The Waterbury Democrat., 1946-08-09
TELEGRAM

Jack Lait,
 Daily Mirror, NIX.
 read your piece about tough guys this morning. I ain't writing about tough guys any more. Regards.
 Billy Rose.
 Some readers were so kind as to express amusement over my brief account of the deeds of Duffy the Goat, murderer, slugger. robber and gentleman about Chicago, in my young years as a reporter. Duffy, Is I pointed out, had a voracious appetite for publicity. I wrote many pieces" about him, so he was my friend.
 He fell into step with me one day to express his appreciation of story in which I had referred to him as ''the most vicious killer in the rottenest section of the city"
 Dat was swell" he enthused. An is dere anything I can do for you?"
 couldn't think Of anything.
 Do you want anybody bumped offP"
 could think of nobody.
 Do you want anybodys leg broker"
 No-no one could bring to mind just then.
 He walked along silently for sev- eral minutes, then he said:
 You sure run your business III 8 funny way!'
 Monk the Mugg was quite anoth- CT type. The Monk (short for monkey. because he had arms so long, his potent fists hung down below his knees) never carried a weapon He was slight, but packed 2 punch that would have knocked down City Hall. He was pro- fessional-the bouncer at Hickey's Gardens, out back of the Yards" where the steer-killers and pig stickers and their girls made merry after their tolls in the abatoirs
 Hickey's sold whiskey for a nickel shot, and every place it stopped over the glass it ate a knot out of the bar When the braWny bohunks who stood all day on platforms slugging cattle on the head with sledge-hammers turned to play, they were in the mood; and when they loaded up on Hickey's hootch, they played rough. We'll, that was when it was the Monks assignment to make them khaT0 10 in the middle Of tse car tracks.
 He could do Ii DO, and with a minimum of violence.
 But one Sunday morning as I sat dangling my heels on the ser gean't desk in the Stock Yards po- lice station, to my surprise, a couple of harness-bulls brought him in, charged with assault It appeared he had belted unconscious one Big Max, in daylight, right on Halsted Street
 "Aw,' the Monk told me. T jus wheeled the clunk one I left him have it becus I like him"
 That puzzled me a bit, and he explained:
 Las night stop Max couple O times in the Gardens - he's swingin' on anodder hunky - it's over some danle. He aint a bad bird when he's halfway sober. So I handle him gentle
 Well. dis mornin' I'm comin' from church, all dressed up in me blue suit, when who do L see com in at me, acrost de street, but Big Max. I see hes crooked. an he's mad
 So, as he comes for me. swing quick, oncet, an I knock him out i'm under his hat" Because you like him?"
 Sure. If I let hm open his klsser he'd O called me some thin'-an I'd O had to kill 'imH' 1 A press representative sends me the following item:
 Hunt Stromberg, Jr., has asked | Lew Parker, who Will play the edi- tor in Front Page to lose Is pounds, to keep in character"
 First of all, I don't believe word of it. The patent purpose was to get the names of Strom- | berg and Parker in print: that he accomplished. The order tore duce" part is standard, one of the | bromides on which to hang a eli ent's name. But I don't see it in connection with an editor, Ito keep in character"
 don't know that editors, in life l or fiction, have been particularly | typed as thin. Some are and some | are not. They have enough work and worries to hold their weight | down, but many seem to thrive and expand.
 The editor in the original stage version was thin, and perhaps that | k in the mind of MT. Stromberg. ] don't know anything about MT. 1 Tker's shape or how much a 15- eaAd shrinking would help him look the part. But, I have been an editor here and there myself. and, while I have had some sur urlses, can't remember that I was ever ordered to go on a diet.
 I have worked around the clock many a time, but I don't think the