The record-union., 1899-04-19

made the usual suggestion about go
on the following Saturday night.
WHO is this chap?' inquired the
new arrival, without much of show of
interest
Oh, he's a chesty young Mulligan,
that's got law shingle out up at Mrs
Gannon's shack He's a college kid,
and a pretty good boxer, at that, al
though he's never been up against any
thing tip top, not being professional.
He's about your build. Think you'd
care to go a few rounds with him?'
. I'd just as lief, was the young fell
lows reply, and so it was fixed for the
following Saturday night. The boys
came to me and told me they had an
easy one for me, and they meant it. at
that. / was too busy to look my next
man over, but kept at my moderate
system of training. l didn't see the
man was going to box at all until
went into the ring with him.
When he jumped into the ring I
could see that he was an athlete proper,
although l couldn't figure out whether
he could box by looking at him. He
made me bit nervous. though, by the
stylish way he carried himself, and the
way he went about feeling the ropes to
see if they were going to break, stamp
ing on the canvas platform, and so on.
| didn't enjoy those moves of his a
little bit, and / whispered to some of
the fellows sitting down below my cor
ner that they had stacked me up
| against a ringer, although in reality
had no such thought
He's shapy,' the boys whispered
back to me, but you'll see that he's one
| of the ordinary run of counterfeits
when he puts UP his dukes. Go in and
knock the lid off him.
Then we shook hands and squared
off. 1t was. something ridiculous to see
the way that young man played the
gabey with his hands. l was on to him
at once, but the fellows out in front
weren't. He totally fooled them with
the clumsiness he assumed with his
hands, although 1 dare say he mystified
them a bit by the way he leaped back
ward like cat every time 1 sent one
out for him. He didn't mystfy me a
little bit, though. From the minute
that we shook hands knew that 1 was
dead one, but l determined to do the
best l could to hang on to my prestige
He wouldn't let me get anywhere near
| him. He held his guard way down
with an limitations of awkwardness that
was plain to me, but it fooled the boys
cut in front, as well as the two men in
my corner. Every time I went after
him he hoped back, dropped his hands
and ran around the ring, and the boys
gave him the laugh,
. Take a slapstick to him. they yell
| ed at me, and 1 could see a sly grin
on the face of my antagonist when
cracks such as these We're proceeding
| from the brass throatsI of the gang
I'm the second round he continued his
running away tactics, without making
any show of fighting with his hands,
and grinning all the time. The crowd
began to hiss him, and to yell: III * out
that sprinter. But want TO go on rec
ord as saying that I knew what was
coming for me all right
MY man changed his tactics from the
| beginning of the third round He Just
stood up, without moving forward or
| backward an inch, and let me punch
at him. 1t was like jabbing at a rock
l never got in on him, and every time
| set sail for any part on him l landed
| so that 1 could feel my knuckles crack
through the gloves. And he had an
exasperating grin on his mug all the
time, too. When that third round was
up he hadn't moved a quarter Of an inch
from the first stand he took nor had
/ he made the slightest attempt to hit
me. He let me do the punching. You
never saw such a surprised crowd in
your life as my friends out ir front
were. They were too much surprised
| tc speak even>
9" This is my finish said I when I
went into my corner at the winiup of
the fourth round and that was about
the hottest prophecy 1 ever made in my
| life.
My man met me smiling and squared
off like a prize fighter, when l went up
to him for the fourth round and then
he began to toy with me. He incited a
lead by throwing his two mitts straight
down and when 1 led 1 found him all
closed UP and nothing doing on the
spot I led for. Then he'd give me a
lightning poke-little gentle dabs, nice
ly calculated-and throw his hands
down with grin. He tapped me thus
twenty times during that round in that
way, never hurting me at all, but just
showing me that there wasn't a half
| inch on my carcass above the belt that
didn't belong to him any time he want
ed it,
The Well. we'll. welln boys out in
front We're getting in their work by
this time. I sat down in my corner, to
| get my wind for the fifth, hoping I'd
be able to get in just little one on my
man in the coming round.
| There wasn't so much as puff COM
! ing from him when we met in the CEN
| ter and both of his hands We're up.
| led for him repeatedly, but nix, he
wasn't there. When the round was
about half over he stepped to the middle
after a bit of a leap and did a ven
| triloquist turn.
Where do you want it for the fin
| ish?'' he asked me, without hardly NOV
| ing his lips.
| Amy old place where you can put
| it, / replied, for I felt that my likes
| and dislikes weren't going to be consid-
cred in the matter
All right, said he, and then his
| left shot out like a piston rod. l saw
| it coming and my hands went up to
catch it. l was on the slow freight,
whereas he was travelling express, and
the left caught me square on the point
of the jaw and 1 took my little fifteen
minute trip to the Land of Nod right
then and there. When I came to the
boys We're tanning men and telling me
that l wasn't queered, for they believed
the man who had put me out must have
been ringer-that his work was too
finished along toward the wind up for
dub. My antagonist had disappeared,
they said, when he left his dressing
room.
T OF oil