The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-12-13
ROUGH-AND-T UMBLE
TACTICS IN FIGHTS
Jack McAuliffe and Patsy Corri-
gan Stars at that Sort of
Game
AS TO STREET FIGHTS
The Boxers Ought to Have Better
of Argument with a
Wrestler.

In an impromptu street fight. who ought
to win, the boxer or the wrestler?-A Run
ner.
This question is not so easy of reply as
might appear at the first reading, says
writer in the New York Telegraph.
The art of the boxer is to strike and
thereby punish in order to whip an adver-
sary. The art of the wrestler is simply to
throw his man.
From their respective methods of attack
1t would appear that the boxer ought to
"have it on the wrestler.
In making this comparison I am using
the boxer of to-day. When they met on
the turf with bare knuckles wrestling was
included in the play. fighter then had
to be able to wrestle, or he stood slim
chance of victory. But Queensberry rules
prohibit anything save striking with the
gloved hand.
"A RunDsr's" question, however, has
nothing to do with rules In a street fight
It's get there any way you can.
For the purpose OF illustratton-to con-
fine. for the present, the question between
the boxer and the wrestler-let us take
two men, each skillful in his own art, with
no knowledge Of the other s-the two cham
pions, Jim Jeffries and Tom Jenkins.
They meet outside the ring or mat and
fight. There isn't much difference in their
weights. SO that, from the standard of size.
they would be on equal terms
JeffrieS's play would be TO strike Jenkins
before Jenkins could close IL. and use
hold. Jenkins would try to avoid the blow
and throw Jeffries.
Let us presume that the wrestler got in
first and threw the boxer. There is but
one chance of the fall deciding the battle
that Jeffriess head would strike the ground
with sufficient force to stun him. 1t is
far removed chance.
With the fall the endeavor OF the wres-
tier would be at an end But the boxer
could keep on working and use his fists.
Let us reverse the result of the first at
tack. Jenkins rushes for a hold. Jeffries
meets him with jolt on the jaw or a rip
TO the stomach. There Is nothing removed
about this chance. Jenkins would not have
the skill to avoid or block the blow. And
either landing would put the wrestler out
of business there and then.
One answer to the question seems GER
tain. Given two such men as Jeffries and
Jenkins and the boxer would make short
But this is not the whole word on the
subject There Is another kind Of fighter.
who combines boxing and wrestling skill
and has a side line of other things. He is
the "rough-and-tumble" fellow, and is well
named.
SKILL WILL BEAT STRENGTH
Pit simple strength against skill and skill
will win. When Sandow, the strongest man
In the world, was the idol of the physical
world, he made declaration that he could
break Jim Corbett, then champion, in two
across his knee.
Corbett heard of it and offered to fight
Sandow any way the strong man wished
for $4,000 a side.
Nothing came Of IL, OF course.
Corbett would have whipped Sandow cas-
Ter and in quicker time than he could whip
Terry McGOvern.
But the rough-and-tumble fighter has both
Bob Fitzsimmons and Jack McAuliffe, the
long since lightweight champion, were play
ing pool in a Bath Beach hotel three years
ago. They quarreled.
Fitz made swipe at Jack, but was short.
Jack came back with a billiard cue, and
the way he handled it would have delighted
the hearts OF his ancestors in Ireland could
they have left their graves to see 1t.
F'itZ was convinced that 1t was the real
stick work and frankly admitted it.
McAuliffe is, indeed, one of the best
rough-aDd-tumbe fighters in the city, and
no one wants a piece of him when he is
in an ugly mood, which he frequently is.
Patsy Corrigan never shone with any par
ticular br1lliancy in the prize ring. but / saw
him empty Paddy the Pigs back room with
a bottle one night. And the four he trimmed
were fighters at that.
When Arthur Chambers was the light
weight champion he started to have some
fun with d conductor on the Pennsylvania
Railroad.
The conductor had whiskers like a Ger
man student and cough. But when the
train stopped at Newark, N. j., he yanked
the champion out of his seat, dragged him
to the station platform and there used him
fail TO beat the dust out of the boards.
When the little conductor was told who
his victim was he nearly tainted.
Brooklyn Jimmy Carroll. an old-time
prize fighter, could probably to-day whip
any two of his present-day confreres u a
scrap where everything goes.
/ saw an angry hunchback, barely four
feet TALL win a fight with a big burly fell
low who was haunting him. He used what
is known as the Scotch trip" Running
in mead down, he grabbed his tormentor
around the legs below the knees, raised
him up In the air and then dropped him
backward.
The big one lay where he fell with a
fractured skull.