Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-05-19
THE GENTLE ART
OF DOUBLE-CROSSING

7 with short hair pound each other into
minced hamburger.
There were two big mixed alers in Chi
! cago then who hated each other with a
most ferocious and blood-shot-eyed hatred.
| Their names were Bob Calhoun and Pat
| Mulvihill. One was teamster and the other
a cooper, but they were mainly huge leTee
+ loafers who knew pretty well how to tight.
| as the fighting game was known at that
| day. l don't know what their crouch
against each other was about, and it
| doesn't make a particle of difference. any
/ how. 1t suffices that they loathed each
! other and could be kept from each others
| Threats in their peregrtnations around the
/ levee only by the main tugging strength
| of some dozens of their respective friends.
| They had fought a thirty-two-round draw
| in north side barn the year before, and
! were pretty evenly matched for 200-pound-
| ers. l think it was Parson Davies, who
| then ran a saloon on La Sale street In
| Chicago. who arranged the fight between
| the two which / saw-the double-crossing
affair. The tip was let out among the
bunch" that the thing would come of in
| the woods near Evansville, Indiana, down
, the Illinois Central quite a good piece out
of Chicago, and that seats in the special
| train. including the peek at the fight, would
! cost $40 per throw
Two weeks before the fight took place. 1t
it was fixed. 1t was arranged that Mulvi-
hill should put 1t over Calhoun after about
ten rounds, Calhoun taking a comparatively
small piece of money for his bit as the
price OF MS ay-QOWn. mus II was ali Set.
All hands in on the deal went about among
the marks they could find and bet all the
coin they could lay hand to on Mulvihill.
The two fighters were pretty we'll known
around Chicago at the time having been
pummeling away at the third-raters of their
own class for several years, SO that the
betting was active. and the fixers stood to
win great big hunk on the arranged out
come.
The train which we took at about 10
o'clock was delayed by a hot-box and
other such incidents. SO that the ringside
which was walk of two miles from the
was not reached till nearly o'clock in the
| morning There were about 400 men in the
party, and / wouldn't care, at this sedate
stage of my young life, to be mixed up
with such another push. They comprised
the cream of the bad men and gun-pack-
ers and crooks of pretty bad town. Less
than half of them were in on the arrange
A good many of them had bet on Calhoun.
The fixers of Calhoun thought that they
had him fixed not to train at all. but when
right up to a razor edge, whereas Mulvi-
hill who figured on a walkover, had done
very little preparing. "A kidney stew
and an hours sleep as John L. expresses
it, had been about the extent of his train
ing
about half minute before the call. and
when Mulvihill saw the splendid condition
his opponent was In he first flushed and
then went bit blue around the lips. It
was bare knuckle fight on the turf, with
big lanterns swung from trees to furnish
the dim illumination. Time was called
and then it happened.
The men passed up the handshake-they
hated each other too much for any such
foolishness. But. with his hands still at his
sides. Calhoun growled at Mulvihill:
Now, you big bogus bum, I've got you
here, haven't /? And you're fat as hog,
amt you? Well, look me over. I amt fat,
I VI p0inU n n
crawl for you and your lot, didn't you?
Well. I'm going to eat three or four arms
off of YOU" etc, etc.-the growled talk
was couched in horrible cursing language.
that only those who were smack up against
the ropes as 1 happened to be, could hear
the words.
Mulvihills lips went a bit bluer, for he
wasn't such a slow thinker. Calhoun was
talking with his hands at his sides, not
having yet squared off. Mulvihill selling
advantage of this. and taking a rats des-
perate chance. suddenly shot his right
forward for Calhoun's jaw. But he wasn't
quick enough. The jaw wasn't there.
Calhoun got his mitts up, and the fght-if
| fight it could be called-was on. Calhoun
| instantly began to make a chopping block
| Of the unframed Mulvihill. The fixers
| were all for jumping through the ropes at
| the very beginning and breaking it up. but
| the double-crossers back Of Calhoun
| weren't at all for that and held them back,
| in some cases at the point of the gun.
| Mulvihill fought like man battling for
his life, but the humping he got was
awful even horrible to witness. He was
| barely on his pins toward the end of the
third round. and his people had to be held
by main force from breaking into the ring.
Then. seeing that his man was helpless,
Calhoun. wanting more fun out of 1t than
merely knocking his man out. turned up
behind Mulvihill, bit him on both cheeks
Ike a dog. bit his chest and his arms.
: punched him below the belt dozen times
| with both hands, and then literally kicked
the man. all bloody and unconscious, into
| his corner.
I'm hunk" said the brute then, splitting
| out a mouthful of the other mans blood,
| as he leaped out of the ring.
No, didn't come back to Chicago on
| the train with that crowd. I walked into
| Evansville what time dawn came out Of
| the orient east, and then took a white
mans train for the town of wind. I was
| glad I had when I heard, upon arriving
| there. that nearly every man in the crowd
| on the returning train had had to 60 to
| some hospital or other to have broken
| head repaired.