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About The Oregon daily journal. (Portland, Or.) 1902-1972 | View Entire Issue (May 14, 1916)
10 point him and everything, but in the great majority of cases you will get nothing bet ter than a draw, if you get that. Any ref eree will hesitate about taking away a title, so almost the only way to get the verdict is to knock the champion cold. Of course I was ashamed of myself for letting the Briton maul me through a trick, but some wise guy once said experience is a great teacher, and I was glad I stayed the limit, because it meant that I would have another bout with him. "That's two beatings you owe me," says Bippus to me, after it's over. "If they have you on with me again, old soldier, you'll owe me three." "I'll pay my debts, Mr. Bippus," says I. "I guess you didn't find this last discus sion quite as easy as the dressing-room af fair." "Not quite," he says: "but I'll make the next session your farewell appearance in any ring." Strangely enough, a good portion of the fight fans and critics thought I stood no more chance with Bippus than snowflakes before the sun, and did not hesitate to say so. Naturally this did not get me any thing, for when I asked for another try at the champ the Eureka management grinned and said they couldn't afford to pay a consistent loser, ' "We can put you on .for the picture money," they told me, and then proceeded to explain that a moving picture concern which desired pictures of the English champion in action might be induced to let me have 25 or $50. The Eureka manage ment had to pay Bippus too much money for his appearance to add anything to this, so I was told to take it or leave it. I took it, so the match was made for ten rounds. I hurried off to Billy Murphy with the news. "Bud," says Billy sadly, "they've pulled one across on you, or my name is Sweeney. The only time Sol Bippus ever fought be fore a moving picture machine was when he met 'Dutch' Wick. He loves to pose just loves it so he didn't put "Wick away in the early part of the fight, as he could have easy enough, but just let things drag along until Wick got his strength back. Then with Bippus carelessly posing for the pictures Dutch come across with a knock out. After that Sol swore he'd never fight for the films again. 'J "But there'll be lots of money in it for him, Billy," I says; "and you know what a high regard he has for the current coin of the realm." "Even so," says Billy; "but I can't be lieve there's a chance of him standing for the film company getting in on it. I think they've got you signed up to fight for noth ing wbehi the time comes." And Billy was right. A tail, sallow complexioned gent by the name of Mark Nubim came to me in my dressing-room on the night of the fight and asked me if I had any objections to fighting before the movie camera. "None in the world," says I, "seeing I'm not getting a 4-cent piece anywhere else." "I am sorry for you, young feller," he says, "but Bippus has made a monkey out of you and out of me. He didn't say any thing until tonight. Then, after I'd got here with my men and the machine to take the pictures, he told me flat that he wouldn't fight for the films. "I'm Mark Nubim, president of the Nu bim Film Company, and I increased my offer of $300 to 600; but I couldn't reach him. When I asked him why he wouldn't stand for the camera he called me names that a bucko mate wouldn't use on a deaf paralytic. "He seems to think he's the kind of champion that comes in a base by him self, packed in cotton and Invoiced sep arately. I asked him to name his figure, and he only cursed me the more. Now we will only take outside pictures of the crowd and Bippus after the fight's over." "Mr. Nubim," I Bays, "it's not money but conceit that prevents him from giving his classic postures to the movies. 'And he may ret a little bliss out of th fact that I agreed to go into this thing for the picture money." THE SUNDAY FICTION MAGAZINE, MAY 14, 1916. "Well," says Mr. Nubim, "I didn'fknow smashes, the Impact of which was heard they had you tied up like that; but I'll tell in the farthest corner of the arena. Try you what I'll do: You lick Sol Bippus and as I would, I could not escape these on- I II give you that $50 just the same as if slaughts, although I laughed at him and we took the pictures." told him he wasn't hurting me a little bit. I couldn't wait till I' got that English- "You'll feel 'em after a while."