The Washington times., 1939-01-24
Racket? Sure, Says
Calico, But Not
SOMenacing
CHAPTER XIII
Rv Panl Calico

The next time you are in or
about Rome, take q day off and
drive up to the famous walled
city Of Tarquinia. There is q
museum there, for Tarquinia is
built upon or close to the site
Of the stronghold Of the ancient
EtruscanS, a race Of high civili-
zation, older than the Romans
by a thousand years, perhaps,
and you can get the curator
or watchman to take you on a
little trip, a mile or so out Of
the city, to visit the painted
tombS of Etruria.
He will fetch an acetylene
lantern and an enormous iron
keyring on which are large and
medieval-appearing keys, and
climb into your car with you.
They have built stone kioSks,
looking like our subway en-
frances, over the opened tombs,
barred and locked them. The
curator selects a key from his
bunch, the lock grindS and COM
plains as he opens it. At first
in the semi-d darkness Of the tiny
chamber you see nothing. But
then, as your eyes grow &C
customed to the light and he
plays his flickering yellow beam
on the walls, you find yourself
looking at wall paintings, fres-
Goes of a vanished race and
civilization, as fresh in color
and life, almost, as the day
they were painted, more than
1000 years ago. And there, on
the walls Of q tomb belonging
to a deceased man who was ap-
parently In life q devotee and
patron Of sports, is a painting
which Is in itself almost the
whole history Of the ancient
and dishonorable game Of
boxing.
READY FOR EYE POKE
It depicts two boxers squared
off to one another, almost In
the modern orthodox position,
left hand and left foot extend
ed, right hand cooked at the
chin, arm bent at Sae elbow.
One of the boys in the painting
has his hands set in the usual
manner that you will see today
in photographs Of a couple Of
fighters posing without boxing
gloves on; that is, with the
fingers held together, or curled
into a fist. But the other has
the thumb Of his left hand
nicely extended away from the
side of the hand, cooked and
ready to poke it into his oppon-
ent's eye. The artist who carried
out his commission in that
house of the dead had a sense
of humor. He couldn't resist the
temptation to immortalize what
even then must have been one
of the Oldest tricks in the ring,
the left lead to the eyeball.
And, incidentally, the boxers
Of Etruria antedate the brutal
cestus Of the Greek and Roman
arenas. It was our Mr.. Tunney,
a heavyweight champion with
quasi-cultural leanings, who
used to like to advise after-din-
ner gatherings that boxing in
the olden days began with the
use Of the cestus, that contrap.
ton Of leather, studded with
iron, bound around the fists
and wrists. But Mr.. Tunney was
falling into a common error. It
didn't. The EtruscanS wrapped
their knuckles and reinforced
their wrists with soft bandageS,
because they, too, had made the
discovery voiced not long ago by
Monsieur Leon See, the French
boxing manager, that the hand
was never by nature intended to
be a striking weapon, and that
it was always getting out of
kilter when used for that pur.
pose. The pug Of today, before
he draws on his six-ounce fight
ing gloves, wraps his HANDS and
wrists with the same kind Of
bandages and uses the same
manner Of bandaging that you
may still make out on the long
vanished battlers Of Tarquinia,
BANDAGES TOO TAME
1t must be fairly obvious that
the first play.fighting or boxing
in its rudimentary stage was
done with the bare hands. The
earliest known hand-bandages
are those depicted on the
Etruscan tornbS and were used,
as have indicated before, not
to spare or protect the party Of
the second part so much as to
conserve the hands Of the other
party. It was the Roman who
found the soft bandage too tame.
One might almost measure the
degeneracy and d &C Inc Of
Roman civilization by the In
creaSing refinemen. of their
boxing weapon.
Boxing is in many ways an
exciting, interesting, and healthy
sport. It calls for courage,
speed, stamina, a good eye, and
something Of a brain. There has
never been anything essentially
wrong with the paStime. The
trouble has always been with the
people who take part in it, pro
mote it, foster 1t, and make q
living out Of 1t. As q sport it Is
innocent enough, but as a bust
ness or profession It calls for