The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1914-11-07

despite great inferiority in armament, | have proved that they are able to put 1 up an Al quality of rookus. Ask l any British Tommy or French Foreign Leeioner or Italian soldier who has seen African service what he thinks Of the black man as a scrapper, and | he will tell you a few things that will add to your respect for the black as 8 1 fighting man.
 Having taught the blacks of Senega to respect the Frenehman, the latter are now using the Senegalese in the European war, and from all reports the blacks have given a good account of themselves. They may have their ness for preserving the heads of ef1e- mics slain in battle as souvenirs; but war is bloody business at best. Doubtless many Germans who have faced these black terrors from Africa have learned to sympathize with John L. Sullivan, who drew the "color line, when the big black bulk of Peter Jackson loomed formidably in the of hng.
 h Cuba. and elsewhere the black soldiers of Uncle Sam have shown their white comrades at arms a few tricks of the fighting trade that the palefaces never dreamed of. There are some localities in the United States where the negro troopers are
 not very popular-no notably Browns vile, Texas-but when it comes to fighting, why, nobody can deny that the .sbrack debbils' can hght9
 It is scarcely necessary to point out that the negroes have reduced sever al men who were pretty fair artists with teir fists Pretty fairl Jack
 Johnson has had a lot of predeees- sors as negro champions. George
 Dixon, Joe Cans, Joe Wa1cott, Dixie Kid, Jack Johnson five worlds champions in the last quarter of a century is tho record of the Africans. Added to this list should be Peter Jackson, who was undoubtedly the l premier lighting man Of the world when at his best, and Sam Langford, who was entitled to the heavyweight l honors when Johnson was virtually
 ruled out of the ring.
 l Of these seven black champions, on l ly three were born under the Stars and Stripes, the others having been British subjects by birth. Jack John
 son was born in Galveston, Joe Cans in Baltimore and Dixie Kid in Fulton, Mo. Peter Jackson was a native of | the West Indies, Joe Waicott was born in British Guiana, South Amer
 ica, and George Dixon and Sam Lang | ford in Nova Scotia, Canada.
 Most fans think that the negro in- vasion of the ring is a comparatively modern Innovation but in this they are mistaken. As a matter of fact, the Africans were the first practition- fl of the Atlantic: Jacob Hyer, who l whipped Tom Beasley in 1816, is usu- ally called the first American cham l pion. and he was the first free white
 to hold that title. Years before that, however, a negro named Tom
 dolineaux assumed the title of -.pu- gdHstic champion of Amer1ca,- and kthere was no white man able to dis l pute his claims.
 T In the latter part of the eighteenth %I1 nineteenth. practically the only pro- fessionaI pugi1ists in America were lbIacks. Molineaux was the star of I the bunch, and went to England,
 where he came within an ace Of der ! feating Tom Cribb, the British cham
 pion, in fight for the worlds cham pionsl1ip. In fact, MoIineadx did put Cribb out, but ins melee that T followed Cribb was able to recover,
 and the black man finally succumbed more to the intense cold, for the bout
 was fought in the open in Decen- Der, than to Cr1bb,s blows. Dist patton robbed MoIineaux of his brow I es, just as it has since wrecked the
 careers of so many promising boxers.
 MolineaIlx got his name from a virginia. planter, who owned the big
 darkey. In his youth te black was the playmate of the planters son, AL | gernon, who grew up to be 8 gay 1 buck and dead game gambler.
 OA6 OI t11S QIllC1pd4 dInuSS1acQ OF
 the Virginia gentry of that day was
 found in fights between their negro
 slaves. Pugi1ism, even of the crude
 sort which was thought popular in
 England was practically unknown on
 this side Of the Atlantic, and the Il black bruisers fought under slaugh-
 ter-house rules, with nothing barred.
 Anything to win was their motto, all though the white patrons of the bru- , nette gladiators did draw the line f1n- all f1f I faErf Q 1, down.
 Young Algernon Mohnea.ux was a
 patron of this rude sport, and he had ] 1 a fair fighter in his stable One day in Richmond, when Algernon had : been drinking more than was good for ; him, he offered to bet that he could produce a black man who could whir l any other slave that could be pro- duced. Another youth named Peyton
 who had recently inherited a fortune 5 accepted this offer. and made the stake a hundred thousand dollars Young Mohneaux was panic-strick- en when, in his sober moments, he . realized that he had Wagered every
 cent he owned and more, and that he
 would be ruined and in debt if he lost But he was Virginian, and too proud i to withdraw. After looking over Pey-
 ton's man, he realized that his ow1
 negro would be no match for him, aI16 ] | in desperation he began to look about g for another and better fighter
 ! In this crisis his thoughts turned 2 to his old black playmate, Tom, who
 had grown into stafwart, husky
 giant. Tom didn't like the idea od : fighting, and Algernon MoIneaux wa: < in despair when he met an English. a man named Davis, who had been 2 . Isecond-rate pugilist in Bristol. Hs 4 engaged Davis to train Tom, but the
 latter refused to take any interest il
 the proceedings until young Molin r eaux offered to give him his free . dom and a hundred dollars if h,
 won the battle. That offer made Ton
 sit up and take notice, and he train
 ed like a Spartan, and on the day O ' fIaa fight xznrl rEitIa sr,-astcSt .,, SC