Honolulu star-bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1912-2010, 1916-01-10
RED HAIR GETS
MORAN in MANY
KID STRUGGLES
First Bout Staged in Caboose
for Jitney Purse; No Money
i. in Johnson Fight II.

Its my red hair that got me into the
fighting game" asserted Frank Moran,
the Irish huskie who yearns to try
conclusions with Jess Willard.
| 'tYou see, it was this way" Moran
explained When | grew up to the
tender age of 10 years my hair was
flaming red. That gave the kids
chance to yell 'red-head, ginger bread
at me, all of which peeved me con-
siderably. There was only one way to
stop that trick of the other boys
and that was to whale 'em into ST.
lence.
well. 1t took me about two years
to finish the job-but did it. There
were lot of boys in my neighborhood
and had to beat them up in rotation.
Some of them we're bigger than / was,
and 1 had to tackle those fellows three
or, four times before | could blacken
their eyes or bloody their noses. In
my kid days a fight wasn't settled
with knockout; it was settled with
black eye or a bloody nose. The
kid who scored the first black eye or
landed the first gore-producing wallop
on the beezer of the other kid was
the winner. :.-. -
Plenty Of Practise. HI ..s.. =.
Practise makes perfect, and, as
said, constant battling to save my red
hair from insult won me all my kid
fights in time.
"My first prize-fight was for five
cent purse. 1t was staged in a ca
boose. On my way to school had to
cross railroad track in one of the
Pittsburg suburbs. A caboose always
lay at that point and was used as
loafng room for the trainmen between
runs.
Zone day trainman hailed me. He
said he'd heard | was quite scrap
per, but he said he knew a kid who
could beat me up. ! told the train
man that l didn't care what the kid
thought-that / only fought fellows
who called me 'red-head.
"Oh, then, you've gotta fight this
fellow said the trainman, because he
keeps on saying that you're just
a "red-headed ginger bread false
alarm
well, right there l said I'd fight.
The trainman said he'd have the
other kid in the caboose the next day
after school and that I should be
around
THE winner of the fight said the
trainman, will get nickel.
81 won the fight. | smashed the
other kid right on the bridge of the
nose with the secAd punch and not
only did his eyes get black, but his
nose started to bleed, too
after that used to scrap any kids
that came to the caboose. Pretty soon
| had Is nickcls that I'd won. | was
saving them all until | got a dollar,
and then was going to put it in the
bank. But never got that dollar to-
gether, because | was trimmed by
substitute trainman.
"One day the sub called me and
told me about kid who wanted to
fight me for a side bet of 81. l told
the trainman lad only 80 cents. The
sub said: That's all right, kid; you
give me the 80 cents and I'll put 90
more to it to make the dollar. I'll act
as your stakeholder ta
The scrap was pulled off the next
day beat that kid up considerably
and after we'd been smuggling away
for five minutes he yelled he had
enough, jumped from the caboose and
ran away.
Il then looked among the trainmen
for the stakeholder, but I could not
see him. Where's jim? (the stake
holder | asked. One of the train
men said he'd been transferred to an
other run that morning. never saw
Jim again-and | never got the So.
Since I've been in the fighting
game I've been fieeced pretty often
and for thousands of dollars at a
crack. but no loss ever hurt me like
that first one did,
Some folks have the idea that
got pig bunch of money for my fight
against Jack Johnson. | ought to
have gotten nice roll, but the truth
is didn't get cent. In several other
of my big fights didn't get a penny
I've been shorn closer than any lamb,
but from now on frankie Moran WON'T
let any managers get about 100 per
cent of his money" E...@