Little Falls weekly transcript. (Little Falls, Morrison Co., Minn.) 1894-19??, 1899-07-25
HE BROKE THE TOWN.
WITH THE BLOW THAT KNOCKED OUT
THE BIG SWEDE.

Hans Andersen the Night He Faced
John l.. sullivnn-The Bout Was q
Farce Comedy, Not a Fight.
1T is a matter Of minor Importance
when an individual goes broke. Most Of
us have had frequent depressing expert
ences Of that sort without attracting
much attention or sympathy, but when
the populace of a whole town goes fat,
STAYING, whooping broke, down to the
final soumarque and silver, with the per-
sonal belongings Of nearly all hands
thrown in to make the collapse complete,
it's different matter" said an Oregon
man. II once saw that thing happen.
The town that went broke was Astoria,
Or. It was back in the latter eighties.
Astoria, you know, is the leading salmon
catching and salmon canning town Of the
world. Its population is chiefly made up
of Scandinavian fishermen.
AT the time I'm speaking of John L.
Sullivan was touring the northwest.
knocking out a couple of giants every
night in q punch. His manager was
offering a reward Of $1,000 to any man
who stood up against the great and only
John for four rounds, and all the black.
smiths, boiler makers, woodsawyers,
teamsters Of great stature and immense
strength, ETC., in the northwest seemed
to want hack at the big pugilist. Sui
Ivan punctured them all as fast as they
came up against him, but they kept on
coming. The pugilist from the east was
not keeping himself in even fairly good
trim either. Often he went on to do his
punching out act after having spent the
better part of the afternoon dining on
highballs. he covered Portland for three
nights, and then he went on the night
boat to Astoria to fill date.
. "Now, the cock of the fighting walk in
Astoria 1T that time was gigantic
Swede named Hans Andersen, a fisher
man. He was actually only few inches
short of feet in height, and he was
built proportionately, with huge iron
muscles, tremendous shoulders and an
almost herculean degree in strength. He
had pummeled everything that stood on
two. legs in Astoria to a proper stand
still and had become quite a bit of a
bully among the men of his own ma
tionality. The Scandinavians of Astoria
thought that Hans Andersen was Just
about the whole thing when it came to
fighting, and when word reached that
town that John L. Sullivan was coming
along with his 81 1000 offer most of them
saw riches right in their grasp: They
knew that big crowd of Portland
with Sullivan, and that the hot cards
from Portland would, OF course, bet on
the 1rishman. So they put Andersen
into training and stood by for the big
night. Andersen told them that he was
sure to macerate Sullivan's features into
pup. but he didn't need to tell them that.
They felt confident of it.
sullivan got into Astoria on the morn
ing boat-he was pretty comfortable.
thanks, when he debarked-and the town
of Astoria knocked off work and bust
ness, except Us to the refreshment end
Of it. to look the big Irishman over and
to mediate upon the fall that was in
store for him at the hands of the mighty
Swede. The Columbia bar was practi-
cally unfshed for salmon that day. The
Astoria people were too busy collecting
their coin to bet the same on their man.
The betting began in the gin mills by 10
o'clock in the morning, and the crowd of
Portland warm members who came
along with Sullivan offered to on the
proposition that the Swede wouldn't stay
four rounds with Sullivan. Astoria just
ate that price up. The price, to l, was
on tap all day and up to the very minute
Of the encounter. The fishermen and
Gamers weren't content to bet their
spare cash alone on the outcome. They
sold their nets, some of them their boats,
wherewith to get the dough to take al!
they could Of that 5 to 1.
1.-THE Swede surely was fine looking
specimen when he came on for his so
with Sullivan, and the shouts with which
tho Scandinavians greeted his appear
ance were terrific. Sullivan came on a
couple of minutes later. He had made
peculiarly careful, personally conducted
investigation into the merits of the
liquids indigenous to the soil during the
afternoon, and he wasn't particularly
steady on his underpinning. But he had
a broad grin on his closely shaver mug
when he caught sight Of the mammoth
Swede.
"'Time.' said the referee, and Sullivan
walked-well, maybe reeled would be a
better word-over to the center of the
ring, where the big Swede already stood
in a threatening, defiant attitude and
held out his right mitt. The two big fell
lows shook boxing gloves, and then said
Sullivan, grinning:
"'Where die say ye wanted it?'
"'Hay| inquired the Swede. 'Ay tank
you no skall have easy yob yoost same,
and
"'G'wan,' said Sullivan, and then his
left arm shot out like piston rod, the
business end of the same caught the
terrible Swede' smack on the point of
the chin, and the whole 200 pounds of
Hans Andersen just vanished off the
stage. The mighty carcass of the Swede
described an arc in the air and landed
out of view between the wings Of the
theater. Sullivan pulled off his gloves,
said something out of the left corner of
his mouth about being very truly yours,
John L. Sullivan to the dazed onlookers
and numbered off the STAGE, 1t was all
over.
Gay tank Irish loafer Sool'van skall
be all same day'l,' was the only remark
ile big Swede made when he came to, Is
minutes later. There came near being a
riot in the theater. A lot of the fisher
men wanted to WEIGH on their bets, and
it required the eloquence Of number Of
their leaders to shame them out Of this.
When the boat with Sullivan and his
party aboard pulled out of Astoria for
the return trip to Portland the next
morning it was, fguratiyely speaking,