Evening star., 1896-12-17
TOMMY DowD AS sHARxEY.

The Base Ball Mayaxer Impersonatea
the Fighter With Great Success.
specfar Dispatch to ,he Philadelphia Press.
ST. LOUIS, December 15.-Mr Thomas
| Francis Xavier Dowd. manager and cap
tain Of the St Louis base bali team. is
base ball player By profession, a hand
| some man, according to the ladies. and a
| pugtlistic inpersonAtor.
The last thing Mr.. Dowd has done to
\ warrant the Use Of cAis name Is that he i'm
personated. and qutOsuccessfully. too, MIR.
| Thomas Sharkey. pugilist who has earned
fame by winning Dghts in which he was
| Mr.. Dowd is an athlete. As a bali plaxer
| ne Is TOO r1ch ana too strong to work in
| the winter time. Consequently he finds
himself growing fat.at times. It was that
way with him the other night. He stepped
on the scales In an uptown resort and
| found that he weighed two pounds more
| than his schedule called for.
Alarmed lest hris Won der Ahe should
| fine him for being overweight in the Off
| season, he "ducked'' for the Turkish ba this
at the Planters Hotel. With him went his
friend the enemy, Captain and Manager
William Joyce of the New York Giants.
When clad for the bath Dowd shows up
| like house on fire in the middle of a
| prairie. He does not look very big in his
street garb but when he dspenses with
his garments he is small edition of San
| dow with few pages of Corbett thrown
| in.
Gee" said fellow who had red look
| in his eyes to Billy Joyce. That duck has
| a muscle On him. 1 wouldn't care about
| robbing the train that he was on
You are right there. PAL said Joyce
You would be dead out of luck 10 tackle
him. Maybe you do not tumble to who he
is?"
mo-" interrogatIvely.
you appear to be all right" said Joyce
land, seeing It's you 1 don't mind telling
you. That's Sharkey. the pugilist He is
passing through en- his way to New York
city to fight Mafer and Corbett in the
same ring"
He was SOLDERING opened his eyes
wider than he had since they had wit
| messed the very last rat swallow the big
boa constructor and that swallowed the
black dog that used to come to the bed
| side with his fangs apparent.
rs that so?" he repeated in wonder
ment.
"sure thing" said Joyce, but don't tip
1t of. He would be dead sore If he knew
| that ] gav' 1t away and like as not would
| lick both of U.S." The man who was say
ing goodbye to the remnants of his jag
walked away very solemnly and wisely
Joyce walked in the rubbing room and told
Dowd what he had done
The ball player laughed and determined
to carry it through. He was quickly
| rounded by score of men who eyed him
| in wonder. Charley Field, the night clerk
| at the hotel, finally bolstered up enough
| courage to ask "Sharkey" how Fitzsim-
Foul me? Why. man, alive he fouIed
me worse than all the chickens in the
country. Then he gave them detailed
| account of how the battle was fought and
| a realistic exposition of the foul, using
| Mr. Field a lay figure to Illustrate the
| matter. For all of which Mr.. Field felt
highly honored.
The crowd was reinforced by all the night
| hawks around the hotel. Every sleeper in
| the baths was awakened to get a look at
Sharkey. They pressed around him. felt of
| his muscle and criticised him in audible
voices. The Questions were innumerable.
| They wanted to know this and that to all
Of which Sharkeyr made answer in grun
tones =,f
| One gentleman insisted that Billy Joyce
| was Referee Earp' without his mustache;
and openly charged him with colIusior
| with Sharkey and robbing Ftzsmmonss
| who he declared. was the better man:
Look al him., he appealed referring to
joyce, land if he does not look like a
border rrffian and a gambler l will treat
1 the crowd
BY this time the news had percolated
| rushed into the hotel ard asked for the
| fighter. They were referred to the baths.
When they drifted in they saw the crowd
of which Dowd was the center and cyno-
sure. Rightly concluding that Sharkey
| was the topic of discussion, they walked
up.
Say. Tommy said the leader. Il hear
that Sharkey is here. Do you know any
thing of him.
The crowd smiled You're a nice sport
ing man." said one of them. Don't you
know that you are talking to Mr.. Sharkey
now? Why, 1 thought you were wise
that you would know. a fighter when YOU
saw his shirt" Then. getting sorry for
the green reporter, he said to Dowd:
Shake hands with him, Mr.. Sharkey.'
The reporter in hurry. oh I'm
not kidding" he said impatiently. " want
to see Sharkey if he Is here. can
Tommy Dowd every day in the week. The
manager of a blm base ball team is no
great curiosity in ST. Louis
Dowd and Joyce wnked furiously, but
the game was spoiled.
DO you mean to say that this is not
Sharkey," asked one of the hero wor-
shippers.
"Sharkey. nothing" said the irrtated
scribe; that is Tommy Dowd. the man
ager of the bummest base ball team on
earth. Now, show me Sharkey."
The ball players dropped their bluff and
the laugh was theirs The waiter was
kept busy for two hours and at the end
of that time of the suckers had wind
and sense enough left to say:
"Sharkey! Well I'm blowed. / wouldn't
care to be fooled by good man. but to
be taken in by the manager of the worst
base ball team on earth is too much for
me to stand"
'rhe recent invention Vimoid n kit for