THE SUNDAY FICTION MAGAZINE, MAY 14, 1916,
MANB1
ITMOUT GLOVES
WAS what you might
call fascinated by the
boxing game when I
was a mere youngster,
and the name of "Bud"
McCloskey was known
In the pugilistic world
just, as Boon as I was
By Will li. Greenfield
Illustrated by R. Tandler.
he was averse to approaching the Lord In
a spirit of sarcasm.
For six rounds I swung a towel and
rubbed the English champion, proud of
sure winner the second time out against
the same opponent. The height of my
ambition was to lick the Knglish champ;
and I prayed that I might do It If I had
me the same pleasure that this job will, afterward to resume my place in oblivion
if I live to be the king of the bunch and right away.
earn a million bucks." Well, I was finally hooked up with Sol
Well, I settled right down in earnest Bippua, but the best I could get was a
big and strong enough to take care of my- the chance, but expecting a decent piece from that time on, and it wasn't long be- ten-round no-decision affair. Can you im
self I never could Imagine anything of change just the same. Sol slipped me a fore 1 was earning a nice obese livelihood aghie other pugs roasting me to a dark
more really enjoyable
- . . .
mo coma tae ana R' ?.k-N .VifcVSSNv . vV. VS .VX.VW,
great for the sport
from
know
told
that when I Sa2fe?VlV Bi.Ci:-iQ' I guess 1
just one big. VlX 4'
gjumble.
fight night at o.SVi-vSS-7 - TCieSfe& SjSSO. .
started
seemed
meanin
Each
'the old Eureka Club
after I was about 10
years old little Bud
could be seen standing
outside asking every
pug passing into the
arena: "Let's carry
your grip, mister?"
In this way I got to
- know all the glove
pushers and witnessed
boxing matches free;
and as I grew older I
got the opportunity to
Jump Into the ring
not to box, but to
swing a towel and rub
the weary limbs of
some of the perform -era
It was while I was
playing second that I
first ran across Mr. Sol
Suddenly Bippas let fly a haymaker that caught McCloskey on the
point of the jaw and laid him back over the ropes in his own corner.
brown because of my luck? That's what
happened, though. After working bard
every day, practicing always, fighting
everything that came along, and taking
some artistic trimmings. Just as soon as X
grabbed a bout with the champion they
called me lucky.
you before that Bippus
was as fast as a jack
rabbit within the roped
arena and one of the
trickiest i-ugilurts that
ever put on a mitt. Well,
he hadn't lost anything
when I met him, and
opportunities to slam
him were as scarce as
true charity between so
ciety ladies.
Young O'Brien called
him the Old Fox. ' and
the name fitted him like
a coat of paint, as you
will agree when I hand
you this account of our
little argument, written
by Billy Murphy:
"Young Bud McClos
key, a lad not yet 19
years of age, proved a
Tartar to Champion Sol
Bippus in a ten-round
bout at the Eureka A. C.
last night. McCloskey
fairly tied Bippus Into knots with scien
tific boxing of a high order and easily out
pointed the Englishman by it wide margin.
"It was the first time Bippus was out
pointed In a local ring. In young McClos-
Bippns, the English
champion, and collected the grouch that
later sent me after the laurels of the
Briton.
Bippus was booked to box Young tbm aim.., Urge, juicy 10-cent piece, with my mitts. And you can take it from key he found a boxing enigma he was un-
Q'Brien one night, and I laid for the the tentn ot wnjt t was usually paid me that I had to fight some to get the able to solve. Bud was like a bounding
bjooming blmker outside of the club and by the preijminary boya. money, for In those days .you 'couldn't ball on his feet and circled Bippus at all
coaxed him to take me In. My cup of "Say, Bippus," I says, "I thought the haul down the long green as you can do it times, sending in smashing- Books, swings,
happiness slopped over when he stripped originai tightwad was the fellow that now. uppercuts and back-bad punches till the
for action and asked me to swing a towel the tipa OI his shoelaces and sold On the level, the prize fighter's job was English champion was wild with rage and
for him. them for old iron, but you put it all over not so soft. The modern fighter ought to totally bewildered by the avalanche of
Now, Champion Bippus had a rotten m." Pt himself on. the back and accept his alien fists.
' opinion of managers and seconds. He had Well, take it from me, I got everything personal congratulations that he was not
that was coming to me, and then some, mixing it in those days.
a manager, Dan McCabe, a former boxer,
l- hat Dan cut a very small figure. Sol could
not appreciate the value of a mentor, who
was ready to divide his earnings in the
ring.
He claimed that if his fighting ability
was worth so much money be was enti
tled to the lion's share, and he believed
, he knew enough about the game to pick
. his antagonists. He bad a high opinion of
v his own methods of milling.
