Evening star., 1922-10-03
Defeat Of Carpenter Raises Color
Question.

Every pugilist. the Norfolk Ledger
often" and so Georges Carpenter
goes to join the band of pugilistic
heroes who did not know when to
stop" To American editors. however,
there is an element in the fight between
the vanquished French idol and the
black man from the African jungles
that goes deeper than interest in q
it, some knockouts are heard around
the world. The last blow admins
tered to NJ. Georges Carpenter by
Sikh, the Senegalese. is reverberating
VIII, e the skins of some folk are
darker than the skin of others.
From the viewpoint of American
writer's. Carpenter has always been
overrated as fighter. and what
happened when. in flaming silks and
the pink of condition, he stepped out
to meet his Swarthy foe was. ac-
cording to the .Danville (Va.) Bee.
the very thing that common sense
might have taught. Sikh. a clumsy
giant, unSkilled in the technique of
real boxing. was like block of ada
rnant to the white mans onslaught.
j mere was no Tedl science III tIle IS III.
unless it was the resort, one after
another. by Carpenter to the various
wiles of the game" But no amount
of butting. feinting and other 'scien-
tfic' stuff, he Roanoke World-News
says. can take the place of ability
to hit hard enough to knock man
out" therefore Georges is a shining
example of the ultimate end of the
prize fighter trying to get by on
tricks rather than punch. He's done
for"
AS the Philadelphia Public Ledger
draws this picture. Carpenter flashed
his whole box Of tricks and the tough
bulk of Sikh took them all and came
back hungrily for more. What was
Carpenters technical finese of punch
and parry compared to the sheer brute
hammer -and-tongs onslaught of the
ebony colonial? Then Carpenter lost
his head, as he was losing his crown,
cast to the winds his fistic art, resorted
to any desperate tactics of fouling and
Stalling in order to win. and made an
inglorious exit into dreamland, with the
throng roofing for its new hero and
! hooting the man who once had all Paris
at his feet"
The behaviour of spectators interests
the Minneapolis Tribune. for. it says,
mo English or American crowd ever
true spirit Of craftsmanship than did
this French crowd" when, after "the
referee endeavored to cheat the Sene-
galese of his victory of awarding the
battle to Georges on a technicality
J." it demanded that the prepos-.
ferrous decision be changed even
though it might readily be supposed
that a French crowd, patriotic to the
core and decidedly partisan to Georges.
would have applauaed this unfair de-.
cision.
Patriotism. however, did not have a
great deal to do with the matter. other
writer's think The Buffalo Times says
| "the fight was as though one French
man We're fighting another Frenchman.
The Sensitive chord of national vanity
stances to set it tingling That. with
the Partisan love of novelty. and the
rather too ready human willingness to
cry the king is dead, long live the
king sufficiently accounts for the roars
Of acclamation with which the specta-
tors welcomed Skis victory
Thus ''F'rance's pugilistic crown has
suffered the fate of the crown of the
Caesars" the Cincinnati Times-Star
fnds: What was proudly worn by
graced the head of the barbarian en-
perors The laurel that was worn
jauntily by the graceful Frenchman
now is tipped upon the curly head and
black brow OF Senesalsse soldier"
Sikh, the Cleveland Plain Dealer OBJ
! serves "is a strange figure in the
realm of pugilism. There has never
been another like him. There have
been many excellent colored fighters.
but they have not been natives of
Africa Sikh is a child of the wild.
the product of primitive social con-
ditions He literally comes out of the
jungle to prove that for real fighting
the highest civilization is not prime
essential" In a game in which ''the
white race has certainly laid down
the rules of competition" the New
York Tribune adds. 1.-The Senegalese
pounds his way to triumph" a de-
velopment which leads the Durham
On. .C.) Sun to wonder whether or not
it will Change the old rule that
highly organized civilization manages
! to excel in anything which it turns
that it will, and that "the white
monopoly of force seems to have had
Its day. r. white folks are to hold
their supremacy they must find a
~