GENE TUNNEY.

Putaruru Press, Volume VI, Issue 232, 12 April 1928, Page 5

GENE TUNNEY.

TOO INTELLECTUAL TO PLEASE The fact that Tunney is not so popular champion as he ought to be is a problem that one man alone may solve, and that man is Tunney himself, says a writer in the New York Tribune. Corbett made himself popular, but it would seem that Tunney is not capable of attending the clambakes of Tim Foley or chewing gum in the down town cabarets. Nine out of ten men hated Corbett because he waa gool looking, dashing, clever, intelligent, and had crumpled a great idol in Sullivan, and about the same percentage dislike Tunney because he has a knowledge of literature, music, and arts, and so persistently advertises them. It is stated that Tunney had a .sincere love for books before he displayed a tendency to pugilism and athletics. The tale is told of how Gene when a boy, made a friend of a great

doctor, and practically lived in the library of the medical expert, browsing over the books that lined the shelves. He then took up religion under the Christian Brothers, and it was plain that he was heading for the priesthood. What it was that made ! Tunney doubt his qualifications for I such a vocation is something that probably will never be known. Why I fate should have chosen such a boy to | turn to pugilism in his manhood is I even more puzzling. Gene is stated ito have carried these ideals of his ! boyhood, this pity of belief, and pen- : chant for books, as a part of himself right into his pugilistic life. Fate could make Gene Tunney a pugilist, but it would seem that pugilism could not change Gene T~-~sy.