The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1915-01-20
FREDDIE WELSH NOT THE FIRST VEGETARIAN
 IN RING HISTORY

Freddie Welsh is not the first prominent boxer to become addfcted of vegetafia srn. The We1shnan has got lot of publicity from bis
 meatless diet stunt, but he is pulling old stuff The original s'Vegetarian Champion. was Kid Parker, who was prominent welterwefght some Scotch descent and his real name was William Elroy Parker. He was born in Boston just thirty eight years ago today, Jan. 20. 1877. Incidentally. todaySis also the anniversary of the l birth of another famous welter- Ferns, who made his mundane debut in Pittsburgh on Jan. 20,s A. The ttRabe,'. one of the most eccentric of modem boxers, held the welter-' weight title for short period Parker, ssthe Vegetarian Champion never quite attained to that honor, ! although he fought a ten-round draw in Denver with Matty Mat theWs. shortly after the latter had att tained stellar we1terweight honors by defeating M ysterious's Billy S1ni ith. The original ssVegetarian Cham l pioTl 's-as he was known to all the follow CTS of the ring because of his meat1ess training diet- started fight 1 ing in 1896, and shortly after his debut he fought a draw with Danny
  welterweigft. A little 1ater he held I lYoung Peter Jackson, the clever I Baltimore black, to a draw in twenty l rounds. and in a second meeting de- l feate6 the negro. Parker then de- I feated Bob Thompson, one of the i best and most populaE negro boxers of the time. In second meeting Thompson turned the tables on the Iyegetarian Scotehnan, but at their third session the Kid was again v1c-
 torious Poor old Thompson made 2. l fortune in AtE1e ring, but spent 1t all, l and became a streetzcleaner in Los IAnge1es.
 Tn 1900, after lighting Matty Mat i thews, the champion, to draw l Parker was defeated by Young Petar
 Jackson and by Toe Cans After that he began to slip back. His last dT1- portant bouts were staged in the 4 Northwest Maurice Thompson, the l Danish lightweight, knocked him out I in spokane, and repeated the trick a little later in anssIdaho town. The l IesVegetarian Champions last ring
 appearance was in 1906 at Phoenix. British Columbia, when he fought a I draw with Barney Mullen.
 Jim Ferns who was born in the
 Smoky City forty-one years ago to- T day., was 8 Typical sRube'' in ap-
 Numbering and awkward in appear Lance, he had none of the marks of ! the athlete, but he could light like g I demon. He scrapped his way up to 1 the top of the welterwefght ladder
 Rube won and lost his title in Ca- I nada He knocked out Mattey Mat I thews in the tcnth round at Toronto I on May 24, 1901, and in the foiAoW- ! ing December he lost his honors to
 Joe tWalcott in the fifth round at
 Fort Erie. Ont. Rube had more ee-
 centricit than could be described I in several columns. One of them
 was an aversion to railway travel He
 would never take train to the l.scene of a. coming battle if he haa Itir11e to aoof 1t. Tn his travels he l avoided cities and towns as much as I possible, and put up at farm houses I He always tried to induce the farm Il CT or his sons or hired hands to put Il on the gloves with him, and this
 constituted almost his sole tra1nlngs
 His long walks kept him in fine con- dition. Yet in spite of these rubes
 characteristics, Ferns was immense ly fond Of newspaper publicity, and many old-time sporting editors can ] recall how the 'sRube" tried to- work
 them for horfd and enthusiastic
 press notices.
 The army might not be able to re-
 pei an invasion. but it puts lot od
 money in circulation arourT the varf-
 ous military posts
 I It looks as if the people along the l Mexican border who are. anxious tc l get hit had got to journey consider able distance inside the line now ] Many people are not worrying 9 bi' ] over flour at $9 per barrel. as they are I confident they can get it on credit.
 It is seriously proposed that Higt
 school boys should be taught to shoot
 although there Is nothing to indicate that this would improve their batting
 eye.
 Now let the Sufrragists, the next , time they call at the White House Hook out lest they wake up the baby