Evening star., 1940-05-24
From the
ee7
Press Box
Lost Big War Spawned
Goudy Sports Figures
BY JOHN LARDNER,

0uuuy oPOrtS TI9uIeS
BY JOHN LARDNER,
Special Correspondent of The Star.
NEW YORK, May "a N.ANA0.-
Some gaudy characters in sports,
violent and otherwise, we're pro-
duced by the last World War. Most
1y they were violent.
You could say that Jack Dempsey
and Babe Ruth. though neither of
them saw military action, were
products of the war, for their spe-
CiaE types of violence-Dempsey's
blood-letting in the hot sun at
Toledo in 1919 and Ruth's bonn
bardment of the garden walls with
his big bat and the rabbit ball, be-
ginning in 1921-Were what the
postwar customers wanted in the
way of smashing sound and elec-
trio action.
Georges Carpenter was a war
man. He did little fighting before
the war. but he created a new and
special kind of hysteria after the
arrnistice with his blond aggres-
siveness, his humming right hand,
MS lightning knockouts of Joe Beck
EFT and Bat Levinsky.
And Carpenter himself was
crushed eventually by one of the
most violent characters that war
ever spawned.
Broye, BrutoI Sewage
Won High Honors
Today there are said to be several
thousand Senegalese troops French)
on the border of Italy, hungering
for the blood of the men who wiped
out Ethiopia. The Senegalese had
no hatred for Italy in 1914-1918, but
they fought for France Just the
same, and one of their number was
brave and brutal savage, born in
the jungle, who was known in the
ranks as Louis Phal.
He was twice decorated. He won
the Croix de Guerre for conspicuous
bravery in action. He paid no heed |
to shells or rifle fire, and the he'll
met on his wholly head constantly |
was in the forefront of the thickest |
scrimmage.
When a small boy. Phal had been
adopted as mascot in Senegal by |
q French actress, who brought him
back to Paris and dressed him in a
pages livery of bottle blue About |
year before the war broke out he |
began to make his living as prize
fighter, under the name of Battling
Sikh. He fought only half dozen
times, with Indifferent success, be-
fore he Joined the army and won
regimental notoriety and reward
with the od-curdIing frenzy of
his bayonet charge.
Sikh Come Out Of War
Hungry for Action
Sikh came out of the war hungry
Tor more action. The French public
felt the same way. Carpenter was
the public's idol and the worlds
outstanding pugilistic hero, but Sikh,
though popular in Paris, did not
enter Carpenters sphere until the
hero was smashed by Dempsey in
1921.
Then Carpenter needed fight to
reconstruct his prestige in France
and Sikh was picked for the victim.
Carpenters manager, Francois
Descamps, took no chances. The
fight was fixed. Sikh agreed to fall
down in the first round as a token
Of his good faith and then to 90
down permanently in the third
round.
The match proceeded as arranged |
and Sikh went down in the third |
round-but he did not stay down.
, The black savage from Senegal |
leaped to his feet as the count was
tolling and hit Carpenter on the
point of the chin. Dazed, Carpen-
tier took murderous mauling in |
the next two rounds and was
knocked cold in the sixth. Battling |
Sikh became the light-heavyweight |
champion of the world.
Postwar Paris was his oyster, and |
the Senegalese smashed it open with
a violent blow of his wallet. He |
bought rainbow wardrobe. He |
tried to drink all the wine in Mont
martre, and nearly succeeded. He |
walked the streets with young lion |
on a leash and sometimes carried
monkey on his shoulder.
Temper Wos Too Quick
For His Good
Sikh had good heart, but his
temper was quick and his manners
were savage and simple One day |
his feet hurt so he went to the Office
of chiropodist. The doctor re-
fused to treat him. Sikh picked up
all the office furniture and hurled it
out the window into the street.
After he lost the title through
the dismal folly of fighting Michael
Francis McTigue in Dublin on st.
Patrick's Day, the Senegalese came
to America. He fought some, but
chiefly he wandered about Hells
Kitchen in New York City by night,
drinking wine or whisky, wreckins
saloons and punching cops and cab
drivers. Once he was stabbed and
recovered from the wound.
Then, at last, the inevitable hap
pened-the man who walked into
German machine gun fire with his
teeth cleaning was found shot to
death, in the back, in side street
gutter near his home. He had drag
ged his bleeding body 100 yards
along the gutter before he died.
Harlem gave him a Mohammedan
funeral.
The war lasted all his life with
Sikh. AS much as any man know
of, he was born for violence and vio-
1ent1v lived and died