THE PSYCHOLOGY OF PUGILISM

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 767, 16 March 1910, Page 4

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF PUGILISM

PROFESSOR JACK JOHNSON'S . VIEWS.:' The following editorial from the "Manchester Guardian" will be appreciated by everyone who takes any interest, hostile or otherwise, . in the career of Jack Johnson:— Tho careers of great men are rich in by-products, and it is interesting td 6eo tnat Mr. Johnson, tho negro heavyweight champion, has been lecturing upon ''Success in Life" at the Coloured Men's' Branch of the New York Young Men's Christian Association, Mr. Johnson spoke of his early struggles ip obscurity, when he always made - a . point of supporting his mother in comfort, and then no launched out upon the psychology of pugilism. He distinguished, between its "venal side" and the side that makes for manliness. "By natural cleavage," ho said, "the' subject separates: automatically into those twin aspects, classifications, norms, terminologies, or departments. I, tako it that what I say-is obvious without further exegesis or elucidation. Good." And here wo must recall the occasion, when London Dodd visited his native city to find that Jim Pinkerton had "billed" him for a lecture. on student life in Paris, "grave and gay." Dodd, it may, be remembered, was only partially reassured by the information that the lecture, composed by "the brightest pressman in New/York," was already in type, and in the event he found it difficult to reconcile his personality, with tho pressman|s swelling diction. ' New York still has its bright pressmen, and it is possible that Mr. Johnson has not' disdained their assistance. Perhaps, however, il is his own idea to recommend tho manly art as an honourable substitute for sticking people with a knife, and he is very strolls indeed on the side of sobriety. From a report in the "New York Herald" .It appears that Mr. Johnson, before delivering his lecture,'had: been to a police court, where he was chargcd with having thrown a Mr. Pinder down the stairs of a saloon, but, fortunately, ho was released on a thousand-dollar bail. In any .case Mr. Johnson seems to have had provocation, for while he was quaffing champagne Mr. Pinder had recalled the days when he was glad to drinlt beer. But, as tho great man says, "I do not animadvert, but sobriety is the touchstone- of success; its ne plus ultra, its entre nous."