The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1908-11-03

SAN FRANCISCO, OCTOBER 20
Certainly this fighting game seems
TO be bit to the queer" observed the
captain from his tripod, which was a
three legged chair in the back room
of a Barbary coast cafe. Be it known
that the cafe wherein this sage remark
found birth was local pugilistic Del
phi. and the captain its oracle.
The captain was led to the observa-
ton, after reading an overdue account
of the pugilistic resurrection of kid
Mccoy.
1T appears to me- continued the
captain, that the pugilists of today
have not only dwlndled in numbers,
but have entirely dwarfed in the mat
ter of class. One may fly around the
old resorts and scarcely ever run into
pugilist of real class. They seem to
be becoming extinct.
why, just think of it, Kid Mccoy
re-entering the ring and holding it
over a young Brooklyn scrapper, Jim
Stewart, whom New Workers looked
upon not long back as a coming cham
pion and dubbed the modern Jim Cor
bett OF the ring. Wouldn't it make you
weary"
Ten years ago." went on the cap
tain, you could not turn corner in
San Francisco without humping into
some really talented scrapper, a fighter
who knew the game from a scientific
standpoint and had that fieeting quail
ity known as class.
Every division of the game seems to
have thinned out wonderfully within
the last decade. Take your heavy
weights of today, and there seems to
be really few nigh class fighters in
that division. Burns a worlds cham
piOn! Jack Johnson a contender! Al
Kaufman and that sort flouting their
championship aspirations on the pub
lie! Isn't that really a pretty picture?
why, the negro Langford, a middle
weight of Boston, seems to be as good
if not better fighter than any heavy
weight we have before the public to-
day.
How would your present heavies
stack up with the crop of 10 years
| H,rht
plenty of them. In the heavy weight
division were such men as Jim Cor
Ibett, the cleverest big man that ever
pulled a boxing glove over his hand;
the hard hitting though not courage
Gus Peter Maher; Tom Sharkey, Gus
Rubin, Jim Jeffries, Bob Fitzsimmons
and host of other lesser lights in tho
heavy weight division. And wouldn't
your modern heavy weights look well
stacked up against lot of ring men
like those named? About as good as
toy train in a callision with Big
Six or the Empire State Express.
Your present lot of heavy weights
do not look good to me-" continued
the captain. why, Corbett and Maher
and Jeffries and Fitzsimmons and that
sort at their best would run through
them like rain water through a sieve.
"The middle weights of today seem
to be a fair lot, but l don't think they
would class against the best men in
the same division 10 years ago. Papke
seems to be a good fighter, and so do
Ketchel and Langford. Kelly also has
bit of class, but when you count
these four men you have about tolled
off all the good middle weights now
fighting.
And what one of these four could
class with Ryan either in execution
or ringmanship? Ketchel is a hard
hitter and a rugged fellow, but how
would he stack up against ringman
like Syracuse Tommy when he was at
his best. Ryan knew every point Of
the game. He was a perfect boxer, a
terrific hitter, and had the footwork
lof a dancing master. Then there was
Kid Mccoy. Why, the old fox can still
step out of a Broadway cafe, get a
hair cut and a shave and teach some
of the rising pugilists of today a deal
about the game of fiSticuffs Ten years