New Britain herald., 1915-03-05
th Made Pey 5nnashd By Hn A.A
0p0rfOgraphy
BY GRAVY

We have with us today MT. F. H. Thomas, the champion eater of gar den sass and lightweight pugilist of the universe. MT. Thomas will be- gin his thirtieth year today, for he was born March 5, 1886, at Ponty
 prldG, Wales. In those circles where knockouts and blocks and leads and right swings and left hooks an sich are staples of conversation MT. Thomas is known as Freddie Welsh, nom de ring based on his nation ality. During the last few months, since he took the title away from Willie Ritchie, the Welshman has not added vastly to his reputation as
 fighting man, but he has annexed enough of the long green to keep his table supplied with carrots and rad ishes and cabbages and pertaties for the rest of his life. It is estimated that he has at least a hundred thou sand dollars salted away, but it was not so very long ago when he looked upon a five-spot With envy
 Freddie first visited America when he was sixteen, but after few months of hobo life, during which he car ried the banner and often Init the
 back doors" and "mooched" the free lunch counters for eats, he returned to good old Pontypridd. There he decie to become a professional wrest-
 Ter, but he didn't shine at the mat game, and soon gave it up.
 In 1905 Freddie decided to have another whack at America. He worked as a janitor, peddled pins and needles in Philadelphia, and washed sweaters for the athletes at Browns Sfcrx-,1 to Montreal and worked as me- chanical engineer, which he had se- lected n as his trade ,< The , wander lust was still on him, however, and he made his way west travelling in
 "side-door Pullmans' and toiled in the harvest fields of western Canada and the Dakotas
 It was in the west that Freddie had his first fight. A gang of toughs tried to hold him up for his saw ings. Freddie objected and used his fists so vigorously that he put his three assailants to flight. When he got back to New York he read an ad in a paper calling for an ath- let1c Instructor in a gym There were about a dozen applicants, and the boss" had them fight for the job. Freddie knocked out his man. husky middleweight, and landed the position at a salary of $15 per week. l
 Freddie's ring debut was made in 1 Philadelphia in 1905, when he ] knocked out Young Williams in the l third round at the Broadway A. c. l In his early battles the little Welsh man often got as little as two dol I lars, but even that looked like easy money to him after his experience in ] the western harvest fields, and he 1 stuck to the game. Now that he ] holds the title, after chasing Willie | several thousand miles, Fred die isn't taking any chances of losing it by mixing things with his oppo- nents
 Freddie Welsh is not the only sport ing celebrity born on the fifth of On this date away back in 1854 George Slosson, the billiardist, was born in DeKalb, N. Y. It was more than forty-five years ago that [ the old cue veteran, then a lad of made his bow in a billiard 1 tournament. Samuel A. Thompson, the once famous slugger of the De- troit and Philadelphia Nationals, was born in Danville, Ind, ffty-five years ago today He began his league l career with Evansville, and from 1 1885 to 1898 he was in the major l circuit This is also the birthday of l Marcel Moreau, the former middle weight champion of France, who is twenty-seven.