The Birmingham age-herald., 1918-01-11

The life of pugilistie referee in these days Is pink tea affair in comparison with that Of the third men" of the py- gone days in the boxing game.
 Twenty-Five and thirty years ago there was certain element connected With the prize ring that stopped at nothing in it's attempts to gain decisions Tor Its favorite. Referees were bullied. beaten and sometimes brutally assaulted. Every effort was made by the packers or cer- tain fighters of the lowest grade to
 browbeat the referee into favorable de- cision. Oftentimes referees in fear oi
 their lives yielded to the threats of the rowdies and gave rulings that were to- tally unfair. But, to the everlasting credit of pugilism, there were some offi- cials in that period who could not be
 hulied; who gave a decision based solely lon the merits of the fight itself and who willingly risked personal injury and even death as reward for their honesty. | George Siier was of that type. He of fieiated at many ring battles in the late eighties and all through the nineties. His services always were in demand. Fre- auently he was chosen as a third man in the ring for small bouts and occasion ally had some narrowing experiences. One of them happened just outside of
 Chicago in the fall of 1891.
 I During that time there were two heavy weights in that city who were bitter en- enies: Bob Ferguson and Pat Killen. The result was their matching for a bout to
 finish with two-ounce gloves which took place near race track outside of tho Illinois metropolis. The "tip off as to the time and place of the fight was given to the packers of the rival pugi-
 lists and about 75 members of each fac | ton left on the train for the battle- ground.
 l Ferguson's "heelers" represented the l toughest element that existed in the stockyards district in Chicago at that time. But, tough as they were, the fol- lowers of Killen seemed to have a little | something on them. Each and every men- Der of these rival gangs was armed with a revolver. More than dozen carried knives in addition to their explosive armament. To make matters worse, the rowdies drank freely of liquor at the ringside.
 As the fighters made their appearance in the ring 1t was discovered that the man originally booked to referee the contest had run out. No wonder; al
 most any man confronted with such 3
 crowd would have ducked the possibility
 of running afoul of one or another of the
 fractions. The managers of the principals
 circled through the impartial part of the
 crowd for three hours in an effort to SC cure referee. Finally, at the solicita
 ton of the newspaper men who didn't
 want to go back to Chicago without 2
 story, Siler. who was among the specta
 tors, agreed to officiate.
 The ring was on the ground. roped of
 from the crowd.
 Trouble began in the second rount
 when Killen went out after his man. Al
 ter about two minutes of fighting in tha |session one of Fergusons men, seeing that Ferguson was in bad shape. yelled
 Time" Malachy Hogan was the off l cial timekeeper and Siler at once recog nized that the call Time" didn't conn from him. So he ordered the fighters t, : continue. Killen hit Ferguson with
 fair right-hanier in the stomach as tn
 lbell rang. The Ferguson followers a 7 once yelled foul but the Killenite 3 lhowled "no foul. And then the leadinl ' @.sa 4 it s5