Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1919-07-02
BY HERBERT COREY.

TOLEDO. Ohio. July This is be-
ginning to look like the real thing. For
the past two weeks the ante-story OF
the fight to come has been mostly re-
portorial drool. Two men did the same
thing in the same way at the same hour
each day, and the correspondents tried
to tell about it differently. Mostly they
failed. Only their words varied. But
at last the game is beginning to open
up 1t lacks the color of the nights
at Reno and the fight at Havana ana
the fight at New Orleans. Toledo is
domestic sort of city. Every citizen
seems to own his own nivver and have
money in the savings banks. Even
when the yeggs tear open movie
theater they do it in the same old way
The fight BACKGROUND is tame. But the
monotony is breaking. The oldtimerS
are coming to town.
BY tomorrow the ancient amateurs
of the game may be on hand. some
of them will be looking up Bat Master
son to discuss that little affair al the
Dry Wells. and others will be aScer-
tanning from Sandy Griswold, seventy
six years old and still going strong as
a sporting editor what he really
thinks of the scrap between Old Man
ella ss Eye and Heap Rabbit. the crow
chiefs. There will he men here VINO
have bet $50. 900 on the turn of card,
and others who will stake their last
dime on the fighter they fancy. Rut
now the crowd is professional one.
Each member has a more or less di-
rect connection with the ring.
Argue Nightly.
The old timers argue nightly in the
ioh re a nj
out. They are beginning to shoot
crap here and there. The shooting
is surreptitious as yet, but crap does
not require elaborate scenery The
principal need is elbow room. Black
boards are being covered with offers
of ways so long as the money goes on
Dempsey 1t is not impossible that
all precedents may be broken and the
challenger go to the ringslde Ia :
vorite over the champion. Inc notes
are filling, but they are not full. NOT
even the latest conner has peeh oeh'eo
a bed.
strange fact in natural history
has been revealed-or maybe IN
psychology. If you are told convinc-
ingly that near-beer is real-oeef the
imitation tastes like the real thlne
for quite awhile. old-umers oG,n,e
here with threats raw after crossing
dry states. They wink at strangers
until some one tells them where 10
90. Then they tap mystlcally AZ
barred doors and are looked at tnroush
peepholes and climb dirty stairs 10
dirty rooms where every one ssshes
over every loud sound. Ihen they
drink six bottles of foozle pedoie
they discover it won't fudole. Clu
timers are philosophers. The anerlest
comment has been that Toledo knows
how to stage her near-beer Wen;
Prices are mounting. My hotel serves
less toast for 20 cents than any no,el
in the world. A commercial traveller
gets a room to himself for $3.50, but
fight bugs are Grated four to the room
at IS per bug Pessimists are abroad
They figure on 1etterbacks that the
street car company can handle no
more than 5000 persons an hour ana
that the arena will hold $4,000 people,
and so on and SO on. Other pesslmlsts
pass printed cards inviting auto own
ers to park cars with them on Inc
day of the fight. There Will be de-
lay of several hours" say the pessl-
mistic parkers. land we Will care 1or
your autos"
Everywhere is the swell of argu-
ment Most OF the argument is that
of oldtimers trying to convince each
other that Dempsey will win. Now
and then some heroic soul speaks a
world for Willard, but he usually
submerges hurriedly when sighted.
William Muldoon does not think Will
lard's nervous system can stand the
strain of training after three years
layoff 1t will crack or something.
And he's thirty-eight years old.
The ayes have it. Thirty-eight is the
most popular age for Willard.
though an irreconciliable minority
stands out for forty-two.