The news scimitar. (Memphis, Tenn.) 1907-1926, 1919-05-17
4 Tale of TWO Fists
THE LIFE STORY OF JACK DEMPSEY
N RuNYoNl

I sey's boxing style, because he used 10
try to teach Jack the finer points Of
the game.
But il looked as il I'd never learn
to box says Dempsey. 7 was a ter
! rible mug. | couldn't get over the idea
that / ought to fight a man like Ia
fight him In the street. l was GER
tainly duck soup for boxers in ne
training camps, because they could
knock me about as they pleased Inc
more fellows would try to teach me- II
seemed to me, the worse | got, But oil
course l was really learning something
all the time.
II used to be a cinch for anyone TO
pop on the chin, because kept my chln
out where it could be hit. 1t tool me
a long time TO learn to bury ito lit
my shoulder up SOS to shield my Jaw.
/ must have been a funny looking
fighter when | started out, all right.
Jack Gill was around Reno In those
days. Everybody out that way knew
Jack, He was more or less OF a mar
| acter and had a wide acquaintance in
sporting circles. He got Dempsey a
match at GOldfield with Johnny SUDDEN
berg, who was creating quite a str
up that way, but was having trouble
securing opponents.
Dempsey will tell you now that Of
all the fights he has had his battle
with S~udenberg stands out in his menl-
CRY as one Of his hardest encounters.
He has met many better men, but they
never gave him such a desperate strug-
gle, Sundenberg was a tough lad from
who laid the-chunk.
Jake Goodfriend, another well-known
citizen OF the goldfieids, was promoting
tho fight, and he was at Tonopah to
meet Jack Gill and his fighter, Demp-
sey, when the train arrived there. IL
$50. ,-,as1A.lI nathan an 1nnnFfnnt
match and Goodfriend wanted to make
sure that this stranger was a man
worthy Of ~Sudenburg's steel.
He took Dempsey up 10 the CASINO
in Tonopah, where in those days there
were ladies', and games OF more or Less
chance and what-not going on, and
produced a gent answering to the name
of Slick Merrill, insisting that Demp-
sey take on Mr.. Merrill and show the
assembled multitude what he could do.
Mr.. Goodfriend wanted no "busts" at
his boxing club.
And there | was" says Dempsey, 81
couldn't do any training stunts for
them, because l didn't know any. /
didn't know how to shadow box or
skip the rope, or any Of that stuff. !
didn't ever know how to punch the
bag with any skill. AS for boxing with
another guy-why, l knew I'd be a to-
tai loss, because / didn't know how TO
box
But I knew l had to do something,
so | got into my ring clothes and went
out with this Merrill. l was bothered
by the altitude, and the wome were
crowded around watching US, which
probably made me worse than / would
have been anyway; but while 1 was
fiddling around wondering what / ought
to do to make myself look good to them,
| happened to bump this Slick on the
forehead with my wi pean. II came
in a mix-up, and vas a plumb acct
dent, but 1t cut Sticks knob open, and
he bled a lot, and l guess everybody
thought l had soaked him.
Anyway, they all seemed to have
seen enough, and they thought l was
a regular humdinger from the way they
talked, So Jake Goodfriend and my
manager Jack Gill and l all went on
to Goldfield for the fight with SUDDEN
berg, It's probably. a good thing l
bumped Slick, There's no telling what
those folks would have thought If /
had kept on trying to box with him.
II there vas one thing 1 just couldn't
do her it was box"
Copyright, 1919. by Damon Runyon.)