The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-04-18
THE MAN WHO SAVED BOXING

and 1apsing into that condition aptly described 'innocuous desuetude.' , Nor has 1t been the enemies of pugi- Msm that threatened to put over the soporific punch, but it's supposed friends.
 Probably the nearest approach to the extinction of the game came in. the period between e176O and 17sO when the sport which had been orf-l ginated by James Figg and firmly es- tab1ished in British favor by Jack Broughton went to the dogs Prior to 176O the game had had the support of scores of nobles and men of wealth, and even royalty had condescended to give 1t the stamp of approval. The defeat ofsthe populsrr and scientific Broughtpn by Jack Slack, in 1750, was the beginning of what for a, time seemed the end of the prize ring. Slack, a. fighter of the rugged, bruis-. CT type, held his Iaurels for ten years, when he fell before an unknown nam ed Bill Stevens. That worthy sold his title to George Megg for $250 Tom Juchau. a German; Bill Darts, Lyons, Peter CorcOran an Irfshman; Harry Sellers. Duggan Fearns and others claimed the title at various periods in the following twenty years The championship was bought and /soId by this. tfbunch of b1ackguard bruis-= ers." and at last the game fell into. such disrepute that the sports passed 1t up entirely. fi N
 By 17sO boxing had sunk to, such a. state that only the credu1ous fools paid any attention to the game. It was taken for granted that every the brnisers of that period may have been honest, they were seldom given the benefit, of the doubt. A pugilist was considered guilty unless proved innocent. and then nobody who, was anybody gave whoop.
 The man who rescued boxing from thes sloughs of iniqslity and restored 1t to popular favor was Thomas Jack lings known in. ring annals as Tom Johnson He was born in Derby inN for those days. when few of the conn mon herd of Englishmen could reads or write. At the age of sixteen he ranS away from home and tramped to London, where he got a job as corn porter on the docks, helping to ,iln-4 developed his already powerful frame to the point where he became famous as prodigy of strength
 Tom was an open-hearted, gener-a cusA youth On one occasion when one of his fellow wprknnen became i'll. Tom held his job for hirn>by ca irving two sacks of grain to every one. his companions brought in. The sickkl man had a. large family, and the youngster supported tnern by doing
 
 to neturn to the job.
 Jackling was a- great favorite with mosk of the dock laborers, bllt this fact aroused Jealousy of one of them, a big bully named Jarvis, who had been the terror of the docks. Jarvis had fought several battles in the ring, and he thought he would be able to take down the couutryman peg or two~ Having picked a quarrel with Johnson, he defiedZ him to meet him In-F4 lI. Z he was thereafter tc7 he known accepted the challenge, and the ring was pitched in an Sopen field near Londonx Il
 Nearly q thousand dock laborers were of hand to see the two porters mix it. Owing to his reputation. Jar wis was a faVorife in. the betting. al-l though the sy1npathfes Of the crowd were largely with his opponent Much to severYbody's auprfse, Johnson won
 After that Johnson was constantly urged by his friends to become a proc fessiona1 fighter, and, although he held his job as porter. he consented to engage in another battle not long afterwards. The Croydon Drover was the man picked to face Johnson and again hAS1atter was victorious
 The ueteran5ssD Death Oliver, one of fheanost famoi1s bruisers Of the per- iod. was Toms first formidable Sop-I
  the 6hero of thirty big battles, swas batteredS and bltnded by the young novice. The porter followed up this triumph by beating Bill Love, Towers, Fry, and; other top-notchers.
 By this time the sweIls of the sport ing world, who had declared that box ing was a lost art. began to, sit up and take notice Johnson. with his unbroken record of victories, had new CT had his name furnished by the. slightest breath of suspicion The sports began to flock back to the ring, and the game which had been con- sidered dead was suddenly resnrrect- ed from its grave Daniel Mendoza, the great Jew; Mike Ryan, the gal. Iant Hibernfan and -'GentIeman'' Hunphrfes contested with Johnson the llonofs of pugilisn, and the ring entered on a new lease of life.
 It was in 1787, when Johnson whip ped Will Warr, that he was univer- sally acclaimed as champion of Eng land. The following year Ireland en- tered the running in, the brawny per-. son of Michael Ryan a much bigger man than the Englishman. and noted for his Kameness and endurance. Tn the first round Ryan. landed a terrible wal1ep that sent Johnson staggering b3ck, and he was about to follow this with another bunch when Johnson's second grabbed his arm. It was a clear foul, and Ryan Twas entitled to the decision but the Irishman was so conf dant that he volunteered to con tfnue the battle. It was a sad mistake for the giant Hibernian, for John son thereafter avoided all his oppon-. ent's blows and,N after wearing him out went in and polished him off. After the bout D Johnson and Ryan be- came firm friends and went on a sparring tour together. The clever Eng1ishman was thus able ito make Such close study of Ryan's style that when they fought again for the title Johnson was able to win with ease.
 By that time pugilisn was again the most popular of British sports, and the aristocracy backed the game literally. The sports were anxious to find a man who could lower John cz0r7su ro1o7z at lasf f1ou TafoIraH