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Show INFLUENZA EPIDEMIC PLAYING HAVOC WITH ALL KINDS OF SPORTS Boxing Game Hard Hit by Malady; Many Important Impor-tant Contests Throughout Country Postponed Until "Flu" Has Spent Its Force; Eddie Coulon, Clever Bantamweight, Doing His Bit for Uncle Sam. By T. S. ANDKEWS. i .Special to The Tribune. MILWAUKEE. Wis., Oct. 19. The spread of Spanish influenza throughout the country has played havoc with sports of all kinds, as well as theatricals, etc., and the loss has been considerable. The boxing game has suffered to a large extent ex-tent and many shows which had been ar-fesnged ar-fesnged for, in the middle west especially, have been called off on account of the prevalence of the disease. As a result the usual October openings will be de-laed de-laed until November, or until the "flu" hns spent its force. In t li e middle west clubs in Milwaukee, Racine, Hudson, Peoria, Toledo and other Bns had planned openings for this Booth, but the spread or the disease aaused all the clubs to lay off until later. J Not only in the west, but also in the east has i boxing been affected, tor several big matches in New Jersev, Philadelphia. Buffalo and Boston have Seaii called off on the same account. The Dedications so far have been that the game will be'better than during 1917. Thoro seems to be a demand for amuse-n-cut of that kind, and wlule there is a shortage of boxers nianv of them beine- in real estate. Nelson tried to make a thriving city out, of a burg called Hege-wisch, Hege-wisch, near Chicago, and buried his money there; while Wolgast invested in lands near Los Angeles. The latter investment in-vestment seemed good, but war conditions hurt and the value dwindled so fast that Ad says he can hardly find it now. Nelson has appealed to friends to whom he loaned money in the good old davs (J.oO.OOO he says) and which would come in handy now. but they do not respond. Bat no doubt gave away a lot of monev, but like all of his kind, it went to those who never had any thought of returning it. The Battler certainly had a lot of money three or four years ago, and there must he some awful poor management to get rid of It so fast, especially when he never drank a drop of intoxicating liquor. Boxers like 1'ackey McFarland, Mike Gibbons and Willie Ritchie took care of their coin and are independent todav. Nelson Nel-son and Wolgast had even better opportunities oppor-tunities and had the coin in their hands They were not spendthrifts like Young Corbett and a few others, but they have proved themselves the poorest kind of managers. Packey McFarland had two real advisors ad-visors when he was getting his money a priest and a well-known banker ' of Chicago. It might be wise for some of the boxers to follow Packcv's lead. ax the front still there are many young ones anxious to make reputations, with others at the army camps who are given permission to box at near-by towns. In this manner some good cards are possible And the fans will no doubt see some real scraps. i The contests at the cantonment camps are always full of action and enjoyed by the soldier and sailor boys, also the thousands thou-sands of outsiders who are permitted to attend them. Even the short three and four round bouts are enjoyable to the spectators. Some have been stopped through influenza, but on the whole the recruits like to have their boxing, whether wheth-er there is illness or not. Former Champs Are Broke. Tt Is a peculiar coincidence that two former world's lightweight champions Ad Wolgast and Battling Nelson should he almost down and out about the samo . time. Nelson has been in a Chicago hospital hos-pital the past week or two with a severe attack of the Spanish Influenza, and broke, while Wolgast has Just recently been able to leave a sanitarium in M II-waukee II-waukee and reports that, although he lias a lot of money tied up, he is very shy of funds. These two men were quoted to be worth more than $250,000 each only a few years ago, and, strange tn say, both of them have lost fortunes by poor speculations Coulon JJoing His Bit. Eddie Coulon, one of the cleverest bantamweights ban-tamweights ever turned out of New Orleans, Or-leans, is battling with Uncle Sam's forces In France, having gone over some time ago without any hurrah. Eddie was considered a bov of real class and was in line for the title at one time but he seemed to lack the stamina when it came to a long contest. He fought the best bantams In the country and was advancing ad-vancing rapidly toward the top when taken ill. After that he appeared to lose some of his staying qualities, but