Ve

ee nth Mth a

THE

SPORTLIGHT

By BERT WHYTE

OVER COFFEE one night Tom McEwen was telling me how
the met Ruby Bob Fitzsimmons back in 1913, some 14 years after
Fitz lost the world heavyweight championship to Jim Jeffries.
“Say, that’s an interesting story,” I remarked, “Why don’t you
write it for our sports fans?” Tom replied, “Sometime,” and that
was that. ;

Before leaving on my holidays I reminded editor McEwen of
his promise, so he sat down and wrote the yarn. Here it is:

* * sears

SAM CURRY tipped the scales at 275 pounds. of fighting Trish.
He had two hobbies aside from blacksmithing, diminutive Shetland
ponies with vehicles ito suit, and the love of a nice ‘friendly fight.
In those days Sam was one of Winnipeg’s foremost supporters of
boxing and wrestling. Up until horses almoSt went out of fashion
Sam Curry operaited one of Winnipeg’s largest shoeing forges, situ-
ated on Fort Street. It was a “hot spot” if ever there was: one,
«where a score or more of forge and “floormen’ wrestled with
horseflesh a straight 10-hour day, and in the winter months, from
12 to 14 hours daily.

Periodically Sam would breeze into the forge acompanied by
a lange entourage of assorted “sportsmen” with some celebrity or
other in tow. ‘With salutations over, the ‘occasion called for a hur-
ried run across the — to the Vendome tavern to drink some-
body’s ‘health.

On this particular day back in ‘the summer of 1913, Sam came
into the forge with the usual entourage — plus a square, stocky
man whose apeparance spelled out strength and geniality any
way you looked at him. The visitor was one of the world’s ‘great
champions of the ring, Bob Fitzsimmons.

After introductions were over and a case or two of beer quaffed
to mark the occasion, Fitzsimmons, a blacksmith by trade, but
long away from the anvil, wanted ito “try his hand’ at making a
hhorseshoe. Bob took over my forge and I became his sledgeham-
mer man.

The big shoe we turned out was something short of a work of
art, but Bob, inow with ‘a good sweat up and ‘happy as a school boy,
kept tapping away at it here and there, advising a whack of the
sledgehammer now and again.

A horseshoe, like any other piece of ‘hot iron, can still ibe very
hot — although appearing to the unsophisticated to be cold. After
a few final taps on the shoe with the usual accompaniment on the
anvil (all blacksmiths love ‘that music), Bob, ‘his Irish face wreathed
in @ beguiling smile, held it out (with the tongs of course) to one
of his admiring gallery to pass judgment upon. This lad took the
shoe in his ‘bare hand — and promptly dropped it with an ear-
splitting yell. I think Bob enjoyed thaf part of it as much as in
amaking the horseshoe. Like most great men who have risen from
‘the ranks of the working class, Bob Fitzsimmons ‘had a low estimate

‘ «wf the “lion hunters.”

His parting goodbye to me over the beer was, “I’m too soft for
this job now Scotty, but it’s an thonest trade.” TI have regretted
many ‘times since that I did not salvage that horseshoe. It repre-
sented the closest I’d ever come to fame in the world of sports!

* oo *

WELL, THAT’S Tom McEwen’s yarn, and a good one, too.
Fitz was a champion long before my time, but all followers of
fistiana list him as one of the greatest heavyweights to ever hold
the title. Did I say title? Fitz held three — middle, lightheavy-
weight and heavyweight.

Fitz had the skinny legs of a lightweight but blacksmithing had
given him the broad shoulders of a heavyweight. When he entered
the ring to fight Nonpareil] Jack Dempsey for the middleweight
title, back in the early nineties, his toothpick underpinnings caused
some of the American fans to burst out laughing. .Then Ruby Bob
peeled off his tattered bathrobe and the laughter died. A few
rounds later they carried Dempsey out of the ring.

James J. Corbett, the master boxer, was a hot favorite to whip
Witz when they squared off at Carson City on March 17, 1897. In
the fourteenth round Bob landed his solar plexis punch and it
was curtains for Corbett, .

