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Show -uu GEHRING ONCE WAS A SICKLY YOUTH ( fBy O. E. Ross.) In reading the following story of! Henry Gehring. who is to meet Jack Harbertaon in a wrestling contest in ! this citv at the Orpheum theater on Wednesday night, February 11'. it will be seen what isfonlshing results con- I j tinued physical training; a strong per-I sonality and will power can do for a sickly youth About 11' years ago an uncle of Geh-ring, Geh-ring, Mr. Sinister, during a family! gathering in which Henry was often mentioned, observed that Henry was not as rugged as other youug men j of his age. in fact a visit to the I family physiclnn brought the iacl to light that Henrv was running .nto tuberculosis, and had a very' weak heart After pondering over the situation sit-uation for some time the uncle, upon advice of some of his friends, sav the old physical director .Mark Lamb ot Cleveland O. who. by the way, has! turnesd oul more champions than tne well known Farmer Burns. a after making arrangements with Mr, Lamb. Henry Gehring started to take gymnasium work In the hope of build-1 ing up his body to guard against disease. dis-ease. After Gehring had beoii attending to the regular routine of swinging Indian In-dian clubs, dumbbell exercise and all the different work ivell known to athletes, for abom six months, Geh-j ring asked to tussle about Hie wrestling wres-tling mat for m period of no more il,;)r. i wo minutes at a tune, which was .is long as his weak heart would al-low. al-low. Of course Henry, like all beginners, waa thrown ;i faal ai b oouid get up I by all the midgets in the gymnasium Still nothing was though" ot th:s : cause Gehring had no special de:-1 to become a wrestler, as he .is on!) taking exercise to benefit his health After a year's work In the gymnasium gymna-sium Gehring was practically a different dif-ferent young man, but because bis heart was not Vf, lDe strongest In the world he was not allowed wren tie for periods ranging more thin from 10 to IF, minutes at a time l about this time Mark Lamb, the Instructor, In-structor, noticed that Gehring wa a Vry apt pupil and although noi physically phys-ically fit to cope with the more nig-j K-tl boys, still he possessed the great faculty of remembering evcrvthlni that was shown nip shd rarely bad o be shown .i hold more than OUC to have it perfected. Noi only did he ' remember what he was bhown, biu I h also had thf Ingenuit of inventing invent-ing some holds he was nol shown, and now like evers grem wrestler has seine holds that are entireK his own W bile then ma not be new. still they are manipulated in such a way by . him that his opponents hnrdly ever realize what he is getting al until liie B rs on their back So while Gehring was not quite as ? I rone as might be desired, still be 'had thai von valuable asset head-I head-I work to help him out fter he bad I been allowed to wrestle these ten to Lo minute bouts until he wai1 able to beat any one thai was a member of the club from lightweights to he.i i weights, he was then put up against a young mau from Uuflalo in a 15 minute preliminary bout at the Grr I armory, Cleveland, and In this bour j he made such a great impression bj I winning two falls In less than In minutes th;it the old fans could hardly hard-ly believe their eyes. Of course the wise ones figured that It was only a piece of luck and wanted to be sho n again, so more bouts were arranged Inch were limited to 15 minutes, ind each time Gehring was returned the winner, and he usually did his ' work in such a finished manner as to tonlsh iren hir old instructor Mark ' Lamb After a year of preliminary wres-I wres-I Ming Gehring whs finally selected to I compete in an intercity tournamut I v Ith Buffalo wrestlers In this tourn-ameni tourn-ameni he was pitted againsl the hesi jthat could be found in New York state, as 1n those days the rivalry between Ruffalo and f'leveland wres tiers was at its height 6 there wai considerable betting done on the refill's re-fill's of "hese matches, considerable trickery was indulged In by getting ringers, the best lhat could be found In this particular tournament, while Gehring was known to be good for a short time, still u was figured lhat j If a man could hold him off for n short while he would blow up. When the men got ready to wrestle Ihou-sands Ihou-sands of dollars made their appearance appear-ance on the Buffalo man, who was none other than the great Demon Bartl who at that time was beating everything In this count ry He was entered under nn assumed name, so while Cleveland fans were somewhat dumbfounded to think thai so mm h money was being bet on such a bout, and really w ere skeptical about the result, still some of them had nervo enough to get 8 bet down on Gehring, and when the men started to wrestle wres-tle there certalnlj was some excitement, excite-ment, because the Buffalo crowd knew they had a ringer, while the Clove-landers Clove-landers only knew that they had a ycung man who only a little over two years before was sickly, and who was still practically n novice But this mntch. which is still history, did dol last long In less than 10 minutes Gehring had won the first fall The next one did not last thai long and in about 15 minutes Gehring had ,von the match Bartl was surprised, as were his backers. That was the match which really j made Gehring a bona fide wrestler.! as he had beaten the best man in his j class in the country. Bartl. likemhny others had held Gehring lightly md ' soon iiiiothir m, it'.h was arranged lo.-, I so that Baitl could get In better condition. con-dition. This match was pulled o;r In Lima. 0. and resulted in another; victory lor Gehring, this time after' Henrv had shown his real gaineness and whal can be done when a man1 does not know defeat, In the firsl bout Bartl had Bet tired B loe hold on : I Gehring and with lightning speed he had turned 6ehrlngs ankle oul of joint. In this helpless rendition Geli-' ring continued for a short lime and. .then conceded the fall to Bartl Hurling Hur-ling intermission a doctor was sum-i sum-i moned and the ankle was dressed, I the doctor advising Gehring to forfeit I the match but Henrj could not i! that way, and when time as railed his seconds had 10 carry him into this ring He hopped around on one loot lintil he got to the ( enter of the ring and then went to a Bitting position. Of course Bartl wae '-.(-. r to finish milters In a hurry and wehl righl in niter (iehrlng. and in the mixup winch, followed B.irtl was pinned to the nul 1 The third fall was a repetition of ihr second fall, only thai it lasted long-' er. And in this way Gehring beat lis man with onh one leg to work with and amid greai pain Sun.1 then ( tiring ti-ring has wrestled all the great men ! in this countrv Including Gotch, Beell, Ir Roller aud Wllloughby, In ia I too man) to mention, and has held bit title middleweight champion for more than eight years until last Wed-nefldaj Wed-nefldaj night, when Mike Yokel fin-nulh fin-nulh won from him In a battle that: lasted near) three hours When It conies to speed there has1 never been a middleweight who could hold him own with Gehring a'hd thin combined with his great bead work, makes him one of the greatesi wresr tiers of modern times His bout with Prank Goi I. a-really a-really amusing. Gotch was told to j be careful with Gehring, as he w as j not ver strong and of course Gotch I tried to please both factions by winning win-ning the bout and also by being gentle gen-tle with his opponent So he plne. with Gehring for a while until he bad cnl ten minutes left to throw him in. Then be became serious and for-got for-got to be gentle and while Gehring lasted the time limit he was a lot w iber for his experience, because Gotch had again turned his ankle out o" shape as a last resort and just at a lime when that was the onlv thing he had left, but Gehring with his gameness had won the bom by Staying the. allotted time It is safo to say that all the fans who will be at the Orpheum theater Wednesday night to see his battle with Harbertson will receive the treat! of their lives as it is doubtful If Geh-' ring will ever be seen in this section of the country again. rtrt |