The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1915-07-12
John L., Now Teetotaler, Was Once
 Champion Boxer

John l.. Su1Iiyan's appearance in the role of a temperance lecturer. in which it is said he will make a tour Of America, win recall to o1d-tifne sports the days when the Old Roman was not only the holder fofs the heavy weight title, but the champion booze-' lighter of the universe. As con sumer of the hard stuff, John IL. was a hangover from a past period of hard and heavy drinkers, and in his time he was unidue. True it is that many of his contemporaries of the ring were also given to liquid indulgence, but they were mere pikers compared with Yours Truly, John L. He was a man of prodigious thirst and infinite capacity, and he could carry a load that would have made the average man curl up his toes. Blessed with the constitution of an OK, John L. car ried that load for many years, but even he could not forever stand up against John Barleycorn. It was not until he was about to be counted out that the idea percolated through Johns brain that he was up against a game that couldn't be beat. Then and there he climbed aboard the wagon, repaired his shattered fortunes, and became an advocate of the water drinking habit It isS highly probable that no other living man has ever con- sum.ed so much booze as John l.. In becoming an evangelist of temper ances Sullivan is emuIating the great Bendigo, one-time champion of Eng land, who, after a life of riotous 1iv- ing, turned to the pulpit and preached the beauties of teetotalisrn.
 On several occasions Sullivan per naitted his love for booze to overcome his love for fighting. At his second match with Charlie Mitchell in Madi- son Square Garden, John L. turned up at the ring so far gone under the in | he rae1xI 1xnc
 his feet, and the affair had to be call ed off on account of Su11ivan's 'fi1I- ness" Sullivan was always ready to make | any sort of a wager on his capacity 1 for assimiIating liquid refreshments ] On one occasian, he got outside of si1zty-seven gin fizzes, gulp1ng them
 down in rapid succession, as rapidly l as two bartendeFs could mix them.
 Nor was it long until he was again
 thirsty. When full Of the hard stuff
 Sullivan was fond of asE rough house, aand many and fierce were the rock
 uses he pulled off in barrooms from I Boston to San Francisco. Once in a l Boston cafe he started a. row by pinch I ing the tail of Ike Weir,s favorite dog, and it took haIfNa, dozen men to re- l strain the little featherwe gI1t from
 pair were staunch friends. One day 1 in 8, New York saloon JoHn made a
 bet that he could drink two bottles of
 wine to any other mans one. and he l did 1t not only with one man, but with 1 three in succession.
 In a San Francisco bar many years I ago Sullivan heard of a champion boozehghter swho had got outside ot
 seventy y-three mixed drinks in a row Sullivan saeered at this record and de-
 clared that he could make 1t an even
 hundred. The news of the wager f1if d aIszrc filled with spectators who gazed on in l awe as Sullivan consumed every varie-
 ty of deadly mixed drink known tc
 the staff of bartenders. He made good
 his boast and drank eae hundred, but
 although he walked uuaided to his lroom many days e1apEed before he
 was able to walk from it. It was by
 such foolish feats as these that Johr
 Lassbecame the undfsputed champion
 sol1se Of the world