The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1915-06-11
GIANT FROM
 ROSCOMMON

or ireland. Yet if you should set out some fine morning from Castle req, you could visit before night many spots of historic interest You could see the cottage which was once the home of the parents of James J. Cor bett. the conqueror of Sullivan. You cOuldf east your eyes by gazing on the ancestral homes of Mike Gibbons and Johnny Kilbane and Packey Me Farland and other celebrities who have won fame and fortune in the New World. Go on a little farther, and you could visit the early resi- dence of the iIIustrious- Peter Maher and the birthplace of the great Tom Sharkey. Here, and there you could stop to wet your whistle at wayside taverns, and shake the hands of those who claim relationship to these and other heroes of the past and present, and hear quaint tales of the early household words on both sides of the Atlantic.
 In Castlerea, if you let it be known that youA are from overseas, you will be interrogated extensively and in tenSively regarding one James Joseph Cofey, whom Castlerea now regards as it's most distinguished native son. To admit that you do not know Coffey will be to argue yourself unknown. And if you so much as hint that this
 
 tined successor of Jess Willard, only a pair of good legs will save you from a, painful demonstration of the pugi- Istic prowess of Roscommon's brawny sons.
 It was about five years ago that James Joseph Coffey shook the dust of County Roscommon from his man sized pedal extremities. and, with his worldly belongings packed in a small and battered trunk set out to win, fortune in the paradise of 'Irishmen, America The steamship which car Aried Jimmy to his goal set him ashore. in Boston. The labor market of the New England metropolis seemed fully supplied at that time, and, after wearing out much valuable shoe leather in quest of the elusive job, Cofey left Boston to it's fate and pro- lceeded to- Providence.
 Tn the Rhode Island city our hero landed a job as teamster. He de-. veloped his already brawny muscles by loading and unloading trucks. Af- ter a, time the atm mosphere of Provi- dence pa1led on James, and he took a steamboat to New York. There he got job as motorman. To guide "tran' through busy streets was at that time the height of Coffey's anbi- ,tion. NIt seemed to him a 1ord1y job, and the pay of eighteen dollars per week was, tot his Hibernian viewpoint,
 
 Coffey might still be the chauffeur of a trolley car, unhonored and un-g sung except for one of those incl dents which we like to refer to as ac-f cidents. It was a bitterly cold night over three years ago. The wind shrieked and how1ed through the canons of upper Manhattan. The sIeet cut the faces of belated pedes- trians like a knife, and all that sort of bally rot. In short it was a bad night to{ be out.
 Jim Coffey muffled to his ears, was piloting his almost empty car rattlety- bang along the street, with no thought in his mind but to get to the end of his line and turn around and get right back again, when his prog ress was, stopped by a line of hose stretched across the tracks N The fire apparatus, and the firemen, en- gagged in fighting a three-a alarm blaze in a big apartment house, were ob1ivi- ous of the rights of trolley cars
 Coffey hopped off the platform and began chasing up and down the street to keep warn. While thus engaged he bumped into big policeman stationary post who was also running. about so as to keep his blood circu- lating. They grinned at each other in friendly fashion, and the cop sug7 gested that they do a bit of wrestling as being productive of warmth.
 The officer. Thomas Shaw by name, was a wrestler of wide fame among the police, and he expected to have aneasy time with the giant motor man. The cop brought all his science to bear on the problem of stretching Jim out in the street, but there was nothing doing in that line. After a. few minutes Coffey just picked Shaw up and dropped him on his back. 2 K About that time the conductor
 
 before he left the defeated officer he had promised to meet him again the following day at a gymnasium Shaw-now' an instructor of wrestlings and boxing at New York police head quarters, was far from being discom- fited by the easy style in which Cof- fey had laid him low. Instead, he was jubilant, for he believed he had found a, successor to Frank Gotch as champion heavyweight grappler of the world.
 Coffey visited 4t1ae <.gyna,''t accord ing to promise, and, when he told his friend that he had never wrestled in his life Shaw was all the more discouraged. If a t'greeny' could do that to him, he reasoned, what could he do when he knew something of the game? But accident again in the gym several boxers. among them Carl Morris, were training, and after seeing them in action Coffey was all for taking up boxing instead of wrestling.
 When Carl Morris condescended to put on the gloves with Coffey, Jim didn't hesitate a minute. At that pe- riod Jim knew absolutely nothing of the fistic game, and all the different varieties punches and hooks and jabs were as Greek to him. He was a, willing pupil, and the Oklahoma giant had a, chance to try out every variety of blow in his repertoire that day6 before Jim was satisfied with his lesson. Tow Shaw also had bout with his protege, and. as a re- suit, the policeman sustained a frac- tured rib.
 Shaw arranged the first real bout in which Coffey participated. It was a private affair, with only cops as