The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-03-14
TE RlBLE TERRY
 M'GOvERN NEVER
 LEARNED TO QUIT

LEA1NEU IU VUG1
 He was only five feet and four inces in height and weighed but II 6 pounds, and yet his friends branded
 him with the adjective of terrible" :" And well they might. Ordinarily he was a genial, 1ikab1e, good-natured lit | tie chap, with not a speck of cruelty l in his system-just the sort of whom I it is said that "he wouldn't hurt a 1 fly.' It is to be remarked, however, 1 that those pestiferous insects are not
 accustomed to put on the gloves in l the ring, else they would certainly l have got hurt if they buzzed about l Terrible Terry. Put him in ring togs, 1 with the nittens on his paws, and the
 little fellow was transformed into a devil incarnate, a bunch of dynamic
 energy, filled with ferocity and over flowing with the fighting spirit.
 But that is getting ahead of the l story It begins properly on March day in 1880, just thirty-six years ago this very week, in the thriving indus l trial city of Johnstown, Pa. As Johns town people date time, it was in the year B. F.-before the flood. The stork, which has always manifested special fondness for visiting the Irish, left a boy baby at the donnicile of the McGovern family. That started the trouble.
 The youngSter was chriStened Joseph Terrence, and, while still a babe in arms, was taken by his par ents to Brooklyn. Perhaps some Irish fairy had whispered into the ear of McGovern pere a warning of the com ing Conemaugh flood. At any rate, when the angry waters swept down upon Johnstown few years later the clan of. McGovern had cause to thank the lucky stars that presided over their destiny, for the house in which they had lived and in which Joseph Terrence was born was engulfed by the swirling waters.
 Although the McGoverns had escap- ed one tragedy, another fell upon them. When Terry, the eldest of the brood, was fourteen years old his father died, and it was up to the little fellow to get out and hustle to help support his mother, sister and younger brothers. With the assistance of his kid brother, Hugh; he started a ped ding route, and also sold papers and bIacked boots. He was a cheery little Hibernian, and a favOrite with all whom he came in contact, so the Mo Governs did not suffer from lack of funds.
 Among those who took liking to Terry was James Reagan, who was a prosperous man of affairs. When Terry was sixteen or whereabouts Reagan offered him a job in his 1um- per yard the W1l11aInSDuTS S0CC1On of Brooklyn. I
 Terry accepted the offer and went to work, and although he then tipped the beam at less than a hundred pounds, he was soon doing work that taxed the strength of much huskier chaps.
 At that time Terry had never thought of becoming fighter. He had never had on a pair of boxing l gloves, and although he had wrestled a bit with the other youngsters his l knowledge of the Queensberry art was nil.
 Several circumstances conspired to | introduce Terry to the sport in which he was destined to win fame and for l tune. In the first place, Williamsburg was a place of glorious ring tradi- | tfons, and the staple of the converse ton of Terry's associates had to do | with the doughty deeds of FtNonpareiI' Jack Dempsey, FfWilliamsburg Jack'' McAuliffe, Jack Ske1Iy, and other Will Iiamsburg Hibernians who had con- quered the world with their fists. An other circumstance was that Charlie Mayhood, the foreman of the yard, | was a boxing fan, and was very fond of little Terry.
 Next in order. came a circumstance which sounds as if it might be taken fFom~the sromances of Horatio AIger or Oliver Optic-if those worthy au-1 thors of juvenile literature had ever had pugilist as hero. Reagan, the | owner of the yard, had quarrel with one of his workmen, and the con troVerSy reached the point of blows. | Terry was a spectator up to the point where he saw that his boss was get ting the worst of it. Then he waded | in and, vastly to the surprise of every body, polished off the big workman to the queens taste.
 Charlie Mayhood was a chap who could see as far beyond his nose as the | next fellow, when(the raw material of a fighter was the point in question, and he quickly decided that Terry had the goods. He interviewed Mrs. Me Govern and suggested that Terry be permitted to enter the ring. Mrs. Mo Governs reply to this proposal was couched in language that couldn't pos sibly be nisconstrued. She said, ''No." And she added a few words to the gen. eraI effect that if she ever heard of Charlie turing her innocent boy away saindy.
 Charlie Mayhood was squeIched fer the time being, but little Terry had a bad case of the fighting fever. Every time he had chance he .sneaked off to an athletic club in the neighbor- hood and put the gloves with the other boys there. He had been doing this only a few weeks when an anna teur championship boxing tourna nient was staged in Brooklyn. Terry enter cd the 1O5-pound division, although he had f0 give away several hounds