Imperial Valley press., 1935-05-14
TOpNS
.9PORTAPARADE.
MakmsD
BY HENRY McLEMORE
United Press Staff Correspondent

Dmted PreSS Sta1t correspondent
GROSSINGER LAKE, N. Y, May
14.-To those young men who are
willing to endure As minutes of as
sorted misery for weeks of deep
dish luxury, I heartily recommend
the business of championship fisti-
cuffs.
There s no softer life, my friends,
unless it be that of a bench Pekin-
gese, than that enjoyed by cham
pion while preparing for title
fight. My knowledge is very first
hand, too, for these lines are being
written in the sumptuouS Field
Stone lodge that serves as press
headquarters at the country club
where Barney Ross is training for
his welterweight fight with Jimmy
McLarnin late this month.
The placc--or the Ferndale coun-
try club-crawls with luxury. Sur
rounding its dime dozen lodges and
scores of cottages are golf courses,
swimming pools, stables, and trout
streams. Anything less choice than
SQUAD or pheasant for dinner brings
protest, and the drinks are pre-
pared from sarsaparilla old enough
to vote.
Somehow it doesn It make sense
all this fine flourish surrounding a
man who is preparing himself in
the toughest of all trades. What
business has cleaning silver and
crepe suzettes with a right hand
swing to the nose, a left hook that
rips the eyebrow? What possible
connection is there between a bride
path that winds through lovely
spring woods and a straight poke
to the belly that makes a man IS
insides turn upside down?
1t doesn't add up even to the
younger sports writer's, who came
along when conditions, while not sc
lush as now, never were so bad a
fellow didn't have a bed with
springs on which to sleep. But to
the veterans - those hard-bitten
boys who carry in their heads what
most of us pack in record book
on the hip pocket, it is amazing
and bewildering.
Take Hype Igoe, for example
Hypus, who has been the top box
ing authority since Jim Figg turned
pro, was sitting here few minutes
ago and, feeling tack in his shoe
casually remarked that he would
have to go TO the village in the
morning and have it fixed Five
minutes later the club cobbler, his
bench under his arm, came in.
81 understand you have a tack
in your shoe, Mr.. Igoe. May please
extract it?"
"Now in fact that IS something
exclaimed Igoe when the cobbler
had gone. "Why I've seen the day
in boxing when anything short of
your head catching on fire wouldn u
cause an interruption in a poker
game. Here's Ross training out
here and living in a specially built
cottage of Is rooms, and with ev-
cry comfort known to man. Kid
Lavigne would get laugh out of
this place. III never forget the
kid IS place at Pop Blanken s in
Frisco when the kid was training
for Walcott. There was joint.
You bathed in tubs, lived on cots
that saw service in the Civil war,
and ate food that is banned by law
now. Ross has a barber come miles
to shave and shampoo him. The
kid soaked his face and fists in dirty
pickle brine to get 'em tough.
"And there was Bat Nelson IS
training camp at Joe Millek IS place
outside Colma. Bat was training
for Jimmy Britt and he boxed &c
rounds right up until the day of the
fight, just to be sure he could &C
20 rounds. These days the boys
don't work If it rains or is cold
Hell, I've seen Bat and his kind
step out in a storm and run miles
through mud, and then come back
and fight Is rounds in the ring
"Let's 60 over and see Barney
But Barney WASH It in.
"Sorry,' said the butler, who
opened the door, "but the master
Is out on the bride path. And
he IS going in town for manicure
when he comes back. so you ID bet
ter come bacl; at for tea
"And perhaps bit of chamber
music?' asked Mr.. Igoe. in a voice
that is best described as a snort.