The Washington herald., 1911-09-05
BY GEORGE FITCH,


the pleasant art of disIocation known
as wrestling, I shall try to describe in
simple terms the glorious day at. Comis-
keys baseball park, in Chicago. on Sep
tember 4, 1911, when Frank Gotch, of
Iowa, put $1,000 in cash. a percentage Of
moving pictures, and $4,000 theatrical
contract down on the mat in two
straight falls and, incidentally, reduced
Mr.. George Hackenschmidt, of Russia,
who attempted to protect them from
three-inch headline type to solid non
pareil in the sporting notes.
1t was a beautiful day and Mr.. Comis-
keys huge concrete inclosure was solid
| ly lined with eager faces from the Cnlteo
States, Europe, Turkey, Australia. ana
points West There were preliminaries
in which small men wove themselves into
hopeless knots. and big Joe Rogers,
weight 26O. and STRIPPING or 2iO' FREQ
Erer, pulled and hauled at each other
like two amiable hippopotami. All of
this excited some notice, but when one
first became aware OF the presence OF
s., 600 people in the immediate vicinity
was when Mr.. Gotch came out IN blue
dressing gown and climbed into the ring.
At this point a cheer arose. Managers
of national political conventions might
do we'll to examine this cheer and get
acre, three-story cheer, full of frantic
hopes and deciduous patriotism and JOY
Gus red, white and blue blOoded antici-
patton of trouble to come. Then Hack
| enschmidt came out and the crowd
cheered him, too, with stentorian
whoop. Hack was a stranger in a
strange land. and it was only fair that
he be cheered before being hamburgered.
So every one yelled for him and yelled
TO Gotch 10 dessicate him for the honor
OF his country.
WestIers Are Compared.
Neither wrestler is a tall man. Both
might pass unnoticed IN a crowd were
it not for the extremely successful man.
ner in which they fill their clothes. Both
are slightly frayed about the hair which
hasn't had the endurance of their
muscles Gotch is a hood natured, smiling
young man. with a build that would
make Greek statue blush at its lop-
sidedness. Hack is bullet-headed
chap. with a twenty -one-inch neck and a
taperinG waist. 1t tapers down to about
forty-two inches from a ffty-two-inch.
chest.
The two men emerged from their bath
robes. GOtCh in blue tights, Hack in
green, and both bare to the waist. They
shook hands and Mr.. E. w. Smith, the
referee officially ''sicced" them on, while
the sporting world with all its hopes and
fears Of the past years teetered up and
down and forgot to breathe.
The first ten minutes were devoted by
the devOurers to getting acquainted with
each other. This was an affectionate
performance. Heads together and locked
like two bulls in a misunderstanding,
they investigated each others ears, hair.
neCks. elbows, and sides with loving
81 IL
one of which would have mussed up
a terra Gotta statue considerably. They
tugged and hauled each other and got
nowhere with the most tremendous
energy. As an exhibition of standpatism
il was sublime, but the crowd wasn't
interested in politics 1t concentrated its
1900 eyes on HackensChmidt's Inflated
toes and thirsted for events.
Now and then Gotch made a grab for
z green-Clad leg. A lightning flash would
look tired and lazy beside one of those
grabs. Each one brought on eager
shrek from the piled-up faces in the
amphitheater Three times Hacken-
schmidt took that leg of his away to
safety by the shred of a second. The
fourth time the margin was on the
wrong side. There was the flash of a
brown hand on a green leg. a siren
Shrek from the 5000, two wildly wag-
in the air. and Gotch, having up-ended
his man, dumped him on the mat and
began to work on him.
GOtch Is the AEgressOr.
Nowadays enterprising moving picture
makers show films of lions toying with
deer and goats and other lion food
There was a suggestion of the Hons
kindly manner in Gotch as he browsed
hungrily around Hacks nose. ears. arms
and neck in search of something break
able.
This should really have been Hacks
part of the show, but the Russian Lion
was strangely accommodating. He let
Gotch do all the browsing, the heaving.
the rending, and the devouring. Active
labor did not seem to interest him. Rest
and reflection close to the mat seemed
to be almost a passion with him. So he
lay pIacidly while Gotch worked out lit
tie problems in leverage on his legs
and then there was another flash and
both men were on their feet while two
moving picture machines strained ten
dons and went hopelessly lame trying |
to follow the move.
Another minute Of pushing and hauling |
on foot, then that same green leg lin |
gered the fraction of a wink too long. |
Hack was down and Gotch on top of
MIN, OH
monolithic underpinning. With a mas
todonic squirm Hack broke loose and
got to his feet. Gotch went after him
like a panther after a supper, several
days overdue They clinched in a sort
of combination half-hitch and true-love-
knot hold and Gotch went down under
meath. He leaped out of Hacks grasp
like a thousand volts of electricity |
straying out of a leaky wire. and they |
cIutched each other by the head again
on foot.
Gotch leaned on Hacks shoulder and
smiled at the crowd, then he upended |
his opponent and sat on him still smil-
ing. He felt around Hacks legs in a |
methodical manner, took a good grip-
and signaIed the hosting engine to go /
ahead Hack rose like a sack Of meal /
and describing a graceful parabola, land
ed with one shoulder down. still snil-
ing. Mr.. Gotch. in a way that could
not possibly be described as consfd-
crate, sat down about go pounds worth |
on the other shoulder. IT went down. \
II was easy. Any piledriver could have |
done the trick. The referee got down
and peered under the two squirming /
hillocks. Then he slapped Gotch on the
signal to cease firing-and
the cork blew out of pandemonium with
a tremendous explosion.
Crowd Makes Great Demonstration.
For many blocks around people stopped
work then and said, 'Gotch has won a /
fall" You could not help suspecting /
that something had happened, even II