CARPENTIER IN AMERICA.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 2195, 28 October 1920, Page 4

CARPENTIER IN AMERICA.

THE STORY AS TOLD BY HIM-

SELF,

In an article written at Paris last July for a London paper, Georges Cavpen.tier told a very interesting story of his experiences in America and impressions formed hy him. He said: —

“Were it not that I am definitely pledged to fight for the championship of the world, I would have done with the ring. Those days, and for many days to come, I would dream and write and prattle, and laugh and cry, of the strange, whirling, wondrous country from which I have just returned. “I would first set on parade the little rough house of Francois Deseha nips at Lens, wherein 1 learned to fight; 1 would poke fun at the ‘professor’s’ gymnasium; my Sundays when I, conjurer, clairvoyant, wrestler, boxer, contortionist, performed at the country cafes as would a common husker. I would live all over again; I would believe that I am about to meet the manjockey, Salmon, at Maisons Lafittc, as I did when in my ’teens, and I would go on until I was paid thousands of pounds in one night. And then the wat —first, a chaulleur, then a Hying man, high up over the Vosges Mountains, to drop like a stone and, because of some miracle, scramble from my machine whole. 1 would chuckle over my triumph against Beckett, and now, when for the second time in my short life 1 have more than a million francs, I would first doubt, and then confess that the gods have indeed been kind to me.

WEALTH, • “As I write my pen would nm riot, for that wliieli is gloriously true I eau searee believe —I have abundant wealth; 1 am young, happy, and in days that are soon to eome 1 am to engage in a eonfesl lor the biggest purse ever ottered in the bislory of pugilism. After 1 have fought Dempsey 1 shall be richer by £50,000. It is incredible, and yet it is true. And so in another year 1 shall have a fortune of more than £IOO,OOO.

“But it is of my visit to America that I must tell. Xo words of mine can express adofptately my appreciation of the welcome I received, and no one could have possibly profited more than I have done by a visit to that great country. Until 1 set. out for the Stall's I had travelled but little; except France and the French, only England and the English did I know. To roam abroad made but little appeal to me, but now the wonders, rhe mysteries of the world having boon shown to me. I would go everywhere, “MAX-EATER." If is said of the French that they are incorrigibly demonstrative; in sheer expression of her feelings France can never be more demonstrative than England; she will never be so uncompromising as America.

When I nr rived in New York, men who write on boxing remarked on my ();tlc face, my slimness, my boyishness; that in a physical lest I was Jilted to lake the ring - against Dempsey they were shy to believe. .For this Dempsey, I was for ever being told, was a “man-eater.”

Much to my regret, 1 had to leave America without meeting him, but I am quite prepared to believe that he is a mighty fellow and a cruel lighter. 1 have studied his face; 1 have sought to know him by the statements attributed to him, and that he stands for hardness J am certain; and yet, though he may be a human cyclone, i await a light with him without fear or trepidation. I will never have it that brute strength is everything. Boxing is a science, ami not of the butcher's shop. “GKTTIN'Cr TIIF WIND UFA

It is , mssible that Dempsey will hammer me into defeat as he did the mountainous Willard, but it is possible that, as with Beckett, 1 shall knock'him out. This much I will sa'y —if L am.beaten, it will be when lam stretched on tlie lloor of the ring with no strength left in me. I shall light until I drop.

Before 1 left America it was suggested that J was trying to dodge lighting. In Chicago especially the fans would have il that I was more of a dancer than a lighter. I can hut say if I had been a free agent, and had Dempsey not been involved in what at one period appeared interminable legal proceedings, I would have entered into a eo.ntract to fight him within a month after my arrival in New \ork. To try for the world's title is the .one ambition of my life. I sought a tight with Dempsey the very morning after my victory over Beckett. I have never put any obstacles in the way of a meeting, and of this Dempsey’s manager, Jack Kearns, was assured shortly before I left for home. Dempsey (tikes the point of view, and a very proper one, I am bound to say, that he, being champion, has the right to say where he will defend his title. Through Kearns he says that he will not fight outside his own country, and if he adheres to that decision, then I will go to America to meet him. It is immaterial where and when I do battle with him. I am determined to fight him, and then retire. -

5,000 DOLLARS FOR A SPAR. What to me was one ol' the most interesting happenings of my American tour occurred at a banquet attended by 2,000 sportsmen, given in my honour shortly after my arrival in New York, where, by the way, I had a tremendous welcome from the “Doughboys.l was made one of them. During the dinner it was suggested that I should have a

spar with Major Anthony Drexel Giddel.

“With pleasure,” I said. So doffing my dross jacket I put on the gloves and boxed with the gallant major. It was rare fun, and, on passant, I would say that Francois Deschamps, the strange, little man who has done so much to help me to become rich, fixed my fee tit 5,00(1 dol.! Everywhere I went I was sought by world-famous pugilists the most interesting of all being Jem Corbett, with whom I spent a delightful afternoon a few miles outside New York. A rare story-teller, a much-travelled man, at 50 years or so a magnificent physical specimen, he told me of his long and memorable life in the ring, and he was good enough to shy that although Denipscy was very big and strong, I had every reason to believe that my science would prevail. Joe Jeanette, who beat me at Lunar Park, Paris, in the spring of 1914, also looked me up. Joe has lost his jet-black curls; age is cutting its way into this superb man of bronze, but he is well circumstanced. I shall always remember him as one of the greatest men of colour who ever fought in the ring. 1 was delighted to allow him to claim urn as his bov. ALL IN EIGHT WEEKS.

.Ami Him* was Harry Lewis, tho wonderfully clover American mid-dle-weight, who, with -loe Jeanette, did as much, if not more than any other man, to create and develop a love for boxing in France. I learned much from Harry Lewis, who, I am happy to say, seemed little the worse for the recent attack made upon him by two gun-men at a saloon in New York. And if and when 1 light Dempsey in America, Jeanette and Lewis will be in my corner, and the great Jem Corbett will be looking on. America is the home of the king of publicity. He, at least, made the discovery that my wardrobe included 75 suits of clothes, 2ft overcoats, 1(1(1 silk shirts, 75 pairs of shoes, and 2(11) neckties! WILL FIGHT DEMPSEY IX JULY. And when do I think I will light Dempsey 1 ? If the champion refuses to come to London, I will take the ring against him next July, in New York. Meantime 1 am to rest at my bouse in Dieppe, Villa George ot Georgette.