Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1905-02-28
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OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES
The much talked Of Jiu Jitsu, the
Japanese style of self defense, was
given trial at West Point military
academy, Monday and proved rank
failure.
In magazines and newspapers all
over the world, startling stories Of how
a small, weak man, having complete
knowledge of the new art, could easily
handle a man Of twice his proportions
and strength.
1t has been noticed that none OF the
Jap Jiu Jitsu experts cared to tackle
tany first class wrestler. The willy
Japs confined all their efforts to mostly
non-athletic individuals, who In their
weak physical condition would readily
succumb to wrestling holds causing
the least pain
| Monday, Mr.. Uchida. the Japanese
consul general, accompanied by two
Jiu Jitsu experts, visited West Point.
Prof. Loki, one Of the Jap bonebreak.
ers, gave an exhibition with his assist.
ant. After the exhibition, Cadet
Woodbury. volunteered to meet the az.
sistant The American downed hia
Jap antagonist without much din
Guilty.
Upton, the football center, was an
interested spectator at the demonstra-
ton and requested a chance to take q
whirl at the professor.
For few minutes there was moth.
Ing but flying brown legs and arms In
the air, and then Upton brought both,
of the Jap's shoulders to the mat with
q loud "ker-thump." The Japs had
nothing to say after the demonstraN
ton.
It Is pretty hard after all TO and any.l
body in wrestling or boxing who CAM
beat the plain ordinary American prot
duct in any other way except bYl
weight.
OF course the Terrible Turk cams1
over here several years ago and Do.
ing about as big as dray horse. thoi
common American citizen could mott
throw him down. About twenty years.
ago there was a Japanese wrestler per.l
forming in this country. He spelled
his first name Mtsada and the other
part Of 1t was Sorachl,, or somethinol
along that line. A few OF the RIBS q
the name may be misplaced, but tho
spinal column is all right.
/ About the same time there were d
number of good men working on the
mat. Among them were Jack Carkeek.'
Dan Mcleod lat that time hardly IN
his prime). Chas. Moth, d. j. Rooney
and the king pin Of the whole business
, was Evan Lewis known as Tho
!, Stranger" Lewis was mixture OF
Scotch, Irish and Welsh and started
out from UP along the northern line
of Iowa. He was a man of great ply
steal strength, was very long bodied
and had short legs. He was nearly
six feet in height and weighed 1870 In
condition. He broke into the wrest-
| ling game rather suddenly, but he had
I graduated and taken several degrees
In the business before he left the
!, brush. He met all the wrestlers In
the business and he tossed them
!. around like a setter pup does q new
table cloth and he became the undis.
lputed "champeen" OF the whole wrest.
, ling fraternity. After Lewis had ey.
erything his own way. Dick Fox, who
is always making mistakes in sizing
/. up the best man, was instrumental In
getting the Japanese to come over and
wrestle Lewis.
J He finally came. There were lots Of
: stories printed in the different papers
) about the Japanese's mysterious pow
ers and his ability to tie Lewis In il
Knot. There were SO many stories
printed about the man from the Jiu
Jitsu country, that the general public
! soon came to feel that Lewis was 70.
. ing to get his back broken in three or
+ four places and that the day OF the
i match was simply the time set for tho
. demise Of the great wrestler from
northern Iowa.
I'll In due time they got together and
after struggling around for little
Y while, the Japanese tried some Of HIS
I funny work on Lewis. Lewis cot him
by the leg and arm and gave him q
yank that broke his leg square OF be-
d tween the knee and ankle. Some On
+ the eastern sporting writer's said that
Lewis did not do 1t fair. etc, but the
n fact remained that the Japanese was
Q In luck. that 1t was his leg and not
his neck that got stretched out be4
tween Lewis hands. He stayed d
9 while and finally dropped out Of sight.
probably went home and kept on do.
s Ing up the champions of japan but
/ over here he was not a good third
o rater
This Jiu Jitsu performance Is all
right as long as some Japanese expert
b has some other Japanese to perform on
r but I'll bet good big supper that
there are several thousand farmer boys
# in Iowa, who would make a Japanese
Jiu Jitsu professor look like punched
3 street car transfer In two minutes
thine. q. r. q.
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