The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1918-04-15
ONLY TWO MIKES
SAYS ROOSEVELT
Metzger Tells Snappy Tale
of Late Mike Donovan's
Visit to Teddy.

of the sight of one eye he also liked
scrap. Plat Adams, the former
N. Y. A. c. star Olympic jumper, tells
story which clearly shows the Colo
ners feeling about Mike Donovan.
When Roosevelt was president the
American Olympic championship
team returned to the shores of the
United States and, under the guidance
of that wonderful trainer, Michael
c. Murphy, it went in a body to visit
President Roosevelt at his summer
home in Oyster Bay.
When Mike Murphy approached
the Colonel, Roosevelt gave Mike the
glad hand.
Mike" he said, there are just two
Mikes in the world-you and Mike
+ Donovan"
That was a mighty fine compli-
ment to pay both Mikes and the one
present showed his pleasure by grim
ming from ear to ear.
| Boxing, much maligned because it
is associated all too readily with prize
! fighting, is coming into it's own in the
army, where the training is especially
valuable in teaching a man how to
handle himself in a scrap. Best of all
| it helps the infantrymen and machine
gunners, because these boys, who are
to use the bayonet, find the principles
of the two games analogous. But the
! army boxing game is not to be misun-
derstood; it is not to be confused with
prize fighting. Indeed, there is a
marked difference which one who
| hoS hot T11o W.
ed will vouch for.
| The big thing about army boxing
that is the kind of boxing in which
the men meet in the ring for a de-
cision-is the fact that it's about the
manifest sport one ever witnessed.
And the old prizef1ghter is in it with
the same spirit with which everyone
else enters it. One may see two fell
lows representing different organiza-
tons fighting before a crowd-the
size of which must make the eyes of
the boxing promoter jealous with
enevy-with nothing more at stake
than mythical title, but with SO
much vim and pep in every move as
Mike Donovan ever gave to the game
in his life.
Talk about patriotism, these prize
fighters of yesterday, now in the army,
have as much of it as the cleanest
amateur that ever lived. Think I'm
kidding, Ell? Well, the day this ar
ticle was written a prize fighter who
has been up against the best of them
in the old days, a fellow who has
fought his wey we'll to the top, came
to me with a proposition.
-Lo
for a fight and I wish you would get
me one. I don't want anything out of
it. I'll turn the whole thing over to
any fund that needs it but I'd like to
buy boxing gloves with whatever we
can get to help the others fellows in
this game"
Now if that isn't patriotism I'm at
a loss to know just what patriotism is!
Also, if that isn't a complete revolu-
ton from prize ring ethics 1 must be
wrong AS it's human to err, in this
case I'm pretty sure I'm inhuman.
When you want to see real scrap
ping go to an army bout, right in
camp where there is nothing at stake
but an intangible thing like the spirit
of one organization pitted against
that of another. They go to it with a
vim and they get results from start to
finish.
Brutal, did you say? Well, man.
you must remember that these boys
have a big job ahead of them. Got to
clean up this Kaiser crowd, and gloves
don't CO. Furthermore, if you think
it brutal, just remember that the boys
who do it have a lot of fun; it isn't all
| afo{ oil hnr
Here's an example:
Two of them were whaling each
other with walloping blows and a
black haired boy, who had more
strength than skill and whose olive
skin suggested sunny Italy, was get
ting the worst of it. Down he went
once and back he came on the re-
bound. Down he went the second
time from a blow that turned him
clear around and sent his face over
the edge of the ring into mine.
1t was an odd face, fer it showed
little trace of the pounding he had
been getting. 1t was covered with a
broad grin. Its eyes sought mine with
frank familiarity, and from that
grin sprang these words:
81 think I'm getting licking, all
right"
He was, but scarcely were the words
out of his mouth than he arose to
take it. He was game. They all are
No wonder generals and colonies say
words of praise about the boxers
They are there to the end, and they
are showing others what good old
American nerve is.
The army is having it's innings al
baseball, too. Everybody is doing
it," as the saying goes. But the best
army story about baseball was in con-
nection with the loss of quite lot Of
the Clark Griffith baseball equipment
which had started abroad. 1t got no
farther than the bottom of the ocean
some 5000 worth of it.
When the news of the sinking OF
this vessel got around to the sporting
goods house, a man named Van Bus
kirk, in that business, pulled good
line.
give always heard about Jules
Verne's Twenty Thousand Leagues
under the Sea-, though I never took
much stock in those leagues" he said
but now I guess there's equipment
enough for all of them"
One must remember always thai
sport in the National Army is some
thing different than we ever conceiv-
ed of. There is no precedent to &C
by. A salesman from sporting goods
house learned this to his mortified
ton. He was selling equipment to the
captain of Co. D, with whom he had
been doing business for some little
time. This was a rush order. The