| OCR Text |
Show LAVIGNE AWAITS DEATH IN ASYLUM (BY ABE POLLOCK ) Gcorgo Lavlgno, tho famous "Saginaw "Sagi-naw Kid," former lightweight champion cham-pion of tho world, and one of the gamcHt men that over entered tho roped arona, hay been sent to tho asylum for tho Insane at Dearborn, Wayne county, Michigan, a short tils- . tanco from Detroit. Ho will in all probability spend tho romaindcr of j his days In tho asylum. What n bright and glorious career he had, and how ho could fight A veritable ring demon, one who swopt everything before him until until ho hit tho toboggan, then his days ns a top-notchor wero numbered. Ho ' started to box In 1889 at Saginaw. j Mich. His first fight resulted In a draw, after 77 rounds, with Gcorgo B Slddons. Tho showing he made in M this go caused him to be dubbed th) B "Saginaw Kid." After that ho whip- R pod ovcryono ho faced. Tho result ' B was that thin wonderful fighting ma- B chine hnd to go out of his class in ' B order to got matches. B Ho was matched to fight Joo Wol- B cott at Mnspeth, I-ong Island. It was B a sort of a handicap match. If La- fl vlgnc was on his feet at the end of ' B 15 rounds It wan ngreed thru ho B should got tho decision. Ho not only B remained on hiB feot for tho limit hut 1 B he gave Wolcott one of the most ter- B rlblc beatings that ever foil to tho lot j B! (Continued on Pngo Five.) ffif uu (Continued from Page Two.) of that worthy. Ho afterward knocked knock-ed Wolcott out in 12 rounds at San Francisco. Lavlgno was an eccentric character indeed, a man who made a fortune through his wonderful prowoss in the ring, but he never looked Into the future fu-ture He Bpent It as fast as he earned earn-ed it the result is that he is broken in puree, spirit and montality, to say nothing of what a sad shadow he is now physically compared to the wonderful won-derful Lavlgne of 15 years ago. Tho strange hand of fate has played a very peculiar game with the lives of famous boxers, especially so In tho case of "Lavigne, and his most worthy rival, "Young" Grlffo. Ono of the strangest coincidences is that these two should meet with 9uch an untimely untime-ly ending. Just a few days ago v.e received reportB that Grlffo hud been renteuced to Blackwell's Inland, In New York, for begging on the streot. Both made and squandered a fortune for-tune in the piize ring They nevor had the brains and business ability such as some of our present day fighters fight-ers possess They Journeyed through life and lived by the way. The result re-sult Is that today both are physical wrecks, waiting the grim reaper to put an end to their earthly careB. I remember the time when Lavlgno mot Eddlo Meyer at Dana, 111., about 20 years ago. Eddie was a brother of Billy Meyer, the Streator, 111., cyclone, cy-clone, who was under the management manage-ment of "Big Alt" Konnedy, at that time one of the best known sportsmen sports-men in tho country. A party of friends and myself journeyed to Dana from Chicago with a switch engine and caboose to seo the boys go. They met about 5 o'clock in tho morning and Lavigne won after 22 roundB of terrific fighting. I also remember the time whon he fought Griffffo at the old "Battery D" in Chicago. And what a fight it was ono of the hardest sluggers against the cleverest boxers that tho world ever produced. Lavigne tore like a wild man after the shifty Australian for eight rounds and the referee declared de-clared the contest a draw, much to the satisfaction of the large crowd present. They afterward met for 20 rounds at Maspeth, L I., with the same result a terrific battlo to a draw. |
