Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-02-07
THE UNEXPECTED

':Joe Godda1 the australian fighter who
died in camds the Stther day from bull
let wound gotAn an Siection brawl. figured
in one encounter thasasn't dished up as part
OF his official Eing Hcord." said Wash
ington man why put IN several cruises as a
chief petty oflcer NJ the United States
navy. And yee w a regularly arranged
and regularly fought battle. 1t happened
IN Vallejo. Cal. in the days when the bar
rier champion. Nas Goddard was called. was
picking up purses out on the coast, and the
party OF the second part was a marine.
Goddard wasn't proud Of the affair. and he
mated to meet up with anybody who knew
of it.
The sea soldiers name wasn't Gallagher,
and SO Gallagher is what shall call him.
AT the time the thing happened Gallagher
mad pretty well cleaned up the naval night
ers, battling In good many corners OF the
world He wasn't . particularly scientific
tighter. but he was . Big man with punch.
and none OF the fiat-feets or xaa soldiers had
ever been able to come anywhere near put
ting him away. He had been In the marine
outfit for five years. and hadn't ever got
much worse than a nose bleed from any OF
o.-wars men because he was an fnsuffer-
able boasteF. Not only did he brag and
Diuster necessarily. but he had the bullying
nabit. 50 Tor years Gallagher's mates had
oeen aching to get him licked somehow or
other. They tried all sorts of schemes to
accomplish this end, but couldn't get away
WIN any OF them. Once they took hold OF
a gigantic Kanaka policeman, on the Homo
iulu force. trained and INSTRUCTED INN for
VI Ionths, and, when 1t appeared as If
~, I,-~l
Gallagher In barn in waikiki, OUTSIDE
honolulu. Gallagher thrashed the Kanaka
cop with the flats of his gloves, and the
h n was SO scared that he broke out
descend again into Honolulu until the shin
10 Whicn Gallagher was attached had left
hawaiian waters. Time and again Gal
laghers mates framed up schemes Of this
sole 70 get MIN downed, but the marine was
too husky ana took too good care of him
sell He always won out, and his constant
ploWng was a grief to the men who had to
serve on board the same ship with him.
Back IN the early nineties Gallagher was
serving on board a ship which was tied
up at the Mare Island navy yard. which
rs across 'Napa Creek as the sailors call
the DIVIDING stream, from the town of VAL
le5o; cal Gallagher had made the cruise
mad licked easily all of the men who had
been pitted against him on the Asiatic sta
ton, including the best men Of the British
n neet IN mose waters. and a pretty clever
half English, half Chinese scrapper. picked
up in Hong Kong, whose nearly sever feet
OF stature and almost 300 pounds Of weight
did not save him from savage trouncine
az a., the hands of the marine Gallagher's
Tune was nearly up when his ship got back
to the Mare Island navy yard and he was
SUI untnrashed. Consequently, his mates
were sore. They determined to make q
maj EFFORT to get somebody to put 1t on the
sea soldier. and they held many conferences
In Vallejo on the subject They finally con-
cluoed that the only way to get Gallagher
nauie0 was to engage a good professional
TO 90 the job. Usually, sailors of the Ameri-
can navy are immensely proud of their
fighters. and hate to see them get the worst
OF 1t at the hands of beach combers.' but
Gallagher was SO puffed-up proposition
ana mad shown himself to be such an I'M
endurable biowhard that they hankered to
see MIN counted out, uniform or no Uniform
Joe Goddard was at that time operating
around California and some Of the men
from Galiagher's ship went down to San
francisco to have q talk with HIM They
told Goddard that they had a sea soldier
who could be put away in a punch by a
first rate professional, and offered the Aus
tradan $500 to run up TO Vallejo on any
night that would suit his convenience and
put Gallagher away. Goddard saw a little
easy money-and he WAS the keenest money
hunter Of all Of the fighters of his genera
uon,and consented to. the proposition. They
told him that heswould have to pose as an
unknown. as Of course1Gallagher would de-
cline to meet Goddard the Australian cham
pion. as such. and the barrier fighter agreed
to that, too. So 1t Was arranged.
'The committee Of GalIagher's shipma tes
then told the, ma rine that there was lands
man recruit oyer on the receiving ship In
dependence who could put him, Gallagher,
In Slumbertown In jig-time. The marine
derided them. of course, and told them to
fetch their .lubber along. The fight was ar
ranged to take place in Vallejo loft a
couple Of weeks later.
THE sailors of GaIlagher's ship who fixed
this thing up saw their chance to pick up
good money as well as to get the marine
whipped, and so they only tipped off select
crowd of their mates as to what was going
to come off. Most of the men Of the con-
siderable feet then tied up at the Mare
Island yard were simply tipped off that
bruiser who had lately shipped as a lands
man on board the Independence was going
to be sent against the sea soldier, and they
commenced to put by their change to back
Gallagher at any price they would be able
to get:
bluejacket uniform. On the evening OF
the battle he appeared on the streets of
Vallejo in the bluejacket toys. His phiz
hadn't appeared In the coast papers very
Vallejo civilian sports recognized him.
These. OF course. said nothing, for they
tumbled to it that there was going to
be something doing and they just dug for
their money and kept dumb.
There were perhaps 500 sailors and VAL
lejo sports massed into the Vallejo loft on
the night Of the fight. Gallagher was in
fine shape, as usual He always took the
best of care Of himself, and he was always
ready to fight. Goddard, on the contrary,
regarding the business as more or less of
a lark for which he was to pick up $500,
hadn't done anything in the way of train
ing, being good deal over weight Not
only that, but he had INDUCED in a good
deal of steam beer in Vallejo in the course
of the evening.
There was preliminary between a
couple of lads just out Of their naval ap-
premiership, and then the two heavy
weights came on. Goddard simulated cIum-
siness in his movements around the ring
before the fight and was obviously taking
the whole thing as big joke. He didn't
appear to be bothered any over the fine ap-
pearance of the stripped marine.
1.-THE crowd in the loft looked upon it as
a dead sure thing for the marine and
begged each other to take to l against
the 'unknown's' chance. The crowd who
had arranged the thing quietly took all of
this to 1 that they had the money to
cover, and laughed In their sleeves.
Gallagher the marine. put Goddard. the
Australian champion. out in just min
ute of fighting, Conditions equal, he would
have been no match whatever for the AUS
tralfan, but Goddard WIS too much occu-
vfod IN, sf,pnfnOs xrheu time called and