Fitz lost the heavyweight crown to Jim Jeffries in 1899, but
four years later, on November 25, 1903, he won the newly-created
lightheavyweight title by outpointing George Gardner. He con-
pea fighting for another decade before finally hanging up his

loves.

STANTON, MUNRO & DEAN

‘Barristers - Solicitors - Notaries ‘

SUITE 515 FORD BUILDING 193 E. HASTIN
. (Corner Main & Hastings Sts.) -
MARINE 5746

’ lips.

Soviet youngsters at a Black Sea vacation resort,

dl

Vacations with pay-
and little expense —

MOSCOW
Te broad sloping square be-

fore Kursk Railway Station |

in southeast Moscow is a lively
sight these days.. Thousands of
people planning their holidays
pass daily through the doors of
the ticket reservation offices
bearing the words “Caucasian
and. Crimean routes.’ The shril-
ly urgent’ call of bugles an-
nounces the arrival of busload
after busload of children assem-
bling to entrain for holiday
camps. And through this ex-
cited throng pour the tens of
thousands of Muscovites who
have moved from their city flats
to cottages in the Green Belt.

From. early June when the
flowering of the lilac announces
the beginning of summer the
word holidays is on everybody’s
All work in the Soviet
Union entitles one to paid holi-
days. ‘Most holidays last from
two to four weeks.

But the ‘Soviet state’s interest
in its working people’s holidays
doesn’t end with provision of
time and a bonus. It constructs

vacation. centres for them in the
most suitable parts of the coun-
try. From Tuapse to Gagra on
the east coast on the Black Sea,
and along the whole length of
the Crimean peninsula’s sea-
coast these holiday resorts are
spread like a chain of pearls.
Some of them centre round some
old aristocratic summer place,
but today the majority are new
construction,

By RALPH PARKER

To these places and to similar
ones in other parts of the USSR,
the trade union movement alone
is sending almost three million
workers and, their families this
year. All will pay considerably
less than cost. They receive docu-
ments called poutiovki. These
are slips entitling the holder to
poard and lodging and complete
medical attention at some re-
sort.

Though some sanatoria and
rest-homes are reserved to mem-
bers of the trade unions that
administer them, most. are non-
exclusive, and, of course, there
are no color, race or class bars
restricting entry.

From the moment he takes his
place in the train the holiday-
maker is given the feeling that
he is a guest. A guest who has
thoroughly earned a rest. That
respect for labor which is in-
herent in Soviet society reveals
itself in the considerate atten-
tion paid to workers on holiday.
The miner, the farmer, the sten-
ographer, the government offi-

cial, the professional man are
treated with equal respect. They
will sit at the same table, share
the same bathing raft. go motor-
ing together.

Many people take their holi-
days in a less organized way.
They simply rent rooms in cot-
tages on the outskirts of the
cities. Soviet rents are so low
that it is very little sacrifice to
close your flat in Moscow. and
pay rent on rooms in the coun-

en

try right through the summet
Tens of thousands of Mosco¥
working families do so.

Electric trains maintain a fe
quent service between villages #
the Moscow Green Belt and th?
city. They run from five in the
morning till two a.m. and fare
are kept. specially low to suit
workers’ pockets,

To these pleasant forests out-
side Moscow large groups of &*
cursionists, usually in trucks
borrowed from their place  :
work, come on Saturdays and
Sundays. Canteens are set UP:
sports grounds improvised, and
music provided by those tireles®
amateur accordeonists of who™
there is never a shortage in atv
Russian society.

The atmosphere is free-and-
easy. People are dressed as the?
please, dictated to neither by
poverty nor by the rule of fash
ion. The women usually in
flowered cottons and silks, the
men jacketless in blue or yello¥
jersey singlets,

Compared with holiday-ma®
ers in industrialized capitalis!
countries here is a noticea
absence of artificial stimulus to
excitement. People make th? eit
own fun. ‘Their holidays a
not escape from drudgery.
in Soviet conditions provides 6
own excitement, its thrills, its
sense of achievement. Holi ed
are a complement to work.
a contrast to it in this otal
society advancing towards ©?
munism.

Some of the modern vacation resorts along the Crimean coast,
PACIFIC TRIBUNE — JULY 25, 1952 — PAGE i