The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1929-12-26
/"
/ ALKING
IT OVER
BY JOE WILLIAMS
NEW YORK. Dec. 20.

TINE other night Mr.. Benny Bass
i Of Philadelphia, who is known
to the more whimsicaly inclined
as "the little fish, tagged gentle
man from the west called Mr.. Tod
Morgan on the whiskers in the sec
ond round in a bout for the junior
lightweight championship and rem
dered him temporarily morlbund.
This result was in accordance with
the advance dope and was not at
all surprising, but because the bet
ting was of such irregular charac-
ter. ranging from to l to 6 TO /
in favor OF the challenger, who hap
pened to be Mr.. Bass, the appre-
hending boxing commission refused
to authorize an immediate pay on
OF the purses.
There was also the whispered uneon
yentfonal arrangement between the two
beiIigerent parties that In the event Mr..
Morgan failed to emerge victorious he was
to receive a stipulated sum from Mr.. Bass
far in advance of any figure he might
possibly receive at the gate BY winning
no matter how enthusiastic the paying
clientele viewed the attraction in advance
A LII of which made it look very
IA sinister when Mr.. Morgan,
notorious slow starter. came out IN
the first round snorting fire and
birthstone from both the left and
right nostril in the order named,
and biffed Mr. Bass from here to
there with no trouble whatsoever
only to fold up like a mail order
airplane under the impetus OF a flick
ing touch at the very start OF the
second round expiring with all the
dramatic effect of Persian butter
fly that had collided head-on With
q screen door.
To great number of very simple per-
sOns. including the old colonel, 1t looked
AwfulIy nice and quite authentic and
when Mr.. Harry Grayson, the fight writer
turned to me and said what do you think
Of It, I could only reply that Mr.. Morgan
seemed TO be in acute distress and what
a great puncher that little Philadelphia
runt is.
OF course 1 have no way OF
~ knowing that Mr.. Morgan was
really in great agony at the afore-
mentioned moment or whether Mr..
Bass really smOte him with set
of legitimately violent knuckles; all
that l know is that there was
brief furry of action and that with
in a few seconds Mr.. Morgan was
on the floor apparently in extreme
trance and Mr.. Bass was over IN
one of the ring corners using the
microphone to tell his mother-ln-
law and his close friends in Atlantic
City what splendid thing he had
done for his country, for Bill Carey
and for Bill GlaSSman.
must confess that j was reasonably
convinced that the whole affair was more
or less on the up and it was with no little
surprise that learned my fellow
pamphIeters in their comments the follow
ing day imputed a direct doubt as to the
honesty and trustwOrrhiness of the artistic
enterprise.
I will admit that the presence OF
Mr.. Frank Churchill in the corner
of Mr.. Morgan PROBABLY disarmed
me from a sternly critical viewpoint
because / nave learned that this
gentleman is in a class by himself
when it comes to giving you a good
show and after all when you get a
good show at a boxing bout that
ought to be enough.
n. CHURCHILL has handled
I'VE number of very excellent en-
/, terrainers and I will say for him
that one of his boys. MIR. Pete
SarnienGo, gave me one Of the most
amusing evenings 1 have ever had
in any fight arena, and my endur-
ing memories of that event will al
ways endear the gentleman to me.
I suppose in order to be completely fair
about ii / must also give some credit to
Mr.. Bill Duffy, the famous cabaret man,
because il was he who furnished a large
part of the entertainment in the person
of Mr.. Cowboy Eddie Anderson, and
even at this late date l am unable to de-
eide whether Mr.. ChurchiIrS man or Mr..
Duffy's man was the more gifted actor.
+ AM referring to a trivial little
a. affair of the fists in the midwest
IN which Mr.. Sarmiento and Mr..
Anderson batted each other to the
floor twelve times in the course of
ten boisterous rounds, thereby set
ting new A A. U. record for
knockdownS by featherweighs who
up to that time had never knocked
anybody down.
But such was the artistry OF the per-
Torrance that In spite of its obvious de-
eeit the referee. possessed with n certain
sense of drama. felt obligated to the
thing through as a public act because. as
he explained later. If he had stopped 1t
there would have been riot on the part
of the customers, so enthralled were they
by the spectacle.
All of which prompts me to ask
why anybody, including myself,
should become heated and irritated
about prize fights that seem lacking
in the fundamental elements of
honesty, if prize fights ever were
supposed to embrace such qualities
inherently or otherwise.
"a IN SEINE SWIM