El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1910-12-17
(By T. S. Andrews.)


Sydney, Australia. Nov. Johnny
Clabby, the American welterweight
champion. who is the most talked OF
! boxer in Australia today, has just been
matched for his second bout here 1t
will be with Mark Higgins. local 152
pound man, who is reported to be very
clever and a hard hitter. Clabby IS
the idol of the snail boys here, and
he has already received several Offers
from the outside for vaudeville en-
gagements, but has declined an Jimmy
was asked to give out something
about his early start in the game, and
this is the way the Milwaukee boy
ratified it off,
II was still newsboy when, little
more than Is years ago, 1 engaged in
my first fight Nike Mccarthy. Of
Lamport5 was the guy; and, say. Mike
was every kind of a lad good fell
low, moving round ordinarily. but a
tough guy in the ring. Gee, how he
used to swing and wallop; but I licked
him." And Jimmy sat back, while a
self satisfied smile spread over his
countenance. The boys mind had, in
a few moments. been transported away
past a sequence of quickly following,
exciting incidents of his life, most of
which had placed him better in the
public mind and brought very many
more dollars than that initial scrap;
bnt none was of greater moment 10
the ambitious youth.
Il wanted 10 lick that fellow Nc
Carthy more'n any boy / ever licked
afterwards-not that had any
to make good.
Round about that times and for
quite stretch afterwards. / was sell
ing newspapers. and used to follow up
the boxing game sort of crazy-like,
putting on the gloves with anyone.
Il just had a love for lighting
that's all. I think it was born in me.
Dad Liked Scrap. Too.
MY dad d walk 20 miles TO see
what he thought u be a real mill, and
he used to just get mad with joy and
when l had a match on.
Norwich, Connecticut. is my native
town. but 1 went with dad and mother
to Hammond Indiana, when 9 years
old, and stayed there till L came away
on this trip.
Taught? No one taught me: 1 just
picked it up myself. because / liked it.
Il got my real start at Milwaukee, I
when the Chicago Daily
News people sent me along to look I
after their lads in one of those paper I
circulation wars which happen so often !
about our country.
'.At Milwaukee 1 chummed in with /.
a fellow named Eddie Drummer, WHO
used TO work for Frank Mulkern and I
he would fix up preliminary fights for 1
or $50 at a time. I'd take 'em T.
all on until bye and bye. 1 found my
self in the business for s125 purses. /
was on the road TO wealth sure
then.
Family of Fight Enthusiasts.
There are over 10 of us in our fam
ly. My dad married twice. but 1 have
'our brothers and sister. all younger
han myself; and. say, those boys just
owe a scrap. They're never happier
han when they get new set of gloves.
Ind they'll get 'em when they want
EN- if they have to store up their candy
money. It's boxing mitts before clothes
With them.
Il reached the top of my ambition,
lp to then, when Tom Andrews, the
American newspaper man in Sydney
low, fixed up a match for me with
Jimmy Gardiner, the welterweight
hampton of New Orleans. 1 was only
s. Gardiner got the decision. but
he public and the papers didn't like
t bit.
Gardiner and 1 met again-over 20
ounds the second time-and the ref
rec called it a draw; but the writer's
vent after him good and strong for not
living me the ruling.
My hardest fight? 1 think that last
ne with Gardiner was the toughest.
What a lot of people were sure I was
-oing up against it hard in the first
match. Heaps of 'em handed consola-
ion in the information that a round
T two would see my end. They laid
s much as four to one on Gardiner
ut things were different the second J