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Show SIKI TELLS STORY OF HIS RISE AS FIGHTER T By MILTON BRONNER, NEA Staff Correspondent. ROTTERDAM, Holland. Nov. 4. Louis Phal "Battling Slki" conqueror conquer-or of Georges Carpentier, may be many things, but he is not the "fighting "fight-ing chimpanzee" sporting writers describe de-scribe him He Is a typical Senegalese negro, nearly six feet tall, well built, with kinl'v hair, and forehead an Inch high He would never shine as a beauty in America, but In Senegal, ho would be rated handsome. Slki fought all through the war, was WOUXided and won modals and honors. I He speaks fairly good French, reads lit anei writes lt, but can't be called la profound schidar. In his contact with British troops during the war. he learned many English words, can say some sentences In English and understands under-stands a great many, more He has :also picked up enough Dutch to make himself understood In Holland Battling Slki might become a braggart brag-gart if he wins more big tights and j considerable money At present, though, he is Just a scrapper modest, frlendlv. talkative and poor In purse By BATTLING SIKI. As Told to Milton Bronni r, NEA Staff Oor respondent. CHAPTER ONE. His Life In Senegal. I was born In St. Louis, capital of the French colony of Senegal. 25 years ago. My true name H Baye phal. Bays Is a Senegalese name corresponding corre-sponding to Louis, so I am Louis Phal. Entering the ring, I called myself Battling Slki. Slki Is a Senegalese word parents apply to their children a iovo woru whc uaiung in i-jib- llsh, or "cherle" in French I adopted adopt-ed lt because I thougTii w:ilte men could easily remember such a name. make this clear because recently a professor of languages, living in Paris wrote one of the papers say-ing say-ing Slki was a title of nobility In Bern galeae, and Phal was the name of the former kings of a province of Senegal. Sen-egal. If I am descended from king, 1 never knew lt before. PARENTS POOR. My parents were poor working people. peo-ple. They didn't have time to think about educating me and my four brothers, Y e Just grew- up. I wrote the following description of my early life for a Paris paper: Senegal is a city of 23, C00. Wo wear Clothes lihe you. Wo are French citizens and elect a member to the French parliament. We are either! Christians or Mohammedans. Me, I. am a Mohammedan. I us d to K' to tho docks and watch the ships. 1 ne day a big ship came in. en route to Marseilles, and ;us it was to remain some days, the passengers came ashore. Among those was a German woman who I called herself Mmo. Fauquenberg, a1 SIKI SHADOW BOXING. dance r, who had lots of money. She saw me. a kid of eight, looking up at the ship. She took my hand, and had me show her about the city. Then she asked If I wanted to go on tho ship and sail to France and see other lands and have a good time. LEAVES WITH DANCER I didn't take time to tell my family goodby, for I feared the dancer would change her mind. In France the dancer got me nice clothes, and daily taught me to read and write She danced in many European Eu-ropean cities, and I would go 011 the stage ns her little servant, dressed In red velvet. The dancer went to Qermany, but couldn't take me without a passport She left me In Marseilles with money to care for me. I never heard from her again. I tried repeatedly to get In touch with her. and have written ainoe the war. but to no avail. She was Kind to j a black boy pnly for her. I would bo slogging away In Senegal's hot climate. cli-mate. (To Be Continued 1 (Copyright, 1 922. NEA Service.) |