Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1921-07-16
BY HERBERT COREY

dawn SUN. IL IS written days AFTER
the fight between Dempsey and Car
pentier. Or, more accurately, days
after Mr.. Carpenter hit Mr.. Demp-
once, ineffectively, and then pugilist.-
cally died with his boots on. 1t isn't
story of the fight or the fighters,
though they appear in it. 1t is rath-
er a few coupled-up reflections upon
our national liking for temporary
neurosis.
The truth, as the truth appears to
me, is that almost 100000 people at
a total cost to themselves of more
than a million and a half dollars,
kidded themselves at Boyle's thirty
acres into the belief that they had
seen a great fight. Whereas, bless
their hearts. in the conviction of the
undersigned they had been the will
ing witnesses of a one-sided murder.
In my story Immediately after the
fight 1 said that Carpenter had never
had a chance. That he had but one
blow. and that had crumpled against
Dempsey's steel defenses. That he
knew nothing whatever about in
fighting, and that while he was mag
nificently game, gameness is thing
expected Of a pugilist.
Iron Joe Grim's Record
Iron Joe Grim. by that standard, is
| more heroic than Carpenter, be-
cause it used to take the best of
| them ten or twelve rounds to put him
out. Sometimes he never was put
out, but chopped, beaten, pulped,
end of the route. Yet no one ever
| thought of raw meat thrown to the
carnivorous lions Of fight fandom.
Whenever he fought they knew they
would see gore.
have seen no occasion to change
0nini0n SinPn RJ1f q
been added sort Of wonder at the
extent to which the American people
can succumb to Mysteries. Every
one who cared to know knew pre-
cisely what Carpenter is and might
be. He had one good hand and great
| been able to whip many men who
lacked the shock-absorbing qualities.
He had become light heavyweight
champion of the world by licking
poor old Battled Levinsky (and that
"Battled," Mr.. Proof-reader, is inten-
tionaD. He wasn't Battling" any
more when Carpenter took his faded
wreath away. Nothing that Carpen-
| tier had ever shown made him ap-
pear fit antagonist for Dempsey,
though technically he was about the
| only challenger in sight.
was Sentimental Tsvorite
What I mean is that no one who
had watched the two men should
have been able to persuade himself
that Carpenter had ghost of a
chance to whip this solid, steel and
mahogany, rawhide and wire fight
rles over other men he had become
Dempsey's logical antagonist 1 do
not believe that Carpenter himself
thought he could. The Carpenter
| money, I am told, was all placed on
his ability to stay a definite number
c q &c n vii no
ion, I think, for TomnIie Gibbons or
Bill Brennan-to which I add my
sincere belief that either Of them
can whip him. No one suspects that
either Brennan or Gibbons IS at this
moment a fit match for Dempsey, but
| Carpenter. There isn't doubt that
he was the sentimental favorite
throughout the fight.
The truth, is that we had been
Greek-godded and beflowered to a
point at which we--the public
our hair. Carpenter is nice look
| ing man. His nose is rather promi-
| nent. his eyes are good, his hair
| is blond, his legs straight, and he
| has a pleasing expression. You can
| match him to the last item in any
| haberdashery, but if you dropped
| into the necktie mart and limited
| to the salesman that he was a
| Greek god he would either put you
out, or else, rightfully deciding that
| you were coocoo, he would call for
| the wired wagon.
How the Lady Writers Raved
Lady writer's raved about Carpen-
| tiers legs, which seems to me, an
| old-fashioned person, as severe
thing for lady writer to do. They
were good legs. Dempsey has a bet
ter pair, more shapely,. stronger,
and about as fast. Eminent auth
ors told Of Carpenters luminous
eyes. His bathrobe came in for
kisses. He was called fragile and
slender and wraithlike. Whereas l
submit that 172 pounds of muscular
flesh, trained to the last minute,
wrath. Some one draped the lilies
of France about his brow. One car
toonist drew picture in which
Foch and Joan Of Arc and Henri
of Navarro and Napoleon, and
every other great character of
France was standing in Carpenters
corner.
Carpenter was d'Artagnan. Where
as Carpenter. in brutal fact. is a
pugilist who has made his living
out of pugilism for fourteen years.
He is a cold, cruel, merciless pugil-
list. A young English amateur named
Mitchell, DESTROYS Of testing his
own quality, paid Carpenter one
hundred pounds to meet him in
private. Carpenter cut him in
pieces as a boy might pull the
wings off a fly, instead of outing
him quickly and ending his suffer-
ing.
carpentier's War Record
do not know what Carpenters
war record was. 1 do know that
he spent a great part of the war