The Washington times., 1923-10-25
By JAMES (JENMY) DE FOREST.

Trainers had only the most super
1ictal knowledge Of the anatomy.
vital organs and nervous systems
OF men In their charge. II a fighter
did not recover in hurry from
q knockout the trainers would be
white-faced and calling for doctors
in a panic. There ere yet only
too few trainers who have attained
this expert knowledge Of physi-
ology, and such Of US who have
acquired 1t naturally work at a
tremendous advantage.
got or rather started to acquire,
mine during more than year as
hanger-on around British and Ger
man army camps, and in two years
served as an apprentice to q famous
Paris masseur where the system or
instruction was SO thorough that
we worked on living models from
big anatomical charts, tracing
through the flesh with our fingers
the. the branches of the nervous
system and the locations OF the
vital organs, the circulatory system
and the heart and brain as the d.
rectors Of human existence.
Instead Of regarding me as an
faterloper at the British and Ger
maia military acmps / found top
aergeants and even army doctors
very friendly to q kid who had
intelligent questions to ask, ana
could give good reason why
hb wanted to find out.
The British training Of that time
was much as had been the loose"
training Of our Bridgeport camp IL
was standardized also without re-
gard to the individual physical quail
fications Of the men under training.
Big and strong and small and weak
All got the same dose. 1t aided
some. but # wrecked others.
The German system was the best.
They divided their men In SIX
classes, from the very strong to the
anindlv and weak. They worked
the weaker ones up gradually. Be-
sides, they had gymnasium special.
flies for correcting shortcomings OF
muscularity and nervous weakness
Is. Many of these already knew
from my trapeze performing but
a whole lot more / learned for the
first time then.
All were agreed that for what
had In view for myself. knowledge
Of massage would be a great adVan-
agreed that the French system In
that science topped all. So to Paris
I went. / took job as porter.
II was q mighty humble job, hut i
couldn't speak a word Of the langu-
age and was lucky to get 1t. But
spent so much time hating with
mop and broom to look at the mas
seurs at work that finally I was
dragged up to the Main Squeeze.
Apprentices said that I was
cheating in that was learning
and getting paid for my work at
the same time, whereas in their
apprenticeship they received no
wages. So had to agree to work
for nothing but the knowledge 1
might gain and a place to sleep.
I had little money and by means
Of small tips from customers rs
I grew more proficient, and odd
Jobs picked up around Paris at
night, j nKanaged to stick out the
entire two years course at the
school,
/ was fascinated the whole time
and accepted poverty very cheer
fully. And I may add, that there
is nothing in the osteopathy and
chiropractice that has since been
SO thoroughly introduced and which
I have studied that the licensed
French masseur did not know per-
fectly then.
Getting back to the most striking
differences between training of the
past and present, 1t arises from the
fact that in those days all training
aimed at endurance, but the fighter
Of today has to face no such pro-