Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-01-03
CULLEN WRITES OF
JOHNSON AND JEFF.
Praise for Both and Says Lat
ter Has Quit Scrapping
for All Time.
BY Clarence L. Cullen.
Special Correspondence of The Star.

Did you ever hear such an L told you
So chorus in all your bawn days?
About that antipodean scrap. l mean.
Oh. they all Neutrality-suspicious. John
son would put Burns away.
Why, sure. Surest thing ever. Knew
knowed-it ali the time They didn't want
to say SO right out loud y'see. for fear
of getting the laugh But they were hep
all right. They were wisenheim to IT
that Johnson had Burns outclassed a mile
and three-eighths.
Figured all along. they did. that It was
going to be a perfect pipe for the dnge.
They didn't feel like nudging right out
into the open and saying so because-be-
cause-er-well. you know how them
things go; how a Teller gets the boot all
around when he picks one that isn't the
one picked by the rest of the gang.
But, shucks almighty, they were jerry
TO it from the minute the match was
made that Johnson was going to make
tnat Canuck look like 3 cents worth of
cats meat that's been left out on the
back stoop and been rained on.
Y'see, they figured it ths-a-way: This
dinge. Johnson, always was fast kind
of boog.~ but he never had no Chanct
to show what he could do by taking on
the good ones. They all ducked him, the
good ones. Well. there you are The Il
told you sos had the dope all the time
side something that was worth while
why, he'd be there bigsern timber wolf
on hunt for jack rabbit neat.
Knew and Knowed.
That's the kind of noises the II told you
SO" push are exuding from their counte-
nances now. They just knew and
KNOWED.
Even the rummies who. up to the very
day of the fight. pinned you against avn
ing pole or lamp post and breathed it
at you. hot and dry, that Johnson was
going to have more chance with
Burns than he'd have trying TO fight a
steam hammer at the Bethlehem steel
works-even these folks are now mem
bers of the Il told you so" gang And
when YOU hurl it into their good old teeth
that before the fight they'd picked Burns
they get real mad and swelly around the
neckband so they do. and say that 1t
amt So see, and all like that
/ sure never did meet up with so many
people that had a fight all properly doped
out as I've met up around here since
that Australian mill. None of EN-, by the
way. got anything out of it. Somehow,
they all forgot to get their change down
on the boog. They knowed he was going
to make Burns resemble before-takins
advertisement of Father Johns medicine.
But, oddly enough, when it came to SINK
ing in the old kale on their pipe, why,
they just happened to overlook it. some
way or another. They were pretty busy
guess that was the way they forgot to
bet; you know how 1t Was-Chrlstmas
week and all like that
Why, If just the fellows that I've met
who knew that Johnson was going to
curl Burns up-if just these chaps had
made. a little pool and slipped in their
contributions on the proposition that they
kenw all about 1T. e.. that Johnson
was going to cop-they'd have cleaned up
Just about the amount OF that Standard
OIL fine that has proven to be non-col-
lectible.
Yes, and while we're at it, the newspa
per pickists of this town. some Of them,
are engaged in doing lot of scientific
veering around Several of them that
picked Burns for cinch are now trying
to mangle those predictions into vague
observations that they really forecasted
Burns getting walloped.
Gave Poor Exhibitions.
We're hearing now that this Johnson
pusson is the fastest big man the ring
has seen since the days of Jim Corbett
and Kid Mccoy.
Mebbe so. mebbe SO.
You're to remember in this connection.
that lot of incense is always burned
around the winner Moreover. the winner
IS always surveyed through the somewhat
magnifying cloud made by the incense.
His points are exaggerated and enlarged
by the consideration that he has done
copied the bacon.
Not long before Johnson started for
G-fSldnQ WITH sam flIZpdlTlck saw MIN
box The boxing came off in a down
town gymnasium, where Johnson was
accustomed TO spend a couple of hours
day keeping himself trig-
On this day there happened to zephyr
along one of the boxing instructors of the
V. NJ. C. \. outfit in this town. This
Y NJ. c. "A. boxing Instructor is a man
verging upon middle age. and he's just
about handy with his maulies the
average boxing instructor and no handler.
Well. johnson, who was fooling around
pulling weights and skipping rope and
tossing the medicine bal and things, in
vited this boxing instructor to put 'em
on with him for little heat. The boxing
instructor complied.
1t was Just a friendly little setto of
course and not much can be derived or
judged from affair of that kind. But
I'm bound to say that on that occasion
the dinge didn't strike as being so
miraculously fast. Clever he individually
was particularly as to the footwCrk. He
pretty springy with his pedals and
had a way of sitting back when he saw
something coming that was interesting to
watch. When. upon bouncing back. he
lit upon the ground again he didn't lar
the floor at AL. but sort of sifted down
Ike gumshoe man making quiet get
away after mailing the swag. OF course
he was under a pull, too, in boxing with
this instructor, and didn't even dream of
letting himself out. But, though he plain
" showed that he knew all the points OF
the sparrsng game. yet he sure did not
man Jim Corbett was in his heyday
I'd often seen Corbett go through these
gym stunts. and Corbett perhaps. it may
have TO he admitted. out of vanity al
ways went at about twice the speed that
Johnson revealed on this occasion.
johnson a Cool One.
What did impress me about Johnson on
that occasion. however. was his GOODNESS.
Here's a boog with a mighty level head
on his shoulders. / don't mean that there
was any occasion for him to get oggscited
and all like that in q mere piffing LITTLE
setto with boxing Instructor in gym.
] mean that the mans manner was i'm
pressive for its utter imperturbab!ity He
isn't stolid He's just there with horse
sense. This is noticeable about Johnson
even when he's mooching around IN his
street clothes. He isn't one Of these fly
coons at all, but goes his way with a still
sort or tongue between his teeth, and a
very Slow and yet mirthful grin on his
huge map atoueS for the conversation
that he doesn't feel like getting out of
lis system.
His biSncss, too, impressed me nightly
Hes one of the biggest prizeiiGhters in
the history of the game Not only that,
but he is splcndidly fashioned. His torso
i huge. but there isn't even a suggestion
OF the muscle-bound weight-lifter about
him. Johnson actually is one OF the
strongest men in the world. but his