The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1935-06-27

~ Tor a round
tsS'"S'$'' and a frac-
Kirk Miller ton, in New
York back in the early fall
of 1923.
I refer, of course, to the
titanic ending of the Joe
Louis-Pr Camera fight of
Tuesday.
Down through the ages there
have been beastial brawls which
were worthy of the most virile
chapters of American ring his
tory, but those two stand out as
twin climaXeS to an age-old
fight for heavyweight suprem-
acy which started with Sullivan
and was brought up to date by
Joe Louis in as startling and
breathtaking a finish as your
most vivid fictioniStS could
imagine.
Ending Is Conclusive
The fight fan likes those ir-
REPUTABLE endings. There is moth
ing so satisfying to the soul of
the average ringworm as the
finish which brooks no inquest,
no alibi, no excuse and no re-
joinder nor rebuttal.
The Dempsey-Firpo meeting
was such an episode. And so was
the Louise arnera carnage.
Those two fights stand alone.
Each featured a killer. One, a
slashing, colorful. tearing-in tig-
erish Dempsey and the other an
instrument of precision in the
person of Joe Louis, who hewS
away cadaverously and relent-
lesSly to a fixed finale which is
just as certain as if it were writ
ten in a script.
There is no escaping this Joe
Louis, once he is in the ring
with an antagonist. He will box
or he will slug. He will spar,
feint, weave or roll. But he
never forgets his errand which
is to leave his foes prone on the
canvas in the shortest possible
elapsed time.
No Lingering Tasks
Expediency is the mans main
impulse. He knows each moment
q fight fingers might wreck his
purpose. The beasts in the jungle
fight the same way.
Now you have some sort of an
idea what Joe Louis is like in
the ring. Let me picture this
chocolate coated dynamite
charge when not in action.
He sat hunched and inatten-
tive in his corner, before the
fight got under way while nota-
bles of the ring including Jack
johnson, Gene Tunney, Jack
Dempsey, Max Baer, Jim Brad
dock and Mickey Walker were
introduced to the multitude.
When each in turn went over
to shake hands with Joe, a hypo-
critical thing it always seemed
to me because personalities so
introduced always wish both
! principals good luck" Louis
was as undismayed as though
they were Sunday school pals
congratulating him for getting
a bronze button for steady at
tendance.
J In a World Alone
! Nothing whatsoever diSturbS
Joe Louis. The world and its
people are absolutely impersonal
to him. He never blinks and I
!! don't believe he would bat an
eyelash if somebody set off a
giant cracker beneath his stool.
Too, downtown at the boxing
commissions office when he
appeared to weigh in, Louis
might as well have been in an
other world for all the atten-
ton he paid to the milling
writer's and the dazzling flash
lights of news cameramen.
He was obliviouS to the whole
procedure, not in a dumb, Step
in Fetchit way, but unexcitable,
unperturbed and showing no re-
flexeS whatsoever.
I guess the nearest individual
that We in Washington know
about to whom I can compare
Joe Louis lack of emotions is a
chap named Ossie Bluege.
Now, Ossie plays fine, yea,
superb baseball. He knows good
baseball. Appreciates it when he
sees it and must know when he
is performing in his stellar way,
yet he registers emphatic mega
tiveS in so far as his personal
reactions are concerned.
1t is the same way with Joe
Louis.
He must know he is good, else
how could he be so expert. He
must have fine SenSabilitieS with
regard to his qualities, yet it is
all in a days work with him,
Just as it is with our own Ossie
Bluege, and Sam Rice too, to
a slightly different degree.