New-York tribune., 1918-11-27
Zbyszko Draws
With Stecher
In Mat Battle
Only Three Thousand on
Hand When Chief Bout
Gets Under Way
By Fred Hawthorne

Ihe wrestling devotee il 4 neculiar
pird.' He would rather pay his good
money IN at the box Office and have II
split among the promoters than see it
go to charity. That is the only con-
ciuslon to be drawn from the very
slim attendance at Madison SQUARE
Garden last night. when the wrestlinv
carnival for the United War Work
Fund was staged
ihere was not more than three
thousand present when the first bout
was put on and only a few hundred
more were seated when the main
match began.
Jack Curley and George Bothner
true to their prediction" promises,
put on good show. The wrestlers
did their part.
The bout that made the hit Of the
early evening was g battle between
Cyclone" Ress ana John Kilonis.
Greek in the Uncle Sam navy. The
Cyclone blew UP very rough in the
nrst hve minutes and threatened to
upset everything In the Garden. but
John. the Greek. whistled up a little
wind of his own. and 1T grew and grew
until hiIonis was typhoon, and the
Cyclone and the Typhoon had a merry
time, as did the audience.
Harry Emerson, the referee, who is
versed in the carpet and mat game
himself, took a hand in matters when
the men got too rough, but the crowd
liked the abysmal brute stuff and
chortled with glee. All the early bouts
were limited to half an hour, else the
Iyphoon and the Cyclone might have
been blowing yet. 1t was called a draw,
but our private opinion is that the
Typhoon won by breeze.
Just after this affair a prosperous
looking gent stood near the ringside
on his hind legs and announced that
he desired to issue q challenge on
behalf of an unknown" to viii Blng
ham, the little British lightweight
champion.
Jul jltsu was the style of graphing
named and the unknown" agreed to
make Bingham quit in ten minutes.
Bingham, who was about to referee a
match, accepted the challenge and
they donned the prevailing full dress
costume IN the upper Jul jitsu circles.
TO squeeze ten minute story into
ten second paragraph, Bingham was
still doing business when the ten min
utes was up, and the unknown" was
on the defensive. Just before, the man
OF mat mystery started to pull shirts
with Bingham, he was introduced as
Al Gross, who wrestles under the nom
de mat of Roland Petain AL works
in circus IN his spare time. You
know me AL
Lieutenant Jack Monroe, of the
Canadian Princess Pats Regim mt, re
celved great reception when he entered
the ring in khaki to referee the bout
between Carl Johnson and Otto Samp-
son. Otto had a haircut just besnre
entering the ring. and shorn of hi1
locks could stand only minutes and
30 seconds before Johnson, who threw
him with a body scissors.
Tommy Draak defeated Pilakof with
toe hold after some fifteen minutes
of work. while Benny Leonard presided
as referee, and then Demetrius Tofalos,
the Wrestling Caruso," took a fail
out of Harry Stevens. Tofalos tried
all the holds taught in the correspea-
dence schools. but Harry Jay Fink,
the milk fed boy from The Bronx,
and now yeoman in the navy. and the
first local sporting writer to be
wounded IN the war, declared it was
just plain leg hold that spilled the
beans.
John O1in and Renardo Gardini went
to draw in half ar hour and then the
stage was cleared for the main bout
between Wladek zbyszko and Joe
Stecher.
was announced that the bout
would be. limited to one hour, and one
IAN TO bring viceo.y. IL was .ast
II 80 when the two great grapplers
2 fO
70 go to the mat, after six minutes of
wrestling, Zbysko trying for toe
hold
After about ten minutes Joe got on
top and began working to clincb his
dreaded scissors" hold about the
giant Poles body. He could not ger
the grip locked however. and no dam
age had been done to date.
The men alternated in taking the
aggressive for the next ten minutes,
the Pole picking Stecher up bodily at
the end Of twenty minutes and slam
ming him to the mat. The fall started
boy just wiped the claret away with
his left hand and kept right on work
ing.
Just before the half hour Stecher
got purishing head hold on the Pole
md held it for almost a minute before
Wladek broke away.
Both men were on their feet most
Of the time and it was noticeable that
Zbyszko aban 1oned his former turtle"
tactics as q defence against the scis-
sors and relied on his strength to
break away from danger
Stecher was forcing the going as
the bout ended and Zbyszko, who was
several pounds overweight, had lost
some Of his speed. There was no fall
and the bout ended in draw.