The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1922-08-21

Reddy would turn in his season pass and Frankue Loya1e Naylan, O. s., would go on a canary hunting expedition to the north of Ireland.
 In occasional chats with sports who have been following the boxing game for the past 20. or 30 years the ma jority of ringside veterans will tell you that the present day crop of fighters are a joke when compared with the oild-time champions. It may be so and it may not be.
 There's room for argument when such a distinguished ring parsonage as Jim Corbett ayers that Jack Dempsey is the hard est puncher and best heavyweight Uncle Sam has produced. Cor bett told the writer that in Hart ford a couple of years ago. At the same time, Jim admitted that the array of heavyweights are not so formidable as few years ago, but credit should. not be taken from Dempsey on that point.
 However, the subject is productive of spicy debates, and it may be in- teresting to some of the. o1d-tinae ring fans to hear what Lord Lonsdale, Britain's veteran ringisde expert had to say in a recent interview. He con tends that modern boxers lack the class of the old-timers. Lonsdale said:
 Casting back oyer at least half a century of boxing, one cannot help experiencing pang Of re- gret, even of sadness. in com pairing the eras that lie at the beginning and the end of this period," Lord Lonsdale said. "For it seems that the old days are gone - gone beyond dreaming and desiring; those great, grand old days when swart men, 1usty men, wsnt up against swart, lusty men for the sheer glory and hon or of the fight and left all thoughts of cash and kind in the locker at home,
 T have no hesitation in. saying that the enormous purses offered and the moneys made by pro- motors in getting up exhibitions are going to ruin the art. They are utterly out of proportion to
 'Where are the Charlie Mitch els. today, the Frank Slavins. Jimmy Corbette and Peter Jack sons? These giants of their age were the successors or contem- pcraries of equally virile stall warts in Kilrafn. John L., Fitz- simmons, Jem Mace and Tom King.
 Have we any cause for pride when we try mentally to match our greatest with these? I doubt if even a Dempsey could have stood to the assault of any of these warriors, although Dempsey is, without doubt. the one out standing figure of our day, a great boxing fighter. He Is the sole exception to the general rule of mediocrity but it is open to doubt if even he could survive the grim fitness, the fighting prowess that was an innate part of every one of these giants of the past.
 ''The old raw knuckIe' fights were not such terribly gory af- fairs as are generally imagined They wene more injurious, cer- tainly, but not half so punishing as the modern glove fight.
 Tn those bold days a gallon of beer and five-pound note were quite sufficient provocation for a rea1 fight between I~Sn who knew how to fight and who had stud led the relative values of jaws and knuckles. But today a har- assed promoter must needs wheedle his boxers with honeyed phrases containing promises of thousands of pounds before they consent to grace the ring-a ri- dicu1ous situation.
 '"There would be a palliative even for this if glove contests to- day were worthy of the fabulous sums at stake. But the actual fighting is as farcical as the sums concernea. So much has boxing deteriorated that 1t is almost with the certain conviction of being hoaxed that one goes to a modern contest"