- he says, man into the ring after that; and the smiling as best he could with his puffed opening bell was as welcome to me as hot face and split lips. soup on a cold day. I started off feinting, "I'm having the time of my life," I tells jabbing, and blocking, and'I wasn't taking him, pecking his phiz to pieces all the the chances of a tinhorn gambler with while. loaded dice. His big, blond face was gashed and "You're a pretty husky young chap," bruised; his lips were torn, and his nosj says Bippus, starting in to josh me; "but trils filled with blood. His protruding chin a Teal champion has to have brains as glistened with the gore that welled over well as brawn." his lips, but he kept winking in a joshing "Well," I comes back at him, "some manner at his seconds, who were dancing champions are getting along with sgJUttle around and yelling like Comanches. of either I still have hopes." "Your hopes may Bud; they won't never blossom," he says. At the end of the ninth round Sol pulls You see, he thought he had quite a del- ms rally He ripped in a blow that seemed Icate wit. Sickly, I called it. t0 take mv last breath and go through my "You'd better play close to the cushion," stomach like a bayonet; and as I stood, he teased. "You're a fair boxer. open-mouthed, dazed for the time being, "Passing fair," I declared," jabbing him ne clipped me on the jaw with his right, in the mouth; "passing fair. And others the first Punch he had landed above the I know are already past. Get me?" And shoulders for several rounds. " I shook him up with a nice right uppercut Down I goes to my knees, and when I that brought the tears to his eyes. came up-without taking the count he was "Don't spoil my beauty" he says. "This on top of me like a thousand brick. Fight is the only face I got." ing like a tiger, he began to volley with "Sol," says I, "you're mighty near out both gloves. My head was tilting and of face. It's a good thing you turned down jerking under theTmpact of plunging lefts the Nubim picture people. I'm out here or rasping rights, and Sol was going with fighting for nothing just to beat you to a lightning speed and hitting at the right jelly." time when the bell rang. It sure was some "From the way you're peckin' at me," sweet music to me. says he, "I should say you don't hold spite." Well, we took things so easy in the I guess I'll have to let Billy Murphy tell you the rest of it: "The last round resolved itself Into a opening chapters that the crowd started question of the survival of the fittest, Sci- to hiss and shout "Fake!" In the fifth ence was forgotten. The fighters battled round I took the bit in my teeth at the out- all around the ring, head to head, shoulder set, and inside of two minutes I had bat- to shoulder, and slugged away as though tered Sol's face almost to a pulp. My rap- the fight had just began, with the referee id-fire right and left facers, delivered at frantically trying to pull them apart, short range, seldom went wrong, and when "When Bippus staggered to the center the round was over J seemed to have a of the ring for the beginning of the tenth pretty fair chance of winning. round his only hope of winning lay in a Toward the close of the sixth round Sol knockout punch. He had been whipped inflicted considerable body punishment decisively during the last nine round., but that rather slowed me up; but I was mer- his wonderful recuperative powers brought rily pegging away at him in the seventh, him up in almost as good condition as Mc He tried several tricks, thinking to catch Closkey, who was weak and unsteady from me napping, but he sosn found I was wide the terrific pace he had set and the gruel awake and watching with happy interest in& work of the ninth round, all that was going on around me. "Both men swung in one blind blow -f" after another as they charged each other Over and over again I watched for indi- around the ring, with first one and then cations of a left lead and scored in ad- the other doing the chasing. McCloskey vance of him, and when I stood away and dropped the Englishman after a minute of boxed him he was apparently all at sea. fierce fighting, but when Bippus got up he He was as steady as a rock under punish- ran into a clinch. ment and seemed to pin hia faith to a "Bud shook him off, but was in no con-right-hand body punch. dition to take advantage of the situation. Time after time, after being worsted in On the neck, chest and arms Mac show-heart-breaking rallies that carried us from ered useless punches, with Bippus clinch one end of the ring to the other, he would ing and holding on to save himself, reach my body with right and .left "Suddenly Bippus let fly a haymaker Tlhose Spots on the Moon A GREAT many curious ideas exist hi various parts of the world regarding the dark spots in the moon's disk. In the eastern part of Asia the spots are believed to be a rabbit or a hare; the Chinese in particular look upon them as a hare sit ting up and pounding rice in a mortar. Most of the Siamese take the same view. Some few, however, see in the moon a man and woman working in a field. Curi ously, enough, the North American Indians have almost the same superstition as the Chinese, and on old monuments in Central America the moon appears as a jug or vessel, out of which an animal like a rab bit is jumping. The South American Indians, on the other hand, believe that a 'girl who had fallen in love with the moon sprang up ward toward it, was caught and kept by it, and that it is her figure which Is seen on the moon's face. The Samoan Islanders took on the spots