The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1909-03-14
WRESTLING GAME
| lis BACK AGAIN
no Sport in Recent Years Gets
a More Sudden Re-
'3s VivaI.
BY FREDERIC J. HAskIN.

-
No sport In recent years has received
more sudden revival than that of pro-
Sessional wrestling. says Frederic J.
| Rassin in the Detroit News. Just at
/ the time when the game appeared TO
have run its last course. and to be I'M
Der an ineradicabls stain, 1t came to
BE and is now attracting more atten-
lion than at any time in teh past fifteen
or twenty years.
The greater part of the credit for this
resurrection was due to the wonderful
stories sent out from London about
Hackenschmidt, 'the Russian Lion
who was described by the enthusiastic
reporters as the most wonderful speci-
men OF physical manhood and prowess
alive. At once the question arose: IF
this Russian is such a marvellous being,
is there no American who can beat
him r.
The attempts to answer that question
In the positive resulted in the present
activities on the mat. At that time
Tom Jenkins was the acknowledged
American heavyweight champion, and
he met Hackenschmidt at Madison
Square Garden on May 4, 1905. In this.
F,-schmidt more than fulfilled expecte-
lions. Although some twenty or thirty
pounds lighter than Jenkins. he han
tled the American with the utmost ease,
and defeated him III such short order
that there was none OF the usual talk
OF a return match.
Then Came Gotoh.
Subsequently. Frank Gotch, the Amer
Scan farmer from Humboldt, Ia, who
was born April 81 1873, is five feet elev-
en- and half inches in height and
weighs 210 pounds, defeated Jenkins and
won the American championship. Mr..
fiotch's victory was exceedingly popu-
Lar. not only because of his own pleas
ant personality. his square dealing and
his failure to demand exkortionate
prices for his services, but because the
sporting element felt that a man of his
marked ability, and in the height Of his
| career, was just the wrestler to bring
back the laurels carried away by Hack
| enschmidt.
These hopes were justified when Hack
enschnidt returned TO the United States
and. after short tour, lost to Gotch at
Chicago on April 4. 1908. There was no
fall, but Hackenschmidt deliberately
resigned after mere than an hour OF
rough work while both were on their
feet. He claimed that the farmer boy
had used unfair tactics and had gouged
his opponents eyes with his fingers. but
this excuse was not accepted. Gotch
/ recently retgjTned from London, where
he went to arrange another match. but
Hackenschmidt and his English advis-
ers demanded such unusual conditions
that the American returned in disgust.
Crookedness Killed Game.
Crookedness was responsible for the
-
tined 10 again cause it TO decline in
popular favor. There Is no sport, unless
it DE foot racing. in which it IS easier
to deceive an expert. Even the most
practiced eye cannot tell with certa inty
whether a man by his science or
tstTength broke a dangerous hold, o.
| whether the other man deliberately al
lowed him to escape. The ''grafteTs" in
the game became 80 well aware Of this
that few honest matches were made
among them. The public was so often
deceived that patronage fell away to
nothing, and many OF the wrestlers had
10 do real work with pick and shovel
Even in Jacobs Time.
This crookedness IS as old as wrest-
ling itself a familiar instance, but one
seldom considered I'm that light, vas the
match between Jacob and the angel, de-
scribed in Genesis XXXII, 24-29. They
| wrestled all night. and ''on the level"
we infer. As man to man they strus
gled. But, when the first streak OF
dawn touched the east and il was nee
essary for the angel 60 be on his way,
he brought into play his supernatural
power as opposed to Jacobs mere hu-
man ability. He touched the hollow OF
Jacobs thigh. and the thigh went out
of joint. Then Jacob made = record
/ FOR gameness that will last forever.
With his thigh out Of joint he refused
| to quit, and finally made the angel tell
him what he wanted to know. Had
/ Hackenschmidt's courage been as great
as Jacobs, he might still have been the
world champion.
a curious historical record Of
wrestling match that may have been
contemporary with Jacobs doughty
contest with the angel. was connected
with a large stone which formerly stood
| on the site of the present city OF Siusa-
| pore Malay peninsula. The stone was
Inscribed in the characters 50 archaic
that students had little idea what they
meant but tradition said IL marked the
spot where two famous champions
wrestIed to the death for the chieftaiu-
ship of the surrounding territory. The
ancient monument was Of intense inter-
est to archaeolOgists and philOlOgists,
but a younger English engineer, find
ing 1t ia the way of some improvements
he was making blasted ii to pieces.