The Washington herald., 1921-07-04
Never Miss Seeing Prize Fight,
Miss Putnam Advises Women,
After Witnessing Great Match
CONTINUED FROM PAGE ONE.

for. there's to be about 100000
people going to Jersey City that day
1t will be hot as sblazes- you'll have
to fight your way through a howl
ing mob and, well,'I don't know is
II worth the trouble Just to see a
couple of boobs punching at each
other for a few minutes, and I'm
glad I'm going to stay home and
mind the baby, which is what comes
of marrying a motion picture star
and then half an hour later some
body gave Jim a ticket and Jim gave
up his objections.
Never having been reporter be-
fore l thought 1t would be a good
idea if | was to get there early and
see how the others done 1t. Any
way it is a long hike from Forty
second to Jersey, anyone will admit
that. and with the crowds and all
I thought. well, we had better get
a good start and think II we was
should surely be there by , p. M,
which was the time spotted out for
the big bout. -.
Have Funeral Chairs.
So the next morning, with the
aid of a whole lot of moral cour-
age and four final curtain calls or
the telephone, l and Jim managed
to arise and stasger as far as the
tube, and once II had spit US UT
in Jersey City we groped out blind
ly through hot dogs, lemonade and
pennants. not to mention few
hundred thousand other members oi
the fight audience who had also
had this original idea of getting
there early and avoiding the rush
and thereby helping 10 make a
pretty good rush even before IL
o'clock.
Well. after We done that and
reached the big arena, and l had
parked myself on one of the fu-
neral chairs-although, of course
not as yet knowing whose funeral
I compenced to look about me ~
and here's where 1 got one bis uls-
appointment.
OF course 1 had figured 1 would
be the only lady there, and conse-
quently the center of all eyes. and
awfully conspicuous, and that
would feel like a pioneer or some
thing; but I was wrong. l would
say there was about a 300-to-1 per
cent solution of women in the crowd
and most of them snappy DANES
at that.
Behavior Modified.
And l don't know was it their
well-known gentle presence mO,.I-
fed the crowds behavior or not
but it certainly was modified. In
my Imagination l had. OF course
pictured an army of roughnecks
fighting to reach the grandstand-
elbowing their way, trampling or
the innocent bystander, splitting in
each others eye, chewing cigar
stubs. and talking a language nc
artist could write. Well. perhaps
there was little of this rough
stu pulled, but this arena was
so big and gracious and open
that somehow the air seemed IL
hlter most of the roughness out of
the gang. certainly never seen
a more goOd-natured, less aggres-
sive crowd; and as for the cops, l
got to hand it to them for the way
they handled that bunch. 1t GER
tainly was ideal.
the arena commenced to fill up it
certainly was an eyefull and, OF
course, most of the heads there was
covered with male straw hats. and
II you squinted your eyes up a
little bit it sure gave a funny look
to the humans under them. 1t gave
them the appearance of a horde of
insects. all just exactly alike. Until
around = o'clock. when the weather
got hot and the sun commenced to
show through. then these birds took
off the straws and put white hand
kerChiefs over their heads. so that
in the distance they looked like a
group of vestal virgins at the Ro-
man games-I said. at a distance.
Talcum Powdered Floor.
Well. anyways. around 1890. when
the crowd was pretty near all in
meaning they was in the arena-the
preliminary bouts commenced. They
had got ready for these by fixing
up the ring-and right here and
now l want to say this ring was
a fake. because it wasn't a ring al
all. but prsfectly square. And ]
suppose they would have had saw
dust in it. only for the Frenchman
they cut this out and spread a lot
of taIcum powder instead. And then
they done the ropes up careful in
surgeons gauze. so nobody wouldn't
get hurt from hanging on to them
and then the preliminaries was
started.
The preliminary bouts are bouts
intended to keep the audiences mind
off tn long wait before the real
goods is delivered. and only sue
ceeds in doing so moderately well.
The first of these was between a
of birds with Irish nom de
rings, and 1 don't know was it any
good or not. because was took
up posing for a motion picture. as
they wanted to get a few feet of
me running a jitney typewriter that
I borrowed off one of the regular
staff reporters.
watches Preliminaries.
Then came quite a -snappy bout
between O'Gatty and Frankly Burns,
and after them a fellow named Her
man done a lot of tricks around
a boy named Metranga, including
turning a somersault completely
over the middle rope, landing on his
feet, and getting back into the ring.
all without stopping fighting for a
minute. The two boys was real af-
fectionate. because they kept put
ing both arms around each other
And during the next bout. which was
by Joe Humphries in his
vell-known twelve cylinder voice
he referee kept walking around and
lround the fighters like a hen which
ias raised a couple OF tiger cubs
and feels like she had ought to
interfere between them hut don,t