Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-08-31
How the Former Wrestling Champion
Remakes Men.
DISCIPLINE IS THE KEYNOTE
Popularity Of His Establishment
Makes Him Independent and He
Rules by Rod Of Iron.

NEW YORK, August 80. 1907.
solid Muldoon' wasn't named for
after William Muldoon. the man who runs
the Institution for the Rehabilitation OF
Rundowns, up in Westminster county, near
White Plains, at which Secretary Root has
been strenuously rusticating-f working
harder and longer than piano-mover or
a hodcarrer be rusticating-these last few
weeks But Solid Mudoon" expresses
Billy Muldoon all right. and 1t. or he. or
whatever solid Muldoon" may have been
or Is. might we'll have been named for
that statueSque and yet non-posing indi-
vidual with the face and the will of iron
after you know Muldoon. have watched
him In action and studied him in the arti-
Gle of ruling with his rod OF steel. you ever
afterward associate him with ice. because
Of his undertaking frozen imperturbability;
with discipline and despotlsm, because he
is concrete, compact and CONCEALED of both
of those things Muldoon presides over the
House Sans Argument His nod is the law.
Your minutest violation Of the terms ex-
pressed by one OF his mods means your
perpetual Punishment from the establish
ment Multi millionaire. Judge. celebrated
actor jurisconsult, governor. poet. indus
trial captain-they all yield to Muldoon
when they 60 to him. Yield. that Is. If they
want to remain with Muldoon until they are
rebuilded. Failing that sort OF implicit
obedience-why, then. there is the door and
the gate, and man handy to tote the frac-
tious ones dunnage to the station. And.
once shown forth from Muldoons In that
way, there is never any getting back
washingtonians getting to the grizzled
stage. by the way. ought to remember this
Muldoon man. Before he ARRIVED. hf-
teen or sixteen years ago. he was around
Washington quite lot He was asso-
| tol hot TINA with Pnh
Washington tragedian. Downing was doing
1.-THE Gladator''-what boy Of that dim
ming time doesn't remember Spartacus
sonorous address to the g!adiators-"Yeh
Downing's mate in the combat of the
arena. getting himself neatly slaughtered
every night. Of course. by the puissant
Downing -Spartacus. Matthew Arnold. WIS.,
ting the United States about that time,
saw Muldoon do his little stunt with
Downing one night. and little later he
saw Muldoon in wrestling match-'he was
the champion wrestler in his day.
There" declared Arnold, keen critic
of art and men, as he watched Muldoon
making ready for the fray. Stands the
handsomest man In the world
Hardly Flattery.
It was an uncompromising pronouncement.
and yet most men who remember the Null
doom of that day. and bit later, when he
figured in unpadded Greek and Roman
posings were very willing to agree with
that enthusiastic verdict from the lips OF a
| man who. normally was most uncommoniy
unenthusiastc. For, at that times IL
would have been hard to imagine a more
splendid-looking human being than Null,
doom And, in spite Of his griZzledness ana
that cast as of chilled steel which Time has
SET upon his face, he Is an extraordinary
combination OF remarkable physical power
and of perfect grace up to the present
time. :.
or his immense strength. exhibited in
quite an impromptu but humorous way. l
recall q little instance which Baltlmoreans
| and some Washingtonians Oh the oiu crown
are sure to remember.
Maurice Barrymore and a company OF
! clever people gave an open-air performance
! of "As You Like IT, near Baltimore Tor
! the benefit Of a Baltimore charity barry,
more Of course was the Orlando, and
| Muldoon was his wrestling mate in the
| piece.
The two men had often done this Wres.
! Ting stunt together the requirement OF
(which of course, is that Orlando shall IN
sloriously throw the other man Now one
| of the kinks of Muldoon. as IL IS OF al
athletes and Of powerful! men VINO oon 20
| In for athletcism, was that he couldn
stand being tickled. 1t made him, nrst,
| historical. and then angry, and then cream
savage all through.
| casions when the wrestling match in AS
| You Like It. was in progress took a
! malicious delight in tickling Muldoons
ribs while they were in the throes or the
| contest On all Of these occasions MuidSn
| stood the tickling only by the exercise OF
tremendous self-control. In order not to
! break up the scene. but 1t always made
| him dead sore and he invariably pro
tested angrily to Barrymore after the
scene. But Barrymore, who was always.
up to the time of his mental affection, a
| good deal OF an overgrown boy, never
! paid any attention to Muldoon's tuning
i,ly
Before this Open-air performance or
"As You Like 1t" near Baltimore Mdldoon
spoke little piece to Barrymore:
Look here Barry" he said to the actor,
| "there'H be none of that tickling foolish
ness this time. You'll promise me that
Barrymore told the athlete not II be
cry-baby before he got hurt.
The Ultimatum.
But I mean it: I'm in dead sober ear
nest" said Muldoon. This ought to be
fine performance. The best folks around
here will be on hand. And as the per
Torrance is going to be out Of doors
there'u be no curtain to drop in case the
scene gets mangled Now. I can't stand
that tickling stuff You know -hat. I'm
not fooling. I can't stand 1t. And II you
tickle me during the wrestling stunt at
this performance I'm going to ma 1gle the
scene up beyond recognition. You hear
me- l sure am. You'll be sorry If you
llCklS me tilS lilHc, pdI y III tSiiiiiS
you honest"
Barrymore laughed over the serious
way the athlete was taking what lie con-
sidered a trifiing matter and forgot all
about it.
And so, during the wrestling scene at
the open air performance Barrymore.
never believing that Muldoon could have
been in earnest about manglfng the scene,
couldn't resist the temptation to drag his
fingers up and down the inviting ribs
which shone through Muldoons gauZy
shirt.
1t happened. And nobody who was on
hand to see how 1t happened will ever
forget the screaming funniness of It.
"All right warned you, remember,
Muldoon could be heard gruntlng to
Barrymore by those in the forward seats.
and there was the light of a profound
determination in Muldoon's gray eyes.
Then the athlete grabbed the powerful
Barrymore-who. it may not generally be
known, was. in his youth. the champion
middleweight pugilst of England-around
the middle as If he had been a sack of salt.
calmly placed him over a forward planted
knee. and proceeded to give one OF the
finest and most realistic limitations of an
angry mother using the back of a hair
brush on the anatomy of her disobedient
offspring ever seen on any stage under
cover or out of doors-only Muldoon
used his hard and powerful palm for it.