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Show i . I An Interview With Mr. Monahan ! By RING W. LARDNER. Information in the Program (Copyright. 1919, by Bell Syndicate, Inc.) TOLEDO. Ohio. July 2. Gents: Yesterday Yes-terday 1 wandered out to the spot where Willard and Dempsey Is supposed to be dolnr their training, but the first other expert I run yuo was a bird tnat said Dempsey wns all through with his training and the big fellow might do a couple of rounds today and n couple more tomorrow and then he would be through and I wns afraid my heart couldn't stand the excitement so I didn't so in and walch him work. Instead of thnt I Btood outside and 1 bought a souvenir program of the big riot eel down under a snad tree and read what It had to say. l-fut 1 almost forgot to say that before I bought the program ! the bird that was selling them says "We i have only got forty thousand of the pro- , ; grams and will not sel! more than one to I any indl idual." So I told him I wanted I five for inys.df and he said nil right and wuh going to slip me five but all of a I sudden decided that one was all 1 could i take with any degree of comfort. So I come back to the hotel set down I in a quilt corner and read it over and I will take the liberty of quoting one of the : most Impressive paragraphs. "In the raft two years he (Dempsey) has met nnd defeated fifty of America's lending heavy weights, some of whom I were as large hr Jess Willard." WKLU gents. I hold no brief against Jiu-k iHMnpsey. but I want to challenge chal-lenge you gents to name fifty of America's b-iiding hn vy weights and when you get through with thnt trivial task. 1 want you to tell me the names of some who was as large na J'm Willard. Another striking paragraph says. "I.Ike j Hob Fitr.slmmons, Jack Dempsey says the ; larger they nre the harder they fall." dents, I never thought that ndage originated origi-nated with Old Hob nnd I thought U was sprung by David just before he give ' ( ;ollath the rnzz, but a prison learns something every dav, especially In To- ledo. Well, gents, before T left the hotel to i go out to the training ramps, a bird from ' tin big automobile factory here said he j was going to hhve us all out to lunch nnd soe how their rnr wns mnde, hut I know It is made without looking, so 1 wandered over to the cigar counter and there was i Ruth behind the counter and in front of the counter was Mr. Monaghan. one of j the big fellow's spooning partners. CO I asked him had be been Interviewed yet and he said no, and I interviewed him and here is what he said: "Jess is in better shape now than when he fought Moran. This bird Dempsey run out at Kulton and knocked him for a goal with two socks, one in the stomach and one in the Jaw. Weil, let him come running out like that at Jess and the light may last twelve rounds, but Jack won't know-nothing know-nothing about the last eleven of them. "Wednesday is the last time he boxes. I hope. I have been in there catch. ing what he pitched since he got here from the coast, and I guess I ought to know-he know-he ran bit. lie told me once he says, they's nobody in the world that ran beat me now, Walter, but as soon as this is well over, we will go around the world and stay till I am SO years old and then we will come back to the I'nited States and find out if they have got a- good heavyweight here and 1 will lick him if he's alive or dead.' 44THAVK been in the ring with Willard several times and I feel as safe there as if I was riding Ktermal across Niagara Falls on tight rope. Why. say, if this bird Jumps out of that corner and tries to give us the one-round Kulton proposition, he will wind up the fight in tho first round and the governor won't have to stop in and stop U. "He don't have to beat these guys. He can Just slay in there and let them bt-at themselves. Ymi take a man with his strength nnd the length of his arms and the more you try to do something to him the tireder you got, nnd it don't get you nothing but abuse. Why, say. I am in better shape than ever I was in my life, and when I g't ihuuigh two rounds with him I'm ready to drop dead." Well, gents. I haven't talked yet with none of IVmpsoy's sparring partners because be-cause they don't never come around the hotel nnd you can't expect the mountain to go to Jamaica or Hill Tate. Hut if they would come around this quiet hotel I would interview them and we would get the Dempsey side of it. provided they eoine around when I wasn't busy playing my golf match with Hnbe O old berg' for the ridiculous championship of Toledo. |