The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1915-06-22
Recent Events Indicate That Wrestling Gan
 "Come Back.

Can the wrestling game come back and regain the place it held in popular favor in the. palnny= days of the grappIers There are apparent many indications that this question is to be answered in the affirmative, and that in every part of the United States and Canada there has been or will be a revival of interest in the most ancient of all manly sports. The great international wrestling tourna- spectators in the Manhattan Opera House, New York, has demonstrated that the mat game is not dead, but has only been taking nap.
 Very few sporting events in history have attracted entrants of so many nationa1ities, proving that wrestling is the most universal of all sports. Every country of Europe had it's grapphng representatives in New York, and Asia as well as America had their gladiatorial champions The grapp1ers of ancient Greece and old Rome had their present-day descend ants in the arena, and Japan and China, where wrestling/has been the most popular of all sports for thou sands of years, were also represented, although not by their best men.
 A feature of the tournament was the decorum of the spectators. The riotous behavior of the fans which often. characterizes noxing matches was for the most part conspicuously absent, although contests between g1adiators of the warning nations som etines aroused a feeling of ami | mostly among the spectators. No such racial prejudices existed among the grapplers themselves, who show | ed the true sporting spirit through out Another noteworthy feature was | the presence of numerous fair fans, who seemingly entered into the spirit 1 of the game with as much enthusiasm as the masculine rooters.
 Of the wrest1ers participating in the l tournament among the most interest | ing is Alex Aberg, the Graeco-Roman l battles. Aberg was born in the Rus | sian province of sEsth onia, or Revel,
 and is thirty years old. He was the victor in wrestling tournaments for l the Graeco-Roman worlds champion | ship at Moscow, Hamburg, London,
 Munich, Cologne, Budapest, Vienna
 and Warsaw. Among his victims | were Nour1ah. the great Turkish
 giant, and Raoul le Boucher, the
 Frenchman. In Europe Aberg is | known the strongest man in the
 world,' and he looks the part.
 Most interesting-an successful | of the Americans entered is Dr. B. F.
 Roller. pr. Roller spent his youth
 on a, farm and worked his way
 through a high school and the Uni l
 institution he received his M. D. de- gree. Dr. Roller inherited his wrest-
 ling talent, for both his grandfathers
 were noted grapplers in their day. In his early boyhood he became inter
 ested in wrestling, and he gained his 1 first knowledge of the game by
 tusslfng with his brothers in the barn
 of the Illinois farm where he was
 born. Although he lacks the tre-
 mendous physical development Of some of the European and Asiatic
 grapplers, Dr. Roller is among the
 most scientific of modern mat artists
 He has made several trips to Greece 1 and has studied manuscripts in the
 ancient Greek language setting forth
 the methods and tricks of the trade e
 used by the gladiators in the ancient Olympic games. While some of the
 wreStlers are mere human abuIks. with
 little brain power, a majority are
 men of intelligence and keen intellect
 and several among them, besides DE-
 Roller, are university graduates.