Besides yours respectfully, he had
ni-luk Oil ten and S narrow Golden in his
comer two wise birds in the art of the
manly. Of course I .wasn't expected to
ladle out any advice, but before the bout
this was what Bippus said:
"I don't want any advice from you fel
lows. One of you Just fan me and have
Mr. Bippus passed me a wallop In the
nose that broke that section of my scen
ery, and cuffed me around his dressing
room until I -dropped to the floor all but
dead. He had things all his own way. I
couldn't have hit him then if I had tried,
and Gillen and Golden had gone out as
soon as they were paid off.
It was a sweeping, unequivocal victory
for the EDglish champion sure enough.
Like the man trying to make an honest
dollar, he hadn't any competition.
To take a punch at S1 Bippus at that
stage of the game would have been too
much like trying to wipe a lump of ice
dry on a hot day, so I just assembles all
my scattered parts and says meekly:
, I know I would rather win a battle and
not receive a cent than lose and receive
hundreds. I was out to fight, and I was
out to win, and I fought many a finish
fight with skin-tight gloves for less money
"McCloskey's defense was impregnable
and Bippus in his rage bit him repeatedly
on the neck and kidneys to force him to
draw down his guard. The crowd booted
and booed the champion for this kind of
fighting.
"Up to the clghfefrround there was noth-
tlian the present-day pugs get or a six- lng to It but McCloskey. Then the Eng-
round bout.
There were just as many crooks in the
game, I'll admit, but they were not getting
to quite as many of the scrappers as in
the days that have dawned since I retired.
I fought on the streets, in stables, on
ferry-boats, In gartetjs wherever there
lishman caught bim by & trick. Along
toward the end of the round, when Sol was
feeling groggy from excessive punishment
he had taken from the start, he grabbed
McCloskey by the arms and sliouted:
" There's the bell. Bud!'
"McCloskey instantly turned toward his
was a purse to be won by using the mitts corner. Bippas with a smile knocked hira
I was on the job. I had to keep busy; big
purses were as rare as a good restaurant,
and managers who fed you for talking
Some day, old top, I'm going to lick you through the sporting pages were as hard
the lemon peel ready while the kid is rub- within an inch of your life, and don't you
blcg my legs, and the other can sponge ever try to forget it."
my face and neck. But that's all. I'll do Sol made some crack about it being
the thinking for ail of uaj' "quite too beastly impossible, don't you
I've got to hand it to the bounder; he know," and I evaporated. Next morning
was some fighter. I believe that Young Billy Murphy prints this in his paper:
O'Brien, who was anything but a slob, "In the person of Sol Bippus, English
complained to his handlers that Sol was champion, poverty faces the most, ener-
hlttlng him with a shot-filled hose. Be- getic and unrelenting foe which it
'fore the end of the third round Mr. O'Brien erer encountered.
had taken all of the medicine his system Billy took this crack at the Briton be-
; would bold, and for the rest of the six- cause I told him about the 10-cent ip
round session he made any records that business and the little reprimand that had
tha first battle of Bull Bun produced look been banded to me in . the champion's
like the funeral march of the Crippled dressing-room.
' Consumptives' Band. "1 hope you'll make good soma day."
This was the night before Thanksgiv- says Billy. "I'd like to see that cheap
ins. I remember, for Billy Murphy, one skate murdered in the ring."
of the beat and squarest sporting editors "That's just where Tm roing to km
that ever boosted a boxer, said O'Brien him, Mr. Murphy,".! says. "Toucan take
against the ropes with a right swing, and
was on hhn like a tiger before he could re
cover his dased senses.
"McCloskey stalled the round through,
but the effects oi the swing were lasting,
and the balance of the fight was all the
Englishman' a
"In the ninth and tenth rounds Bippus
was a whirlwind. He sent punches in Mc
Closkey from all angles by the aid of aide
steps, shifts and bghtninglike dashes.
"In the final round he rocked McCSos-
to find as yesterday's paper.
I give it to you straight, I got my share
of the fights, and, like Oliver Twist, asked
for more. y
But while I was always ready to wipe
'up the circumjacent real estate with any
thing in shoe leather, as Billy Murphy put
it, I never lost sight of the fact that my
has sole aim in life was to get a fight with Sol key with right and left swings and made
Bippus and kick the eternal sawdust out him cover up 'and held on for dear Jlfe.
of him. The bell unquestionably saved Bud from a
I boxed the boxers and slugged with knockout
the sluggers, and there wasn't a whole lot "Both boys tipped the beam at less than
in the light game that wasn't used ot mi 133 pounds ringside.'
at one time or another; and the best ef it Some of the sporting writers gave the
was, I was, a guy who could learn a whole fight to Bippus because he wore the belt,
lot through the medium of a licking. Take it from me, the fellow who fights s
I seldom let the same guy slaughter me champ is always at a disadvantage
twice in the same place, as you might say. Writers, and even referees, lean toward a
and it got to be a saying that whenever title-holder..
did not attend services next day because it from me, there's nothing goingno give Bud McCloskey dropped-a fisht he wasa You may really beat a champion, 'out.