Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1923-09-18
MeIodramatic Thriller

matte thriller beyond all words.
Dempsey came upon Firpo with d
wild and savage rush as the bell
rang and dived for him with such
vicious speed that he fell to his
| knees. From that point on 1t was a
| tornado turned loose in a 2O-toNt
| ring. Dempsey, with mighty thrusts
from short range. knocked FIrpO
| down four times. FirpO, In turn,
! fighting with rare courage and I'M
trained skill, first knocked DemY-
sew to his knees and a few seconds
later, after rising slowly from ia
| 9-second count. rushed the cham
pion and with a nebreaking right
drove him headlong through the
ropes, Dempsey falling out of the
ring with a dazed look upon his
bloody face.
Pitched back into the ring, Demp-
sey again received a wild Firpo
charge that came near goring him
to death as the Wild Bull was upon
him with rights and lefts to body
and head, intent upon closing out
the big act of the great drama
| then and there. But Dempsey wealth
cred the storm long enough to
meet the last charge with a SMASH
to the jaw that drove the South
| American reeling to the rim of MS
| heels. Dempsey was victor, yet on
| two occasions he came so close to
| fouling his man that the referee
| might have awarded Firpo the bat
| tie. The first near foul came within
Is seconds of the first blow. The
| referee called "break'' from a clinch
and Firpo dropped his arms anu
! looked away as Dempsey caught
him on the jaw with right hook
and knocked him to the floor. Then
again at the end of the first round
when Dempsey was still badly
dazed, the bell rang and Firpo
| dropped his arms. AS he did Demp-
sey struck him three times in the
face, the third blow coming at
least two seconds after the gong
had sounded. Upon this point there
is no debate. 1t is quite possible
that Dempsey was so badly hurt
by F'irpos terrific wallops that he
was in a mental daze, completely
oft of his head. This is the only
possible excuse to be found for ms
actions, actions for which he might
have been disqualified then ana
there.
Dempsey, at the moment, was
evidently so weak that these blows
carried little force and hence had
no bearing on the final result.
Last night Firpo represented the
Indian civilization that his an
cestors had conquered. The white
man who came with Cortez and
Alvaro conquered the Indians with
guile, with deceit and treachery, III
proportions equal to their skill at
arms. The final victory would no.
have come if Montezuma had nCt
listened to the voices of the whita
men.
Hit When Head Was Turned
Luis Angel F'irpo, who does not
| speak English, turned his head to-
| night to listen to the voice of
referee yelling at him in strange
| tongue, and as he looked Jack
Dempsey, the champion heavy
| weight of the world, struck him on
the jaw and knocked him down.
The Indians of this hemisphere
had a code of honor as fine as that
| of any civilization.
When he had gained the presence
of Montezuma, Cortez. telling him
they were brothers. made him a
prisoner. When the bell sounded
last night marking the end of the
! first round, it was q sound that
Luis Firpo could understand as
| clearly as if it had spoken in Span
| ish. 1t meant that fighting was to
| cease, it was a truce, and then
| the Yankee champion of the word
hit the man from South America
| three times under the jaw.
FirpO's Great Stamina
TNI
as scheduled except that a few be-
| lieved any man could take the pun
ishment Firpo took and still rise up
with enough left to knock the cham
pion of the world through the ropes.
Before the skilled and rapid
thrusts of the master of all ring mat
adors, the Wild Bull of the faraway
Pampas fell to the resin broken and
battered. Firpo had the same chance
an OK has charging a machine gun
nest across uncovered country with
trained gunners handling the fusil-
!ade of steel. He was the conquista-
dore who made his invasion 30 years
| too late to find in place of the Mon
tezuman Aztec a modern fighting
machine that cut him into ribbons
of red before he kneW the fight was
on.
The great crowd, only a few brief
! generations out of the forest tangle
and the jungle brake, who came to
see the kill, got their reward in the
red river that ran down FirpO's great
frame, and emptied into the dust and
resin below. Dempsey, in his early
charge was the incarnation of fight
ing fury, twisting and weaving in
l hot hA IL IN
FirpO's crude defense as the surf
| sweeps through a crevice in the
dykes.
| His great arms, worked from two
well-oiled sockets, struck with such
speed and power that Firpo, battered
and bewildered, could find no method
of turning away.
It was the DID, old victory Of the
conquering triumvirate, speed, skill,
power, sent against raw force that
numbered into action.
Wildcats 100 Claws
The Wild Bull had no show with
the Wildcat. For, while the Wild
Bull had only one horn, the Wildca:
had a hundred claws that cut and
ripped and slashed Their way through
the flesh as a razor blade might rip
us way through d SlIIp OI IdFu.
Firpo proved the dope in that he
knew nothing of the modern fight
ing game. He proved beyond all
doubt that he was far away from
any battle with the champion of
the world.
He had nothing to match Demp
sey's knowledge of infighting, his
skill at hitting and the rapid-fire
methods Of his attack. But for all
that he proved his greatness as a
fighting machine, raw and unframed
as he was, beyond all doubt. No
man who is not stout of heart can
be knocked down four times by Jack
Dempsey, rise to his feet and after
first hammering the champion to
his knees then send him sprawling
headlong through the ropes, head
first with his feet high in the air.