The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1906-01-18
JOHN Is ADDRESS
IN A PEN|TENT|ARY
He Was Invited to Give the In
mates a Talk, and He
Did.
NEVER TOOK GOOD ADVICE
BUT WAS ALWAYS WILLFUL
He Did the Wrong Thing for
Himself, but Now 1t Is
Different.
By John L. Sullivan.

was In a pententiary out West
while ago to address a few remarks to
the fellows who were behind the bars,
was Invited to give them a few
rounds OF talk, and 1 went to obllge.
Everybody was glad to see me. and l
gave 1t TO them straight from the
shoulder. l guess there'd be more of
us in jail If we got what we deserved.
and l never feel like putting on lugs
with a bunch OF chaps who have got
caught,
These fellows In the particular jail
am talking about had made mistakes.
Some got caught with the goods, others
were behind the bars because they had
put In too much time in front of other
kinds OF bars, / told them when they
got out TO stay out, that the game they
were trying to beat was too many for
them. and they'd lose out in the end
The advice / handed TO them was all
right, all right, for when a man is down
and out, he's ready to take advice by
the tubful. It's only when he's on the
high wave that he gives the polite
warning the merry lift and tells you to
go chase yourself
When everybody's taking punch at
you, It's different from what 1t is when
you are At to pass out the wallops so
strong that none of them can stand be-
fore you for even four rounds. I've
been through the whole thing and 1
know, The rainy day comes to every
sport, and II he hasn't an umbrella or
two and a lightning rod ready to hoist
II is twenty-three for his. About all 1
pulled out of a lot OF high living Is my
health and a lot of friends, but II I'd
rcI nff q hn ,-nlIn k,oo
sawbucks 1 wouldn't need to be looking
over the market reports and kicking
about the Increased cost of living. But
I'm not raising the whimper, for after
seeing a lot of fellow w-citizens under
lock and key In n penitentiary, it's
easy to see that things could be a heap
worse than they are with the great
majority of us who are out In the open,
Chances Hc Took on the Big Tour
When I was the best there was in my
line. I never took good advice, and q
lot of my friends had TO have plenty OF
patience with me. / felt as independ-
ent as a Pittsburg millionaire with a
divorce suit on hand, So, as / declined
to take any Of the drinks offered to me
when hit Chicago the other day. quite
a few of the lads who used to give me
good advice about drinking were rather
surprised. But I let them know that
the red stuff had been cut out of the
menu for Yours Truly and 1t took some
of them off their feet.
L took many chances while meeting
all Corners. by going on night after
night knocking out unknowns In four
rounds or forfeit $1,000, and some OF
these Jobs were done after being out
with the boys for a number OF nights
running. There were times when my
pals tried to KEEP me from going on
with nf IhnQa hn0EU wallnn1re
because they thought I couldn't make
good. But / fooled them all
In more than one case. there were
plots to load me so full OF the red stuff
that I couldn't tell whether 1 was fac
ing one man or a dozen. One man
faced me with his body soaked In fish
oil. another wore cowhide boots. an
other mad his body wadded, and so on.
All OF these men were strong enough to
make an OK take the count II they land
ed right But they never landed right
on me- for no matter how much In
terror decorating I'd been doing, when
IL came to plain fighting I was always
there with the goods. Now 1 can see
how much better 1t would have been to
have cut out the hurrah business and
stuck nearer to the chalk line, and I'm
going to walk 1t hereafter II II takes a
leg.
A Record Of Clouts Fit for His Mon
ument,
1 knocked out over two hundred men
when I was doing business at any old
stand IN the good old days and as l
look over the list OF victims OF my pat
ent punch. the battle-roll looks good
enough to put on my monument when
die All OF these men had good fight
ing names. and they were all husky
and enterprlsing. They were the very
best men the country could boast In
those times. strong and big, many of
them giants. all of them brave and Mt
TO give and take punches that would
today make them high-class perform
ers In the ring.
No special training was done on INV
part before taking these aspirants into
camp. They were gathered in during
one-night stands. while / was travel
Ing over the country from ocean to