The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1931-12-25
TALKING
IT OVER
BY JOE WILLIAMS

Il
ny, sometimes, how you pick
Snp yarns. 1 am sitting in a cafe
up town in the east 7o's feeding my
face and minding my own business
when a waiter comes over to me
and says:
DO you know who's the boss here?"
- 40 not and l suspect some Emily
FoSt scout has seen me using a salad
iork with the Vardon grip and m finding
ttnyseH become quite nushed anu a little
boss happens TO be none other than Tommy
burns, the ex-heavyweight champion Of
the "oIld, although at his heaviest
mean IN those days-he was never better
THAN healthy middleweight
Mr Burns comes over and says as how
ne IS gag 70 see me and particularly so
and 1t all seems to be some sort of coin-
eloence because he Is the only heavy
weight champion that ever fought for the
TUE on Christmas day.
Right of. recollect that Mr.. Burns Is
and was beaten and it does not strike me
tnlng ike that until l realize that when
people get to be around fifty IL makes a
oinerence 1 mean they don't mind it.
80 MI Burns and myself sit down and
nght me heavyweight championship all
over again. OF course we do not really
!nght because l am no more like johnson
IMAM Bing Crosby and Mr.. Burns is now
rat. waddling sort of guy with shoulders
axe hack and he wears glasses.
before 40 s Rpi ge6 very far into the tight
5ngIisn accent comes up and asks Mr.
Burns Tor some dough to buy some soap
and I DO not know at the moment
self. 49, -0'''' u my
This is the wife" says Mr. Burns and
which learn later is put on DD' my 1iy Bill Bill
she used to be very fine operate star"
eaoS Mr. Burns. She played the soprano
sing" Il can stiiI' sing" the Iadv cuts
n and very crisply which convinces me
That she is Mrs. Burns.
n
"ELL, with this out of the way
w we begin all over and Mr..
Burns tells me how unfortunate it
is that he is smart guy because
II he was not smart guy he might
have beaten Johnson and gone on
Tor number of years as the heavy
weight champion of the world.
II seems that Mr.. Burns has always
writer's say. which sort Of proves auto
Mr Burns had read that to- johnson slS Was guy ny
to Marvin Hart in t twenty ROUNDS 4 sSd the
night writer's said he couldn't take it.
he would take chance with johnson and
the training preliminaries had started Mr..
4ed pqs on sm 6 glasses and phoney
t backed up By what he had read son
night to Johnson he would make him cult.
All right. The night starts Mr. Burns
you-little- Algernon-toda Mrs. Murphy3
johnson smacked him with a sweet right
band han and he is down in the resin looking
nrst round and the rirSt few seconds Of
Mr.. Burns has his own referee in the
ring who is also the promoter so he is
again oyertaken by smartnesS and instead
into clinch and then starts souawking
70 the referee Make him let 60, The
out If he keeps on holding?"
It works out very neatly because the
referee is ANYTHING but antagonistic and
Johnson who does not know what 10 make
Of such goings-on. stops punching and al
at the bell Mr.. Burns is thoroughly re-
covered and ready to 60.
Burns III johnson had known how near
gone was he might have finished me with
I do not want to say anything at the
Would personally rather be Knocked out in
one round by Johnson than in fourteen and
that instead Of Mr.. Burns saving himself ne
practically ruined himself.
DUT that is neither one thing
ID nor another, and the fight goes
along until 1t reaches the tenth
round and the bookmakerS~ of Sgd
ney (did I remember to tell you the
fight took place in AustraliaO are
going up and down the aisles Of
fering evens that Mr.. Burns stays
the full twenty rounds.
II am sure at the time that will stay
the twenty rounds says Mr.. Burns. land
when this Johnson grabs hold OF both my
arms and shouts back at the boo kmakers
I'll bet you 100 to / he don't give me a
black eye? I do not know whether he is
kidding me or them, but somehow 1t takes
a lot OF me-"
Well. there isn't much more to the story
as 1 get it from Burns. He was out
weighed thirty pounds-a Walker against
a Sharkey-and If the facts were known
he probably didn't belong in the same ring
with the Big Black from Galveston. 1t
goes to the fourteenth and Burns is
side Jump up and say enough"
And that. in brief is the story of the
only heavyweight championship that was
ever dedicated to peace on earth. good
will to men"
It is interesting to note that twenty
around, Burns is running a cafe in the
upper metropolitan district and Johnson,
the last heard of him, was conducting a
Jazz band on the coast