The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-01-27
LOU HOB&NAN 5 GOSSIP
SOME ATHLETIC THOUGHTS SUG-
GESTED BY THE PROPOSED
FIGHT IN CINCINNATI
FIGHTING NOT so BRUTAL
Wrestling ROugher Than PugiIism-
A Wave of Suspicion Sweeping
Over the Countrywide Cry
of Fake" Everywhere.

CHICAGO, Jan. 26.-(Special.) 1.-THE
Saengerfest fight at Cincinnati, like Ban
quos ghost, will not down. The mayor
still sticks to his position that he will
issue a permit two or three days before
the contest, and e. G. Cooke, the man
ager of the Jeffries-Brady combination,
insists that the fight will positively take
place. AS a usual thing he knows what
he is talking about but what it is he
knows no one can find out. Mayor
FleiShman is known throughout the c0un-
try as a thorough sportsman, and a man
who sees no harm in a boxing contest.
He has never been identified with the
fighting game, but the turf knows him
as a thoroughbred. He is one of the
newer generation, who look upon athletic
sports of a healthy character as bene-
fetal to the community wherein he re-
sides, as well as to the rest of the
world. Differences of opinion may arise
as to the utilitarian results of boxing
But that athletics are of the highest val
ue in developing physical manhood no
one will deny. The only question ap-
pears to be what line of sport is to
be adopted.
The present fight, however, was not
brought off altogether for the purpose
of stimulating physical exercise, for the
contestants are finished athletes in every
sense of the word. Their strength and
endurance have been developed to the
highest degree, and physicians who have
examined them pronounce them perfect
types of virility. They are also skilled
in line of sport that appears to arise
the ire of the namby-pamby clement
Which regards as brutal everything in
which they are unable to engage by lea-
son OF their physical shortcomings. To
them basket ball, which is much hard
er sport than boxing, is looked upon as
the proper oaper. football, another game
that requires the same kind of strength
and skill required of boxer, is the pet
sport of the elite of society; baseball Is
not necessarily rough, but it can easily
be made so by ruffians who are not I'D
in the game or who try to cover their
lack of knowledge of the fine points of
the game by foul tactics on the field.
Yet the very element who nov cry loud
est against the boxing game APP
plaud their home team to the echo when
ever bit of clever launching is done
by one of the basemen.
This is not said disparagingly of any
one of the sports named, but simply for
the purpose Of bringing to the attention
of those who look upon boxing as a par
ticularly brutal sport the fact that no
game played by men is without its rough.
ness Croquet is good game, but it
is hardly game in which stalwart men
are liable to eXpend their sunerf1uo11s
game for a mild recreation, and is still
full enough Of exercise to afford some
relief from the stagnation of Office work
But imagine any Of our all-round ath-
letes taking up lawn tennis instead of
shot-putting, lifting heavy dumbbelIs
Manly men demand manly sport. Fenc-.
ing is not so popular as heretofore, and
1T is taught but little now. Yet fencing
is one of the most exhausting of all
sports. Wrestling is perhaps the rough
est OF all games. and yet no one ever
heard of complaints against that sport
until the wrestlers themselves killed it
of course, every one knows that rro-
fessional athletes are the ones who lend
encouragement to the sports in which
they are engaged, and if their example
is not Of character to stimulate exer-
ton on the part of the amateurs, or
whose actions are such as to put a
damper on the particular line in which
they work, the sport itself falls fat, and
1t takes great deal of exertion to gal
vanize the corpse of that particular
game.
Boxing has not fallen into disrepute
as has wrestling among the professionals.
The clever boxer is proud Of his skill
and is admired by those who witness
the matches. True, there have been a
number Of men in the boxing ranks who
have looked more to the momentary gain
than to their ultimate gain, and who
nave been willing to gull the public for