Waterbury Democrat., 1903-02-23
WITH THE uRES1LERS.
Bridgeport Has An Epidemic OF
Mat Workers just Now.

Frank Gotch Threw Carl Pons Down
There Saturday ght-Wrestlers Of
Repute are Worth Much Money-Jen-
kins and Gotch to Meet in Short
Time-Other Wrestling News.
Bridgeport, Feb 23.-Frank Gotch
won from Carl Pons, the French cham
pion, in Madison hall Saturday night
in one of the best wrestling contests
ever seen in this city. The first bout
was catch -catcn-can. The men
weighed nearly 200 pounds each, and
We're clever masters. With Pons I'M
derneath, Gotch worked various holds,
but a half-Nelson brought about Pons'
| downfall after II minutes and Sec
onds.
| The style was changed in the second
bout, and Graeco-Roman wrestling
| was tried. This was Pons strong
hold, but he was given a great run.
Gotch got an arm hold and slipped to
half-Nelson, and one Of Pons, Shout
ders touched. Pons turned the ta-
bles and Gotch went underneath, fl
nally three-quarters turned the trick
! in Pons' favor and Gotch went to the
, mat in 1S minutes and 1S seconds.
The third bout was catch-as-catch-
can. This bout was a short one and
"a crotch hold brought the heavy Pons
! to terms and ended the match in
minutes and 80 seconds.
| That it pays to be a wrestler of re-
| pute is shown by the way the promi-
nent men are making money nowadays.
| Only three years ago a wrestler was
lucky enough to make his salt, so to
speak. Now it is different story, and
there are few wrestlers who do not
/ earn from $50 to 5000 each week. jim
Parr, the champion of England, proba-
bly, has had more varied experience
than any of the others. Although Parr
has only been in this country a little
over sixteen months he has asquired
| $4,000. Tom Kelley, who is his wrest-
ling partner, told the story Of PARIS
tribulations in America before he was
able to catch on. when Parr came
to the United States,7said Riley, she had
a reputation abroad as wrestler, but
| there was nothing doing in his line
here. He had a little money, so went
| to place in Ohio, near Cleveland
After his money was gone he secured
job at $3.50 a day. saHved his
salary and then went to Buffalo. He
secured match after match, and by
winning the majority of them succeed
! co in finding plenty of hackers. The
result to-day Is that Parr has a snug
bank account and may make America
his home" Jenkins. Parker, Bothner,
/ Mcleod, Dwyer and Piening are all
making money and can get all the
matches they want. Only the other day
well known Philadelphia promoter
offered a place to a wrestler at large
salary to instruct a number of wealthy
Quakers how to wrestle. The offer
was refused, as the athlete had all he
could do to fulfill the engagements he
had contracted. So
New York, Feb 23.-It Is a different
thing meeting "all corners" at wrestling
ION the road than in town, as John
Piening Harvey Parker and others
will testify. The reason is that local
wre~lers do not come Up to the stand
ard of cleverness shown by the outsid-
|
have more good wrestlers than any
other city in the Union. Last week in
Baltimore Piening had the liveliest
/ time in his career. He failed on three
occasions to down his opponents in the
prescribed time of fifteen minutes and
had to part with the bulk of his sal
airy. Pienings hardest contest was
with Paul Pons, the French wrestler.
Pons met Piening as an unknown"
and more than held his own.
Fred Gotch, the ''Klondike cham
/ pion,'' who is looked upon as a good
AN, met Carl schmidt, the Russian
| Giant" at Baltimore recently in a fif-
| teen minute catch-as-catch-can bout,
and received the decision. Although
Gotch outweighed his rival by ten
pounds, he allowed Schmidt to cut out
the pace for five minutes. After that
he went ON top and held his position
unit 1.-THE finish.
The catch-as- catch-cap match be-
tween Tom jenkins and Gotch will be
decided next Thursday night in Cleve-
land instead of on March 3. Jenkins
/ Is a great admirer Of Clarence Bouldin,
the Cuban Wonder" and is of the
| opinion that he can throw any man
weighing between 145 and 150 pounds.
/ "Bouldin is one of the aptest pupils I
ever had" says the ex-champion. ''He
is strong and clever and knows a lot
of tricks
The challenge of Tom Riley Of Eng
land, who wants to meet George Both.
ner in finish contest, catch-as-catch.
can style, has been taken up by Billy
Elmer, Bothner's manager. The latter
said yesterday: "Bothner is ready to
meet Riley, but the latter will have to
came to our terms if he wants a bout
| George is ready to sign articles for d
contest at 1876 pounds, weigh in at l.
O'Clock on the day of the contest II
Riley can get to this weight and car
muster a side bet of 81 900 we will ar
range to take him on"
FRO MI Pich h dinner. is nonotiat incr fo,