Waterbury evening Democrat., 1904-02-27
..BIFF" ELLISON DEAD.
The Most Noted and Remarkable
 Sport in New York.

Ll1lSOu IS uedu.
 Man-about-town, big, strong, beIIig- erent, the victim always of his own aggressive masculinity, he has fought his last fight.
 Ellison died yesterday afternoon apartment, at 130 West Thirty fourth street.
 His last hours were peaceful Friends soothed him and members of his own family with whom he had not been entirely friendly for years. held his hands while he waited.
 The last time Broadway-he and Broadway were firm friends-saw Ellison, was Saturday last. He ate breakfast then in the cafe of the Herald Square Hotel.
 "How are you, Frank?" asked a friend whom he met there.
 A cold has an awful clutch on my chest" was the reply, ''but I'm going to beat it.''
 That was "Biff" Ellison-he was "going to win"
 The next day physician was call ed. No one knows who called him. Riff" had no butler, no valet, in these last days.
 GO to bed,'' said the doctor.
 Give me another day." pleaded El- lison.
 On Wednesday his friends began to tfptoe up the stairs to his room, FL lison was putting up a hard fight, but he had foe this time that would not be denied.
 Three physicians were at his 4bed- side on Thursday, and two trained nurses. Oxygen was administered. friends sat about and watched the strong man in his last contest.
 Ellison was almost out yesterday morning, but his teeth were set in determination to live He regained some strength during the day, and it was thought he would pull through.
 Late in the afternoon he looked about him at the things he knew best in the heyday of his strength. There were foils on the walls, and set of boxing gloves. Swords from the four corners of the earth were arranged on the walls, together with photographs nf his best friehds-the friends that stuck when fate and "Biff's" unfortu- nate be1ligrency were forcing the best things in life away from him. Then at o'clock life's shadow came in at the window and big, strong "Biff'' died. Tn his death. New York loses one of the most aggressive picturesque char acters it has known-and the city Nhas known many. "Biff" Ellison was born with a good spoon in his mouth, but he soon outgrew the spoon and took on trouble in it's stead. He was man who was not afraid of men, This characteristic begat many affairs with the police that made his name familiar to the force. He thrashed policemen as often as he was told by them to keep quiet. "Biff'' Ellison never could understand policeman, and there is no record of "a policeman ever having agreed with Ellison on any given subject. About ten years ago there came into HBiff's" life the trouble that rob- bed him of most of his friends and took from him his c1tizenship-and "Biff' was stout citizen. He attacked a banker-Henrfques by name-the father of young wom- an to whom Ellison had been atten, tive. The banker preferred charges of assault against his daughters suit or and he was convicted and sent to states prison.
 When Ellison went to Sing Sing. El- 1'sor'e friends-most of them were through. ,as They had stuck by him while he whaled policemen into vari- ous conditions of submission and beat up a score or more of cabmen, and others, but when he went to jail for striking "Old Man. Henriques, Eff" lost more than his liberty.
 Ellison was marked from the time he got out of prison. It was feath- CT in any mans cap to, insult the man who had licked policemen and it is history that "Biff'' took more insults to the square inch in the last five years than any man in New York.
 My hands are tied," he said to an old friend few years ago.
 .'The towards that insult me to-day wouldn't dare to look me in the eye before I got into trouble. It's hard. but I've got to stand it. I must stand it."
 Ellison's reputation was an unenvi- able one before he was convicted of assauIting Henriques. Born in Phila- delphia of wedd-to-do family, he ran away to the civil war as a mere lad. He was the youngest commissioned officer in the federal armies, being graded lieutenant when he was not QulLG 10 years Olu. I1O WdS WouuuCu,s a grape shot striking him in the mouth, fracturing the jaw and leav- ing scar that he carried for life.
 He came to this city when young man and soon was an associate of Hermann Oelrichs and Fred May. It was said that May was the only man who could handle him. At first he figured in number of escapades of minor sort. Of magnificent phys ique, handsome features, independent fortune and brute courage, that did not know what fear meant, Ellison be- came one of the gayest of the gay set
 He was a member of several clubs. but one by one they repudiated him. He was suspended from the Manhat- tan club for shampooing a fellow member with a Welch rarebit, which he had been cooking in chafng d'sh. He was also dropped from the Union and Racquet clubs.
 Thermometers i'm Demand.