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Show m ; a .1 i. . . ' . I I John L. Their Idol " I H "When I first wont to Tahiti," Raid 1 a traveler from tho South Seas, "I M landed on ono of tho roninto Inlands. m Tho first night 1 wont In stnto to visit L tho chief, Bk "Ho waR a lino old follow, fully 6 B foot 2 in height, nnd n man ovory inch H of him. I hnpponod to know pcoplo H who had lived on his island for a f timo. Through fin interpreter ho m nsked mo nil kinds of questions about HT thorn if they wero well, if tholr hair wns getting gray, how much monoy H they had, otc. Then conversation H languished. H "At length I heard him repeating to H tho interpreter n word thnt sounded H ' lllto 'Yonclsulwnn. Tho Interpreter H isccmed to catch It finally. Ho said: H "'Ho wnnts to know how is John H ,L. Sulllvan7 Is ho fighting as hard as ever?' " . '"Oh, no,' I said truthfully. 'John M !. Sullivan isti't chnmplon any moro. H IIo was hoatcn by n big man from tho H yVcnt, nnd a man from tho Dig islands HJ beat that man, nnd another big man H from tho West beat him.' H ' When this wns told to tho chief ho H looked mo all over and said something H iin a Tory posltivo tone. H . "'Ho tolls mo said tho Intorpro- M itor, 'that ho doesn't bollovo you. Ho H thinks you don't lllto John L. Sulli- 1 .van.' H "Everywhere I went on tho islands M ;lt was tho samo story. When thoy found that I wns nu American they nil asked for John L. "Somo of them know who wns president pres-ident of tho United States, though most of thorn who had any ideas on tho subject thought It was Cleveland. But ovory ono thought ho know who was champion of tho world. In several sever-al nativo huts I found llttlo old-fashioned prints of tho Boston boy. "It nppcnra thnt tho AmerlcnnH first began to coino in numbers to tho islands isl-ands about tho timo when John L. wns supposed.to bo unbeatable. Theso Americans Introduced tho boxing gnmo. "It was a great hit. Every nativo wanted to learn. And whon tho Americans told of their great champion cham-pion tho natives took it all In antt mado him a tribal tradition. "It's a study In tho growth of legend. If thoy aron't killed off by clothes and consumption, I suppose they'll have him a kind of on Odin some day. "Whon nn American bcachcombor strikes thoso shores, ho has to put on tho gloves with tho natives. If ho can't beat them, thoy'vo no ubo for him. "Luckily, tho natives aro about as poor with tho gloves as thoy mako 'em. It doosn't tako much of a beachcomber beach-comber to whip tho champion of Tahiti. Ta-hiti. That fact saves tho faces of our countrymen." |