as representing a woman carrying a child, and many other southern peoples hare similar beliefs, the woman and child some' times - being altered into an old woman bearing; a burden on tier back. The Eski mos have an original superstition. They say that one day Aniga, the moon, chased his sister, the sun, in wrath. Just as he was about to catch her, however, she sud denly turned around and threw a great handful of soot In his face and thus es caped him, and of that soot he bears the traces to this day. The inhabitants of northwestern India, who account for the moon's monthly dis appearance by declaring that she is burned up regularly and replaced by a fresh moon, explain the dark spots by saying they are the ashes of the former moon. Other nations explain her disappear ance in various ways. The Dakota In "dians have it that she is eaten up by mice; the Polynesian superstition is that the souls of the dead feed on her; accord ing to the Hottentots the moon 'suffers from headache, and when it gets very bad she hides her head with her hand and cov ers up her face from the gaze of the world; the Eskimos maintain .that after shining: for three weeks she gets tired and hungry and withdraws to take one enormous meal after their own fashion, and then reap pears an& begins to shine again. TUT, Mllft'll lnf'lnnl.n.r - I . -. 11. . .if .mi. buvn u niivivDKrjF VII mo fnilUl III VflV- V jaw. and 1, him back over the rones' in - - " . . - - - - . . . . i I i . i uiino MAJJflllfp J .j, ivm .o uuiiif, uiiuvi nun ttllu 45 uniiu a Lu.i t; iii .nis eyes, me I unKee was at the mercy of his foe. J: "Dazed by the punishment ho had taken and crazed by the thought of a possible -. - - victory, Bippus squinted through swollen il. eyes and shook his bloody gloves in an un.'v certain manner as though trying to decide 4" wnicn or me nineteen AiouiosKeys he would worn McCloskey slipped to the floor. "Slowly Bud got up. He reeled, his legs quivering under him, his head wabbling from side to side like a man with the palsy. He forgot all about putting" hia5; Itnnila ., . V. 1 M a i I a iM-Luus up iu uia luio iu protect it, just as ; he overlooked the chance to remain on tha : floor and take the rnunt - ' ' ' oippus, loitering on two legs mat wer - OAttMiAlW ohld , n han . 1.1. . ! 1 1. " J - xjsmi ana unu nxigu.) 1I1H - aged to drive home another right to tha V: jaw. McClOBkey fell in a hear, hia urn..' ' legs, and muscles twitchina convulslvlv. J "After many efforts he finnllv himself to his hands and knees. Nobody thought he . would rise, but by a supreme'- effort he S"Ot lln on tn nnn Unoa ' j ii-o nanus icn nie . nuor ne iosx - all power in his. legs, his brain became' numb and he rolled over to the floor of the' ring, helpless and dead to the world." , - '"J ...... 1 i 1 a. icn BCtUUUII, and in five minutes was as well as ever. Trying to dodge out of the rear entrance of the club, I bumped square Into Bippus bowing, bareheaded, to a wildly cheering throng. "You're the cheapest guy in the bust-,- ness " hp mvb "Vim .,1.1. nn ... r . . i i.,.i. lnc for nothing." You can well imagine I wasn't feeling ., too much like Joshing with him. I tried 4 to get away without any more talk, but 0 e-, - -vw v- v aa.-c hGK a Just then. - "I says." he sneers at me. hlnr Vinr m V vcufcc la u iung iimo coming, you am t got any spite in you. And I think you're ' yellow I'll bet you went out to avoid " punishment." . Can you picture it? Taking an unholy 1 beating-and giving one, too and then being called a quitter by a man you had missed sendintr into lirpnminmi miiv c Vifi ir.lina in -i i- in .1 'I - I The blood shot through me likf red-hot arrows: before I realized what I was do ing T hit Mr. Bippus a whack on the ear. A left hook sent him down on the pave ment, and after that he was kept busy get ting up. There was no bell to save him, no min ute rests in which to recuperate, and my bare knuckles found him an easy mark. What I couldn't accomplish in twenty rounds with the gloves I completed in less than two minutes of rough-and-tumble stuff. 1 I cleaned off the sidewalk with Mr. Sol Bippus and tossed him into the street, the worst licked champion that ever drew breath. They carried him back to his dressing room again, but as I stepped aside for them to pass he raised his head feebly and spoke: "You're chock full of spite, but you're cheap!'' - And I was inclined to agree with him until the next morning, when I received a visit from Mr. Nubim of the Nubim Film Company. "McCloskey," he said, handing me an envelope, "here's my check for 600. You earned every cent of it. The battle in the ring wasn't a circumstance to the one ' on ' the outside, and I'm handing you the champion's end of the picture money. " "Gee, Mr. Nubim!" 1 says, still bewil dered. "You must have got a lot of satis faction out of that street fight!" t "I did," he says, slamming me on the back. "But III get something more thart that. Bud. It was the outside affair we took pictures of!" Coprright by The Frank A. U uas-y Col