The Savannah morning news., 1903-10-18
IS IT GAMENEss OR ABSENCE OF
NERVE EFFECTe
MANY BELIEVE HIS NERVE
TELEPHONE is DEFECTIVE.

Frank Erne and Tom sharkey Have
Displayed More Gameness BuG
Have Never Suffered the Same
Punishment The Rubber Man
VIII Let Joe Cans Hammer Him
for Six Rounds to See if He Can
Put Him Out-Fitz Says He's
Wonder.
Old-time ring followers have been
puzzled at the exhibitions Joe Grim
commonly dubbed "the Rubber Man,
has given in standing punishment with
out quitting. 1t was the opinion OF
many who sat by the ringside last
Wednesday night in Philadelphia and
saw Bob Fitzsimmons hammer the
Italian almost into a pulp, that it was
the grandest exhibition of gameness
even seen In the prize ring. But there
may be another view.
Gameness is little more than the abit~
ity and willingness to take punishment
It's when a man Is hurt. and knows he's
hurt, but comes back for more, With
the chance of turning the fortune OF
battle his way, that he is game, Frank
Erne gave a splendid example of this.
Joe Cans cut him to a hamburger
steak when they met at the Broadway
Athletic Club in New York He was
winning by an Irish mile. But tha
white boy stuck to his work and flnal-
ly made the negro quit.
Tom Sharkey showed it in the beat
ing he took from Jeffries-a beating that
changed the map of the sailors interior
topography. And Sharkey's heart and
liver and things have been offside ever
since.
1t may be-a surmise, purely-that
this Joe Grim is built differently from
other mortals. Can he be hurt2 1t
has often been said that any man who
took Fitz's wallop in the stomach and
got up for more had conclusively
proven his right to be called game.
Grim took a score of them and they
only made him laugh
In the human body there are nerve
lines that telephone sensation to the
brain. When you step on mans too
his brain is rung up at once. he
knows that he has been hurt, and ac-
knowledges the injury after the man
ner of his bringing up. Some men nave
a quicker service than others. To use
arbitrary and magnified figures for the
purpose of illustration, it may take A
one minute from the time he is kicked
discover the fact for half an hour.
Now the question may be asked in all
seriousness: Has Grim any connection
at all between his center of discovery
and he plane of resistance? Or is his
wife of transmission made of such dull
metal that it has not even yet regis
tered the first of those terrific jolts to
his jaw? May it be that to-ray or to-
morrow or a week hence he will sud-
denly drop down and out, communicaS~
ton having at last been established be-
tween his skin and his brain?
If this be true, he certainly has half
the makeup of that which goes to build
champion He can't be licked-that
is, stopped. Given that half can he ac-
quire the other? Can he whip his manf
Fitz treated his bout with Grim as q
Joke. 1t was a grim one. He looked
on the contest something like he did on
the Con Coughlin affair. Bob knew
Coughlin, and was tearful OF hurting
him. He knew that Con had lain un-
conscious for forty-eight hours in the
hospital after a puncvh on the jaw from
Con Riordan, whom Fitz Afterwards
killed with a single wallop. He did
not want to kill another man in tho
ring, and was very careful not to hurt
Coughlin. He may have had some such
feeling when he went after Grim, but
the feeling did not last more than a
round 1t must have wounded the old
warriors feelings when he found that
hand them out with all his viciousnesss
he couldn't make them sound their old
time knell--on this particular lump OF
rubber. And the crowd, the applause
of which Robert so dearly loves, guy
ing him all the while.
Imagine the think that is coming to
AL Herford about now. Joe Cans, the
lightweight champion, has agreed to
stop Grim in six rounds or go minus
any part of the gate. Truly, nice
proposition for the Baltimore pair
-s---- -
--She--So you think that men ara