South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1914-12-31
JOHNNY LUST|G
IS IDOL Of THE
EAST SIDE FANS
Never Has Been Defeated and
Climbs Above LeaCheS Cross
When Latter Refuses to Take
Him On in Bout.
BY Frank G.. Mcnke.

NEW YORK, Dec 31-The Ghetto of
this here New York town asks you.
please. 10 take few squints at John
ny CI oung) Lustig, its new idol and
the coming lightweight champion OF
the world"
Johnny has been making large
noises in the pugIhstic world recently
and from practical obscurity OF about
a year ago he has Jumped TO the fore
at such a clip that ne is being ranked
among the very best little Scrappers in
the lmelight division.
teaches Cross used TO be the idol
of the east side. That was before
teaches began to slip. He still might
be the idol if he hadn't spurned that
. offer OF S1,250 to fight Lustig for 10
rounds. The east side can understand
many things but it can't understand
why a man should pass up 1920 for
thirty minutes exercise, unless the
passing up is caused by severe at
tack of cold feetitis.
GU see, il happened this way. A
year ago teaches was the whole
works over in the east side and Jonn-
ny wasn't anybody. But that was a
year ago. Since then teaches seems
TO have lost his old time wallop. He
has lost bit of his speed and STAN
ina. on the other hand, Johnny has
advanced from recruit stage TO a place
near the top. And then it was that
JOhnny's hackers insisted that Leach
meet Johnny and settle the champion
! ship of the Ghetto. But teaches duck
ed, and teaches continued to duck
while Johnny and his crowd hurled
! defis. challenges. jeers. and a lot of
other things at Leach.
Hurl a Little Money.
| Finally the Lustig crowd decided to
| hurl a little money toward Leach-the
| final resort, y'no.
Wen guarantee you $3.50 to meet
| Lustig in a 10 round bout" was the
! def heaved at teaches by Clarence
$. Gillespie, Fox building, New York,
| who manages Lustig.
And Leaches would you believe it,
| passed up the money. OF. yOi, Such
! a strangeneSs, The east side couldn {
! understand il. S1,250 for 80 minutes
! exercise-and teaches passed ii up.
! OF, yoi! l!
1t was then that the east side did a
Walter JOhnSon-it jumped to the
the record Of Lustig the east side has
! come to believe that Lustig is quite a
scrapper, and it hopes that Lustig will
do what Leach Cross failed to do
bring the lightweight championship
1 TO New York.
| LuStig never has been defeated. The
| nearest he came to il was when he
fought Johnny Dundee. That fight
was called draw-and il was a siZ-
zler of scrap right from the outset
Lustig went up against one of the very
best fighters in the game today and
handed out as much as he had to take,
which was quite an accomplishment
for a man just graduated from the
novice class.
Lustig is a favorite with the fight
fans because he is a fighter. He
doesn't stall. He's aggressive and
he's game. No matter how hard
the wallOps that land on his frame
work he keeps coming back for more
He bores and continues to bore. He
gives the crowd its moneys worth OF
real fighting. And the crowd likes
him because of it.
Lustig is a two handed fighter. He
carries a husky wallop in either mitt
He isn't exactly a Packey Mcfarland
on the defense, but he guards him
sci. mighty well and he's improving
all the time.
Lustig has scored victories over
such men as Matty Baldwin, One
Round Hogan, Walter MOhr and Phi
! Bloom. as well as a lot of lesser lights
in the lightweight ranks.