The San Francisco call., 1905-05-14

Z There was Sharkey-once upon
q time.
had the felicity Of spending a
day with him, day which he devoted
IN an earnest, from-the-conscience-
dertaken way to my entertainment and
which he crowned with the bestowal
OF q bouquet Of roses-a most splendid
bouquet, as big and as solid as head
OF cabbage. For an hour he had kept
Il hidden behind his broad back. shift
ing It from the one hand to the other
as he resorted to gesture TO piece out
inadequate speech, and had. of course.
politely refrained from discovering.
yea, even from suspecting 1t.
At last-at the psychological moment
which I feared would pass unknown
like the ships in the night-he standing
on the gangplank and I on the tail
end Of the ferry-boat-it was at VAL
lejo-and the breach widening be-
tween US, he agitatedly burst, like a
repeating rife, into a succession of ex-
plosives:
We'll! Good-by! Z.
and-take this" planting in my
outstretched arms the cab-no, the
roses.
Flowers have come my way in
many ways and various. and always to
the JOY of my heart-but none that
have stirred such swift delight.
Still-it was not the bouquet that
made my day memorable.
It was a confidence he made me in
q moment of self-contemplation.
Il guess" said he, turning the cud Of
thought deliberately, bovinely as is his
wont With an ever-increasing wonder
and satisfaction at finding himself mas
ter Of the process? 81 guess I'm the re-
Iigiousest fighter there is"
Somehow don't know why-I had
never thought of Sharkey in that light
It was a mental fashlight, and it
aroused an appetite that knows no
palling.
The poet walls for "the power to see
oursers as ithers see u.s.
Pish. Tush.
That is all very well. as far as 1t
goes, and We may profit by it, but
there's more Of revelation-and enter
tainment-in seeing another as he sees
himself. and for one would travel far
and count no labor vain to lift the lid
and get a glimpse into the human in
terror.
In the case Of James Britt, champion
lightweight OF the world
We sat tete-a-tete in a snug. seclud-
ed room Of the Olympic Club. by ap-
pointment, for a heart-to-heart talk.
and spent a futile hour in widening the
distance between Us.
He sat facing me. groomed to sleek.
pink freshness, trim, clean-cut, dapper,
his blue eyes rowing over me inquir-
ingIy, searching, I'm sure, for the note
book and pencil that distinguishes the
LADY journalist OF the drama and the
novel.
he gave me with the most obliging
good nature talk for publication
omitted here-saying in II all the things
he thought a fighter, a champion,
ought to say for the honor of his pro-
fession and the qualification and credit
Of his public-neat fallacies and pat
plstitudes that might look well in print
but won't.
I sat with my hands in my lap, al
though I felt like wringing them IN
despair at the Elusiveness Of the Real,
as they put It in the circles of the
soulful. Through that futile hour,
like Miss Marlowe's Ophelia Of the
night before, was 81 of ladies most
defect and wretched"-I feared the lid
was riveted down.
The fighter, / gather. has his public
10 consider and conciliate. TO win to
him, just as much as has the actress
who prepares a gown and manner and
private character for the especial dis
covery Of the interviewer who purveys
her 70 the reading world; and the
fighter IN consequence says not what
he has to say, but what he thinks he
ought to say.
At least it was so with James Britt.
champion lightweight Of the world
for a time.
He expatiated with exceeding ami
ability on the quite wrong conception
OF prize fighting, on its really elevat-
ing effect on mankind, mixing sophis-
try and fact with much ingenuity and
little CONTINGENCIES, for while I lis
tened with ears and attitude my minds
eye was occupied with a clergyman Of
simple virtue and good intention who
was so far beguiled into playing Park
hurst to San Francisco as to attend
hght-so that he might denounce 1t
understandingly. It is told that in
the crucial round the man Of God
stood upon his chair and yelled Soak
himi F1tz! Soak him again. Illus
trattng advice by action, and the only
thing that saved his reputation was
the prompt measure of his friends.
who pulled his legs from under him
while the several thousand other spec
tators were similarly helping the best
man to win. The clergyman. ! remem-
bereds never denounced prize fighting
from the pulpit, but with chastened
spirit and in deem humility he being