Evening star., 1929-07-01
CONFIDENCE NEED
OF MANY BOXERS
Experience and Development
Also Are Necessary to
Champions Makeup.
BY WALTER TRuMBULL.

@oURAGE is largely matter OF
confidence, experience and de-
velopment. Many fighter
~ has been charged with lacking
gameness when all he lacked
was confidence inspired by enough
properly chosen bouts to teach him
what to do when things momentarily
went against him.
Managers spoil more fighters than
the make. Greedy for big purses, they
put a green boy against q veteran and
ruin q good prospect, sometimes so good
that he might have been champion.
Sometimes it is the fault of the fighters
themselves. Winning from easy OPP
ponents, they decide that they are sec7
ond Jack Dempseys and demand
matches which are far beyond their
abilities.
A case in point is Monte Mum when
he fought George Godfrey. Mum made
that match himself When he got into
the ring he was just one more green,
powerful, inexperienced youngster up
against a wise strong, expert fighter.
The result was inevitable.
Salsinger Develops Confidence.
II. G. Salsinger has proved this theory
of confidence and experience in regard
to animals, and, after all, man is but
q human animal, SO the comparison
holds good. Mr.. Salsinger delights in
taking small dog with an inferiority
complex and developing it into chalh-
pion through scientific methods.
Mr.. SalSinger's favorite subjects for
this experiment are terriers. He finds
a terrier whose home life has not been
happy and one so depressed by the hard
knocks of life that it has become what
is known in dog circles as ''slinker. a"
mkt H. .c lno olysw
in Self-reliance and so depressed that
it travels through life on its stomach,
after the fashion of an army or a worm.
The thing is then to teach this de-
pressed dog that fortune favors the
daring, to instil in him the confidence
which makes for success.
One of Mr. Salsingers experiments
furnishes a particularly happy and
valuable illustration. He came across a
terrier, a Cairn in this instance, which
was desperately trying to take a dive
and count of 10 in a contest with a
bee. The trouble was plain to be seem
this green puppy had all the heart
taken out of him by being over
matched.
Bout With Butterflies.
Mr. Salsinger rescued the dog and
undertook his training. The thing was,
build up his fighting ego. To do this
it was wise to match him for time
with palookas. After serious considera-
ton, the first bout under the new sys-
tenn was arranged with butterflies. Care
was taken to sign articles only with
butterflies which were very small and
very yellow. After this first engagement
was over the dog stood straighter. His
stomach was at least an inch off the
h oes0 1lxr n
big butterfly sQuarely in the eye.
Progress was made slowly but surely.
The day Mr.. Salsinger matched the dog
with a mouse and saw him win in q
few hard-fought rounds was a proud
occasion for both of them.
BY the time the terrier had been
sicked on hairless Mexican Chihuahua
and won, its stomach never touched the
ground even after full meal. BY now
It knew what it felt like to win, by now
1 had learned something of ring STRAIT
egy and had discovered punch. It
even began to swagger bit.
So, step by step, confidence and abil-
dty came with experience. Victory in
matches wisely made followed victory
The dog began to hold its head high, to
show its teeth. One day it growled at
o policeman.
Terrier Became Champion.
That terrier finally became a cham
pion. Its blue ribbon was won largely
on account of the unbounded admira-
tion it won from the judges by trying
to lick Great Dane it met coming out
of the ring and having to be firmly re-
strained by its handlers.
I believe that Mr.. Salsinger's theory
Is correct. Dempsey looked so bad in
his first Eastern fight that a manager
his frSl ialr a1F
forever after. Tunney was beaten up
by Harry Greb in their first engage
ment, but later became champion.
Courage comes to a man after expert
ence has taught him how to meet any
conditions which arise.
(Copyright, 1929, by North American News
paper Alliance.)