OCR Text |
Show I Englishmen Declare Langford Champion (By C. E. Van Loan.) j A few nights ago a flatnosed Boston Bos-ton darkey beat a flat-headed York-ehireman York-ehireman in four rounds before the National Sporting club In London. It wasn't much of a fight, as fights go In this country. They would have whistled whis-tled "The Merry Widow" had It taken place at the Long Aero and howled for the main event at the Fairmont. Yet. after tho Yorkshire clodhopper went to bye-bye, Lord Lonsdale, mentioned In the cable dispatches as the proudest peer In all England." took the American Ameri-can negro by tho hand and congratulated congratu-lated him on his glorious victory. Is it anv wonder that our black heavyweights like to fight In England? If the proudest peer In England mere- j lv shook Langford by the hand and "'warmly congratulated him," probably the peers who wero not so proud hugged hug-ged him and patted him on the back. Something will have to be done about this. The peers are spoiling our black fighters and filling their heads with all sorts of nonsense. Lonsdale is old enough to know better. I And not only the black fighters, ' cither. Tommy Burns, always a quiet, taciturn sort of a chap, but for the most part companionable and friendly, friend-ly, went to England. He became the ! idol of the sporting noblemen, who were proud to be seen on the street ! with the pudgy little Canuck, and, as a result, they spoiled bini and swelled his head until he believed himself to be tho greatest fighter in the world, and the swelling lasted until Johnson lanced It with a few uppercuts and dropped Mr. Burns 'back where he belongs, be-longs, among the mediocre fighters. London has always been fight crazy. The pity Is that men who support boxing so royally should, never draw anything but a fourth rate show. The little theater of the National Sporting cl ib, where the fights take place, holds do move than a few hundred men, who pay anywhere from $10 to $50 for a seat In a larger hall, It Is hard to calculate . just how much money a rattling good match ought to draw. A man who pay& $50 for his ring-side seat should have a run for his money, with two men In the fight. Whenever they manage to secure a ?ood American boxer he Is invariably matched against a dub liko Moir or Hague, and a lopsided fight results, with the end in sight from the opening open-ing tap of the gong. Our English brethren deserve better than this,' they do, old chap, really, for they , aro er keen spawtsmen, don't you know er keen spawtsmen and er all that sawt of thing. We may send 'em some of our good fighters in the near future, if Lord Lonsdale will promise not to climb into the nng and embrace them. Sam Langford'6 first move after his little exercise canter with tie' Yorkshire York-shire flatty was to claim the right to dictate terms to Jack Johnson. Lord Lonsdale and a few other sportsmen had Informed him that he had won the heavyweight championship of the world by trimming the poor Hague. According to the British way of looking at things, Johnson "blew" his title when he failed to put In an. appearance ap-pearance and fight Langford in England. Eng-land. If we began taking something away from Johnson every time he repudiated re-pudiated an agreement, went back on his word or did something which could be regarded as a breach of business busi-ness honesty, we would soon have the Galveston negro trimmed down to the gold fillings in his teeth. |