not his cleverness. Eddie is of French descent, his correct name being Edgar Francois, and he was born in the south In 1$&5. Other southern boxers who enlisted with Coulon are Billv Jingles, Young Brown, Kid Gago and Battling Minor but they were not accepted for overseas duty when Eddie was passed on. Eddie won over such lads as Pal Moore, Chick Hayes, Earl Puryear and Dick ."Load man. Ho always wanted to meet Johnny Coulon, but the mutch was never arranged. He also fought two ten-round battles with Johnny Ertle, the latter having hav-ing tho shade once and the other a close draw. While Eddie is on the other side he may have a chance to get on with Jimmy Wilde, the sensational British flyweight, as he Is only about US pounds, and the little, Welsh demon has been taking boys of greater weight. The death of Matty Baldwin at his home In Boston last week takes awav one of the best and most populax lightweights ever developed in the Hub citv. He was not a champion, but he fought all of the stars and champions in the lightweight class for the past ten years or more and, what Is more, he gave them a battle every time he got: into the ring. Matty was an Irish-American and iust 3- years of age. Iris last real battle was. in IMS, when he was beaten by another New England lightweight, Harrv Carlson in a twelve-round contest. Matly fought the English champton-Jem Driscoll, Owen Moral), Matt Wells. Preddv Welsh when they were at their best. "He met such tough ones back in the early J SCO's as Kid Goodman, Johnny Summers, Billy Griffm, Young Donahue, Tommy Murphy ( hesler Goodwin, and later such stars as ,J,,Man?,l,',A1 """dast, Battling Nelson, Willie Ritchie. Mllbtini Savior, Charlie White, Young Shugrue, Willie Beecher. Gilbert Gallant, Leach Cross, Jack Brit- ton. Eddlo Murphy and others. .'lo a fight with Johnny Harvey In 1915 Matty broke a rib, but continued fighting until the referee made him stop. He began be-gan to decline after that and In October of tile same year was stopped by Charlie YS hite at Boston In one, round Two months later he tried to come back against Fred Telle at Providence, but was beaten In twelve rounds, and Ihe following follow-ing year, 1916, he was beaten bv his townsman, Harry Carlson. He then made up his mind to quit the game. He was a game lad and never quibbled about weight. In 1907 he was 1o have met a. good lightweight tn Milwaukee bul the one at first selected could not he had "Just get any two local boys vou want " said Matty, "and I will fight the two of them In the same ring." Jimmy Clabbv who later became famous as a middleweight, middle-weight, and a boy, named Billv Roche were picked and fought Mattv that night Matty won from Clabby on a foul In the fourth round. More Commissions Needed. Boxing commissions, like all other commissions, com-missions, are of benefit to the public at large when the right men are In charge This fact was demonstrated on two ac-casions ac-casions recently. Tn New Jersey, where the new boxing law recently went Into effect, there had been considerable (rouble at the oren-alr arenas In handling the rrowds. At the Fred Fulton-Jack Dempsey contest the crowd In the bleachers broke through and occupied reserved seats In the higher-priced higher-priced sections, the park policemen an-parently an-parently paying little attention to the rush. At the Ted Lewls-Bennv Leonard fight in Jersev the same thing happened again. This time Chairman John Smith nf the boxing commission entered the ring and announced to the spectators and promoters pro-moters alike that there would be nn contest con-test until every man with a reserved seat coupon had been taken care of and seated. There Were howls of (Wfeln, Mr. Smith never wavered. He won' out ;md the disturbers were oblhffid to go back where they belonged. The ohancea are tho promolrj; will guard against anv repetition of that kind next time. In Milwaukee, when the influenza sweep started, tho boxing game was the first to bo hit. A show was hilled for Friday night, but an order was sent out Tuesday Tues-day tn caU nff the show, hut no such order had been given to any other amusement amuse-ment place. It was then that Chairman W. IT. Liginger of the state commission look a hand and insisted that nn discrimination discrim-ination be shown. lie did not ;yk for any favor mere.lv to be treated falrlv as others expected. When Hie health commissioner tfnflerptoool Cpndll Ions he readily agreed wilh Chairman I, linger, and every! hi 1 ig was worked out nicely. it goes to show, tewever, that the boxing box-ing game needtj '0 com missions and ni'irc m lf ;v h fn'criilni' flic, unnrf |
