Omaha daily bee., 1909-04-18

Ahoa MS W. OChAha CNAAt ~ oiAAA'
for a mill. Donnelly kept a popular porter
house in Dublin. where all the leading
sports of the country got together, for
Dan was a great favorite in his day. They
crowded the champion's bar when he was
preparing for a battle just to see him ex-
ercise.
zone Of his great stunts was to drink
gallons Of water and then Jig in a large
rooms upstairs until the sweat ran from
his body in streams. He kept the Jigging
up for hours, too. to the great delight of
his admirers, who came from miles around
to see the endurance of the wonderful
Irish pugilist. Dan, like many other good
fighters, fell a victim to the bottle and
passed in his checks before ne reached
middle age after a strenuous career in the
prisering.
"Jem Mace was a faithful trainer and
never entered the ring unless he was fit
and well. He seldom drank, and at the age
Of 70 now he is wonderfully well preserved.
suIIy a Poor Trainer.
"The hardest man to handle while train
ing was John L. Sullivan. During his ten
years of success as champion 1 never saw
him but once in what I would call good
form, and that was when he was pitted
against Herbert Slade. the Maori. in Madi-
son Square garden in 1888. Mace had inns
ported Siade from Australia with a flourish
Of trumpets, and as Sullivan knew that
Jem was a shrewd Judge OF fighters he
decided to take no chances. So John L.
got into fine condition under the careful
handling of Joe Goss and Pete Mccoy.
''Slade lasted only three rounds before
Sullivan, who was fit to fight for his life
that night, When he got big and fat
Sullivan became slow and lazy. and con-
sequentiy did not want to work. Billy
Muldoon got the credit for putting him in
fine form for his long fight with Jake
Kilrain in 1889. but Sullivan was hog fat.
clumsy and like an elephant on that oc-
casion. Muldoon worked hard enough to
get Sullivan right. but they were not on
the friendliest terms all that time and
John L. frequently threatened to wallop
the famous health artist. In fact. nearly
all Of sulTivan's training was ~farcical. for
he generally did as he pleased and worked
as little as possible.
FitH a Real Worker.
"Fftzsimmons was one of the hardest
workers ever saw while training: He was
always restless and on the go. II was as
natural for the Cornishman to work and
train as for a duck to swim. Why. he
AbCu u WGd VhI mai q hOACh Poeob
punching them like a wild man hour after
hour. He was on the road bright and
early, and with his remarkable speed and
stamina he used to run his trainers heads
off.
ITO stop at some blacksmith's shop and
make a bunch of horseshoes was real fun
for Robert. In his boxing bouts al quar-
ters he generally wore down several husky
fellows, for 1t was impossible for him 10
box light and easy. I saw Fitz every now
and then get half soaked with gin fizzes
and other fancy drinks, hut the next morn
ing he was up WITH the lark and out on
the road for a five 81 tea-yaile run, re.
turning to the quarters iesFiy, dripplns
with perspiration. ul
Then he took a cold bath ind showed
up for breskfast like a new nan, glowing
with health and in great eplrits. When
some other fellow in the camp drank toe
much at night and had a big noodle in tn,
morning F1tz used to laugh and say:
Why don't yer run you're bloomin' cad
hoff like met
This is what made Fftz a wonderful
fighter, because he was always in tn,
finest fettle. Even when Bob was out o
training he was always ON the jump. work
ing away at something that provided plent,
OF exercise II he couldn't do anything
else he Jumped in and did a lot of sweeping
cleaning and household work to beat tn
band.
When he was the heavyweight cham
paon Of the world l used to see him cool
a big dinner for his family. wash tn
dishes. dust and beat the rugs, make tn
beds and do other chores about the house.
Big left Il Lazy.
Il see where Jim Jeffries says he Is
great worker while training. That may b,
true. but he always seemed to me to b.
lazy, as IL training was a hardship 70
him. He lacked the dash and spirit tina
willing workers show and always went a
the task in a half hearted way. l used Il
think he was one OF the slowest bai
punchers ! ever saw, and when he startel
out on the road he was generally in poo
humcrs plodding along like a man going OF
a disagreeahle errand. He seldom brok
into a smart run or showed any enthusiasm
In his work.
Jeff said recently that he made Il
practice Of getting up at 6 in the morning
when training for a mil. I often foun,
him in bed at 10. for Jim is a great sleepe,
and loves to stay in bed in the morning.