The Virginia enterprise. [volume] (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??, 1906-04-20

ana Cney never KNOW when they W got /
enough. OF course no man Knows
when he's going to get trimmed, and
when he does it's always by younger
man than himself, except in one or
two cases.
Some of the wise boys who study out
the reasons why and because say That
any nation will drift down the slope
after awhile, just the same as a man
will towards the end of his life, and
one of the quickest signs to my mind
is that when nation begins to stop
putting forth real fighters with their
hands, that nation is dropping down
the rise on the far SIDE It's only an
idea, but think I've hit it right. Any
way, it's a good bet and worth little
playing.
l never heard of fighter yet thai
came from any one of those other
countries-the Italys, the Germanys
and the Russias, you know-that ever
amounted to anything with his hands,
Maybe it's because they don't use their
fists, but reach for a knife or q club
or gun, or something, or come up be-
hind man and wallop him on the
back of the head with brick. Any
way, you never hear of any of them
sending over man to meet the cham
pion of the world, do you?
No, gentlemen, there's no race in the
world to-day that can get the best Of
the Anglo-Saxons in a rough-and-tum-
bic, catch-as- catch-can or go as you
please scrap, and I think that's been
proved few times. What happened
to the Spaniards? What happened to
the French? How many times has
Italy been trimmed? What did the
Japs do to Russia? Go back into his
tory and you'll get the answer All
those countries and races can send
their people over here, though, and
this big country will look them over
and say:
I'm! Well, you don't look up to
much right now, but in about two gen.
erations I'll be able to make some
thing worth while out of you. Go on
and get digested."
The championship is always going
to be right here. Any time you should
wake up and find a new champion
fighter of the world, you don't need to
ask where he lives. The address on
the bottom of his visiting card will be
just ~. S. A." and it will be so for
good many hundred years to come.
I'm not disloyal to the country that
started me out with a pair of good
hands and a knapsack full of hopes.
but I'm just telling you the truth. It's
fact and will be a fact Americas
bound to furnish the fighting men for
the world. Why, any chap that reads
the papers can see that for himself
Who are building the big bridges all
over the world? Americans. Who are
digging the canal? Americans We're
furnishing the big fighting men for
everywhere, and they're making good,
too. 1t isn't only pugilism. It's every
thing. But you can tuck this away in
your hat band and tell it to your
friends who hold up their hands and
whine about pugilism being brutal: |
ut takes an almighty good ALFRED
man to stand up in ring with moth
ing but his hands and give and take
GO minutes of bruising and battling,
and no lad with weak lungs or hec-
tic flush and spectacles is going to
stand the gaff for minute
Any time you see lad with a good
pair of hands you can bet he's not
losing much time sitting up nights in
the back room of gin mill or smok-
ing cigarettes. If he is he won't be
handy with those fists very long.
Fighters are to be found everywhere,
and they don't all get into the ring.
One of the fastest little men, and the
gamest, too, that I ever saw isn't in
the game now. He's the treasurer OF
one of the finest, biggest and lest
theaters in this country, and he's as
nice and quiet a little gentleman as
you ever saw. I'd like to bet that any
thing he goes after he'll land. That's
getting away from the subject, though.
America is going to breed champions
right along, and the championship of
the world is going to stay right here
1t can't be any other way There's a
lot of good material right here now,
and it's coming along fast Now that
Jeffries has retired, or says he has; it
looks as if there was going to be an
other fight pretty soon. and for the
championship, too. I think I've got
the best right to the title just: at this
minute, now that Jim has passed it
up, and If young Mr.. Hart of Louisville
thinks he can put a crimp into yours
truly, he's welcome to the chance.
He's nice ambitious young fellow,
and I'm going to do what can for
him. I've lived pretty clean, and for
43-year-old, claim to be pretty
speedy yet and able to go a bit.
Champions the Negro.
An English physician named Schoies