The Wilmington morning star., 1941-01-09
y Fair Enouuh
BY L

The Star wishes its readers
to know that views and opin.
ions expressed in this article
are those of the author and
may not always harmonic
with its position.-The Editor.
NEW YORK, Jan. 8.-What
bum!
What a never-to-be-adequately.
laughed-at palooka Benito Musso
lini turned out to be the minute
they rang the bell, yanked tn
stool from under him and sent
him out to fight!
History has given us some
memorable buns in the ring and
|some historic stumble-bums in
command of nations, too but
never one like this ludicrous tramp
with the silly tassel dangling be-
fore his eyes from a trick hat
designed to make him look fero-
cious and scare the world.
Painting Phil Scott was a bum,
but, after all, he was a sports
Imam and a gentleman, too. He
didn't 60 around blowing his face
full of wind like a brat in a tant-
rum, giving people the glare and
telling the world what a killer he
Twas. The old PROSTATE pompier
was Just a journeyman bum. His
manager would dig up a fight for
him, and he never said any more
than that he would just do his
best and hoped to win.
Joe Beckett, the human horizon
line, as we used to call him, was
a bum, too, and Fred Fulton was
la museum bum, but they seemed
to realize that they we're buns
and never embarrassed anyone
but their handlers when they soar
ed out of their corners and crash
ed in mid-ring, as thousands jeer-
ed.
Another Bum
And, of course, that Kaiser an.
swered the standard CONSUMPTION
of a bum when he yelled the Ger
man equivalent Of lone side,
pleased" and high-tailed for Hol-
land, deserving his soldiers and his
people when they needed him
most.
But what a bum this Duce is.
this colossal phony who placed
himself at the head of a mob Of
burlesque-show generals in lion
tanners uniforms, backed by all
the chiseling grafters and the pos
turing Fancy-Dans of Italian sub.
urban society who were arching
their necks at other mems wives
and took over a whole nation as a
cheering section for his vanity.
His gorillas waylaid some indi-
vidua1s on dark streets or mobbed
them in their homes and made
them drink castor oil and kerosene
and told themselves that that was
brave going. The muckers all join
ed up and denounced their love
rivals and those to whom they
owed honest debts of money and
had them killed or sent away to
exile camps.
He had big posters made picturs
ing himself in an iron hat in a
heroic pose against the sky
against eternity, even-as tn e
greatest man the world had yer
known, whose glory would never
die.
Some Legions
All this time the big bum was
Dragging of his invincibility, his
irdomitable will and telling tn e
world about his irresistible legions.
Those legions were something.
-Four million soldiers he had, in a
nation of 40 million, and vast herds
of tanks that he liked TO show in
the movies, snorting over the LAND
scape with himself scowling from
an imperial reviewing stand, with
his chin thrust out. And thousands
of planes ~darkening the sky and
the battalions of foot soldiers
marching along telling the world
how they loved to cut threats. That
was a show for you.
That chin effect recalls the re-
mark of Jack Dempsey the first
time he ever saw Primo Camera
another bum, though a friendly
bum and harmless. Dempsey was
old then and out of action, but
when he was asked what he
thought of Camera, he said, my
My! He has a wonderful chin,
hasn't he? A big, prominent chin.
I would love to have a shot at
that chin"
So the bum went to Spain for a
little no-decision war, and barely
escaped a knockout by a lot OF
raggedy tramps, and claimed that
it was just a gymnasium workout
and therefore didn't count. Then
he waited until the French were
knocked kicking and gave them
the foot while they were down.
Then he went into Greece, and
was chased out so fast by a little
scrub army that, in running away,
he didn't even have time to take
down his own daughters name
from over the post office in Porto
Edda. And while this was happen
ing the British-those buns who
had shown their coWardice at Dun
querque - yelled, BE absent,
bum!' And chased the big tramp
clear out of Egypt.