Salt Lake Tribune | 1918-02-03 | Page 26 | John L. Sullivan

JOHN L. SULLIVAN. No editor who flatters himself that he1 treats of the most important events of the day, could afford to ignore the death of John L. Sullivan, "the greatest great-est fighter that ever lived." Thirty years ago he was the most famous man in the United States, although al-though the public occasionally talked about Grover Cleveland and James G. Blaine. Among the boys of that day such lofty characters as Cleveland and Blaine were about as remote as the holy mountain of Japan, but Sullivan was their hero and idol. 'Sometimes, for the sake of argument, one would extol the merits of a rival fighter and try to explain away his defeat at the hands of Sullivan. But it required courage to question the supremacy of a fighter who had come to be a national na-tional institution.. Sullivan was the elemental fighting man. In the ring he asked no quarter and gave none. He did not understand the fancy devices of boxing and ring generalship which later proved his undoing un-doing at the hands of a young man who was more of a pugilistic artist than a fighter. But Sullivan was in middle life then; he was fat from high living and liquor, and he scornfully refused re-fused to train as intensely as he had usually trained when he was to meet a mighty antagonist. Sullivan's tour of the country in the early eighties was perhaps the most sensational pugilistic event in history. He dared all comers and. knocked out fifty men. There was none that could stand against him, for at that time he was gamer, more skillful and a harder hitter than any other fighter on the globe. But if Sullivan had been simply a fighter and nothing more, he would never have won the place he occupied in the hearts of men ajid boys all over the land. And when we try to describe what it was that made Mm a national idol it is somewhat difficult, for in his life's prime his virtues were not much in evidence. evi-dence. He was just as hard a drinker as he was a fighter, and when he was in his cups even his friends avoided him as they would have avoided an escaped tiger. But John L. Sullivan was "on the square." He would no more sell out than Cleveland or Blaine would sell out. He was as true to his fighting ideals as they were true to their ideals of statesmanship. He nearly always had his battle won when his opponent stepped into the ring, for he was the very embodiment of tremendous force and agility, and the terrified opponent knew that it was to be a "fight to the death." Sullivan's squareness was an excellent excel-lent quality, but even that does not account for his popularity. Wherever he went the prominent men of a city were fond of giving him a banquet to show that they considered him quite an American character. And Sullivan, when called upon for a speech, would make a hit by rising and saying in a gruff voice: "I can't make a speech and I can't sing a song, but I can lick any man in the house." It was after Sullivan had been defeated de-feated that people began to understand under-stand why they had liked him. They discovered in him virtues which had always existed, but which had been eclipsed by his glory as a fighter. He had always been chivalric, in spite of his ferocity, and he had always been generous. It is estimated that he earned ,2, 000,000 out of the prize ring, and that he spent $1,000,000 of it for drinks and feasts for himself and his friends. For a time he conducted a saloon, but he gTew to hate liquor and took the pledge and kept it. In his later years he was a teetotaler, and the will power that made him absolutely fearless fear-less as a fighter gave him the victory over that old champion, "Demon Rum." 'Moreover, he was a philosopher of the "Dooley" type, and he was wideband wideb-and deservedly quoted for his rough but wise and witty comments on common com-mon events of life. It was a tragedy for the whole country coun-try when Sullivan was defeated by Corbet Cor-bet t. Sullivan was the primitive fighting fight-ing man, and he appealed to the primitive primi-tive instincts in mail. When he was in a fip'ht he never thought of dancing a.va-,- from his opponent as did Oorbett. He was willing to take blows to give them. And the country felt that when the old champion was defeated a I real fighter had been overthrown bv a cunning youngster, who comiareJ with j him as a fox compares with a lion.