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Show TIIE 11A01N TOWN. The Hercules Who Posed as the Stopping Block for the Mighty Champion at f $100 a Week. RANCH LIFE VS. THE ABENA. No Longer the Pink of Pugilistic Fashion But a Frontiersman Sporting the most familiar of "familiars" would have recognized the man who ambled into a restaurant this morning with his broad shoulders and compact trunk encased in a pea jacket that resembled re-sembled a reminiscence of the revolution, revolu-tion, a pair of weather-beaten trowsers and a foot the size of a canvassed ham, as Herbert Slade, the Maori, who, a few years ago, was the pink of pugilistic fashion and who, in the splendor which all that broad term implies, was regarded re-garded as "quite a ladies' man." It was the same Maori, however, notwithstanding not-withstanding the contrast between tho days gone by and the present. His good nature and natural affability, however rugged it may still be, have not been altered in the flight of time. Neither have his ponderous shoulders or the massive mauleys that have lavished lav-ished love taps so frequently upon the chest of the illustrious John L. At that time tho Maori was engaged in impersonating tho character of Stopping Block in the Sullivan aggregation aggre-gation of bruisers, for which he was drawing $500 a week. It was a meteoric me-teoric elevation in the world of finance. He was found away down in New Zealand chasing the wild bear and taken from his obscurity wiiii iit'iii Buu isii-u iiimi 111a uusuiuiiv simply to receive and stand under the pile driving blows of tho champion. No one envied him his job. There was no underhand work to oust him. The profesh seemed perfectly willing that he should occupy it as a life long heritage heri-tage and the Maori endured the muscular muscu-lar tax until he got sufficient money in his leather "kick" to enable him to retire to a sheep ranch a few miles distant dis-tant from this city. He has given up the thrill of the prize ring, the excitement excite-ment of the stage and the clamors of the hilarious multitude who could recognize a point when it was landed. He has reconciled himself to ranch life. The bleating lamb aud tinkling bell are music to bim, far sweeter than the plaudits of a riotous audience who cheered because he only staggered that he did not fall to earth when the mighty Sullivan landed his fierce blows and desolating swings. Herbert was not much of a tighter on dress parade but he was a huricane when a rough-on-tumble opened, a fact that was asserted when after a family quarrel in the combination he met John L. in a saloon and laid him out. It was a feat no one had ever performed nor has it been accomplished ac-complished since. The Mauri looks rugged and full of vitality. He will never re-enter the arena, but will continue con-tinue to devote himself to ranch life and an occasional excursion to Zion, where he has a number of friends. Hank Stewart, the heavyweight, has gone on tho staff of the World's Fair, and will alternate with Captain Lange in putting Mike Sullivan, the coining champion of all champions, through a course of sprouts before his advent in the arena as a professional sparrer. The new candidate for tho world's championship is getting himself down to mechanical work and sweat enough is lost each morning to lay the dust on an autumn day. The postponement of the Dixon-Mc-Carthy fight for the bantora-weight championship through magisterial interference in-terference is regarded by local sporting men as simply a job on the part of Chief Donovan of Jersey City to get the tight over in that jurisdiction where he has a "rake-off ' from all such events. The fight will take place, no doubt about that. Captain Lange is in receipt of a letter from La Blanche, who says he has trained down to within a few pounds of the weight at which he is to meet young Mitchell on the 24th inst. He feels confident con-fident of winning, more so in fact than the sports who have had a recent sample of his conduct. a |