The evening world., 1911-08-23

Amateurs " ere Amateurs.
Amateur boxing was then all the rage
and all OF the clubs held frequent o
Ing tournaments. The winners Of these
tournaments received medals. At that
time the sport was run on the square
and Il was not until some time later
that corruption began to creep into
amateur boxing until 1t grew so bad
that the a, a. L. disqualified every
amateur boxer In the East, excepting
only Danny O'rien, the amateur bantam
champion OF America.
Along IN 1861 and S, these clubs were
training up a lot of crackerJack athletes
In the Scottish-American, Mccarthy
own club. was a brilliant collection OF
boys Who attained high prominence in
professional and amateur athletics.
There was Pat Cahill, amateur middle
weight champion OF America. his
brothers Ed and Mike. the former n
lightweight ami the latter a bantam
weight; there vas Johnnie Rothman. the
present Republican lie pher Of Jersey
city, who was a crackcriack little H.
pound boxer. Tommy O'Day was a
very skillful ~lG-pound catch-as-catch-
can wrestler.
Jimmy Lark!ns. now Chief ~ Police OF
Jersey City, was the amateur ten-m!le
l VNF u y AAHh W NJ y 8's
the l~22-pound amateur champion boxer
% New Jersey. He later turned pro-
fcssional and put up many a rafting
! good scrap, challenging Ike Weir and
fighting with Johnnie Griffin down at
CCnev island. Another member was
~"Chappie" Moran. who went over to
England and won the l05-pound anna
teur CHI championship Of that country. AM
other good boxer OF the same weight
] ,,sag Dat. Gkllpnun And The other rluns
contained Just about as good a list as
did this one.
In 1867, while Mccarthy was working
over in Manhattan, he had to make a
trip every day to a ban up on Cham
hers street. on his way he had TO pass
the athletic place OF a. G. Spalding x
Brother, which was then on Broadway,
Just a dor or two north OF Park place.
For quite IA while there was displayed
in the window OF tbs store a collection
OF medals which were to be contended
for in the annual boxing tournament OF
the Spartan Harrlers. A display OF this
sort was not as common then as IT is
now, and every day at the noon hour
the window would be surrounded by
messenger boys and office boys admir-
Ing the medals and discussing the prob
able winners. ,
In the front ranks OF this crowd
I NOuflE AlNAi u t'hi'I W. ~ F'
II was there that ! fiji st saw the quick,
cocky, snappy %youngster and heard him
tell his companions that the llO-pound
class medal would belong to him when
the tournament was over. BY this time
Mccarthy mad taken up boxing over at
his club and showed considerable skill
One day ] spoke TO the boy and there
after he frequently would tel me or MS
plans for winnig that medal. AT that
time Cal weighed probably l5 pounds
The OF the Spartan Har-
rlers took place In the fal! of lss1. On
the scheduled night Mccarthy, along
with the other entries, showed up al
the hal! where the tournament was
held anxious to have a try for some
of those shiny medals. There was a
hitch of some kind-I do not now re-
mem Der what Il was-but tho o'hclals
of the tournament found that they
Gould not hold It in tho hall selected
think II was some trouble with the
police over the clubs license. the oil,
fcla,s were in a ~quandary and feared
that the boys would have to be sent
home. A big crowd was on hand 70
see the fights. Finally a friend OF one
of the officials, who had a fruit pre-
serving factory down OF
Greenwich street, told them that the
tournament could be held in one OF tht
vacant floors OF his building. II was
decided 10 do this. and he whols
crowd travelled downtown and over t'
this building. They were admitted 10y
the watchman in twoD and rhrees anc
taken upstairs.
When every one was inside the door
were locked. II space was cleared 4
ring erecten bypassing the ropes IRON
pillar to pillar and the tournament be
gan. Little Mccarthy made good nj.
boast. lie entered the llO-pound clasi
and came through VIGOROUSLY, defeat
ing three youthful aspirants,