The Alaska citizen., 1912-04-29
By A. E. BETTlNSON.

l have been watching and wait ing during the last few months for any striking expression of opinion on the really remarkable change amounting almost 10 revolu- tion-which has occurred in the sport of boxing during the last few months, and have been more or less waiting and watching for the expression of opinion I was looking for, but even for such a comment on the remarkable studies with which the French boxers have come right into the forefront of the game as would lead one to suppose that any one had taken any particular notice of them
 For many years now critics and followers of the sport have seemed 10 consider that the only possible rivals to this countrys supremacy at one of her greatest national sports must necessarily come either from America or Australia and have even 10 some extent admitted certain degree of superiority to boxers from the United States, though while doing so they have at the same time generally appeared to be satisfied that this superiority would only remain a temporary one.
 l have already more than once pointed out that the sole secret of the various successes which have of late years more or less established the American claim 10 the prem fer position in the boxing world from a championship point of view to be the most inexplicable way in which so many of our own men have chosen to abandon the old English style of boxing for a wild method which has nothing to recom- mend il from scientific methol.
 American boxers have beaten our representatives because they have adopted and practiced the old origin al English style and because they have also, as a rule, been invariably careful to enter the ring thoroughly fiji and trained for any bout in which they had to engage.
 Our own men, with few excep- tions, have for some grotesque req sons q will not say an absolute in ability to think clearly) ascribed their defeats to certain peculiarites or habits of their conquerors They have taken a survey of successful American boxers and have initiated their faults instead of their virtues. It seems inconceivable, but it is nev- ertheless fact.
 Let any hardhitting, butt ng or boring American visit us, almost ig- norant even of the very rudiments of the art, but who by virtue of his hitting powers. a few lucky punches - ''AiNi No'oSo, ioppSIlS lO VIII O tC" victories, then will you see a whole regiment of our men casting all their previous methods to the winds and going into their contests swinging from all sorts of positions, without the slightest attempt at defense other than the crude cover-up which was the only one with which their ex- emplar was acquainted.
 The Coffee Cooler, Frank Craig, won several matches when he first came here, but our men were un- able to see that he won these by vir- tue of his clever footwork, his long reach and the clever use he made of it, his tricky ringcraft and his two handed methods. No, all they could see about him was that he had a habit of chewing gum all the time. So they immediately jumped to the conclusion that in this gum- chewing habit lay the secret of his success, with the result that several of them and of their imitators have gone on chewing gum to this day, without troubling to perfect them selves in any real department of the game.
 In late years they have had Jem Driscoll standing forth as a living example of the methods and attend ant success of the old and true style the real English" style. Yet how many men are there now adays who make the slightest at. tempt to model themselves after Dris- coll, either in footwork, methods of delivering punch, pose, style or, indeed, in any single particular?
 Matt Wells showed them how the old English straight left always could be made to beat the American