
grounds. Well, when we got there,
Patsy and his trainer were having
their usual morning bout. The
trainer was big, broad shouldered,
good natured fellow, genial and
smiling of face as we'll fed child.
He was a little too much for Patsy,
and was giving him some pretty
hard exercise. I suppose Sullivan
fancied that the trainer was unnec-
essarily severe. At any rate, I saw
Sullivan's face grow darker, and I
knew that trouble was brewing.
Finally Sullivan slipped off his coat
and threw it over the back of a
chair; then, waiting until he saw
the trainer advancing to attack
Patsy with redoubled energy, Sulli-
van reached out that right arm of
his, and his big fist caught the good
natured Irishman full in the mouth.
1t didn't look as though Sullivan
put any force at all into the blow; it
seemed to us as if he merely put out
his fist-so-and let the other fellow
run against it. But, gracious! You
should have seen that Irishman keel
over I'll bet he went back 20 feet
before he stopped. Then he turned a
back somersault over the hind wheel
of our wagon and fell to the ground,
apparently dead. He didn't regain
consciousness for two hours, and
you can imagine that those two
hours were the most miserable
Goodwin and I ever spent. We fan
cied ourselves forever disgraced by
being pulled into court as witnesses,
perhaps as accessories, to the killing
of this innocent man, Our suspense
was Simply dreadful, Finally, how
ever after hunting up doctor and
/ Working over the fellow for two
hours, he.victim came to. The first
thing he did was to putt one hand
feebly to his mouth as if to learn
what damage that swollen orifoe
|! had sustained. .And then, smiling
ahs'iiably, he said, Be jabers, that
was a wicked thrusht!" You see, he
never lost his temper at all; as
have told you, he was the best ma
tured fellow I ever saw.
But the honor of having been hit
by Sullivan was too much for him.
Having regained consciousness he
proceeded to fill himself with liq-
uor, and it wasn't long before the
rural constabulary had to be called
to take him into custody. AS he
was powerful creature and fought
viciously, it became necessary to
pound him into subsection, and by
the time he was lodged in Jail he
was bloody spectacle indeed. Next
morning he was released, there be-
ing nobody willing to prosecute
him, but even then he had not lost
all sense of the great honor of hav-
ing been hit by Sullivan, and so he
hung about the Jail all day Boosting
of that honor and expressing an am
bition to lick the combined oonstab.
ulary force of the township.
Il have never forgotten the Incl
dent" says Mr.. Crane, land it suf-
fees to convince me that as referee
Mr.. Sullivan is hardly the person l
should choose. Chicago Record.
King James Books.
Some very fine binding was exc