The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1916-06-30
Once Noted Prize Ring Artist
Enters the War Game
SON ALSO IN BATTLE
Story Told of How Big Frank
Mixed at Wrestling With
G0tch
From Wednesdays Daily.
WILBUR S. FORREST. UNITED
PRESS CORRESPONDENT

London, June 15.-[By MALL
How Frank Gotch, champion wrest-
Ter, mixed wrestling with boxing
against Frank Slavin, the veteran
ringman, in the Yukon, is story
just told here for the first time.
Slavin, who has grown much grey
er than he appeared twenty years
ago as a ring favorite, is now in
England with the latest Canadian
contingent His little mix with
Gotch happened years ago when
Gotch, under the name of Kennedy,
was at Dawson in the Yukon try
ing to fix up wrestling matches
when everybody wanted to see prize
fights. Here today Slavin staged
the story with Jack Londonish set
tings-grizzled miners look king
through blue tobacco smoke at the
ring in Dawsons main emporium,
Gotch, failing in wrestling matches
round bout. I'm the first two rounds
he came at me strong" related the
old soldier fighter, 81 fioored him
two or three times. Then in the
third round he lodged in and be-
fore l knew what was happening, he
gripped me around the waist and
threw me up in the air.
Everybody Had Laugh.
laughed the referee laughed
and in fact we all laughed
The referee said: DO you claim
foul?' I said: Well, if !
don't 1 suppose I'll never be able
to come back into the ring again.
so, of course, l got the decision But
the big American farmer got more
money out of it than he ever got for
wrestling bouts up there" Slavin
just now is delighting British sport
ing writer's with his "reminiscences.
They flock to the military camp
where Slavin's regiment is waiting
for the call to France In Slavin's
fifty-four years he has been pio-
neer in the Australian bush and the
Klondike as we'll as a leading prize
ring favorite in England, America,
Australia and Alaska Before he
was eighteen he had made $4,000
in the Australian gold field He then
came to England and closed five
years of boxing with his defeat of
Peter Jackson Then he went to
America and drifted into the prize
ring limelight by knocking out Jack
Kilrain in less than round. San
Francisco was the next stop Those
were the days before the big strike
on the Yukon" said SIavin today,
"but | decided to take the trip there
through British Columbia When
We arrived in Alaska, my pardner
and l staked a claim on the Forty
Mile river and l started to Skag-
way-600 miles over the ice behind
a dog team-to get a guarantee for
the concession.
Was Given Concession.
81 got the concession and they
gave me the official mail to carry
back to the government at Yukon.
The concession is still working to-
day-in fact it has a hydraulic
plant capable of handling $4,000 Gu
bic yards day" Slavin related the
cutting of the White Pass trail from
the summit of White Pass to Lake
Bennett in 1897. When he returned
home, his wife had given him up
for dead. 81 made the first map of
the White Pass and the railroad
there now does not leave the route
that my party followed by more than
forty yards at any point" said Slav-
in. Slavin has been a Canadian JUS
tice of the peace in late years. Slav-
ms only son, Frank Charles Slavin
tnamed after Charlie MitchelD
stands six feet, one and one-half
inches, like the elder Slavin. He is
a sergeant-major in the Yukon COM
pany of the Western SCOTS and ex-
poets to come to Europe and take
hand in the fighting.