SCIENCE WINS.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXV, Issue 96, 30 April 1913, Page 5

SCIENCE WINS.

DAVE SMITH AND JERRY JEROME.

ABORIGINAL KNOCKED OUT. A white man, Dave Smith by name, and light-heavyweight champion boxer of Australia, clever, alert; snappy in action, and powerful in his hitting, engaged a black man, Jerry Jerome, Queensland aboriginal, hardy, and possessing in intelligent form all the cunning of his race at the Sydney Stadium. The white man won, says the Telegraph, but not until he had battered through seventeen rounds against the extraordinary defence of his adversary, and had passed through over an hour’s anxiety in guarding against one particular blow that it was apparent to everyone Jerome was waiting patiently to land. But while Jerome waited, Smith pounded away at his foe’s head, and even an aboriginal’s head, reputedly hard, could not be expected to withstand the battering handed out by the w'hite man. The time came when the waiting black tired, when his defence became less crafty and alert, when the chin that he had buried in his chest all along was momentarily exposed. Then Smith seized his opportunity, and with a hard-driven right dispensed with an antagonist whose extraordinary methods had been a continual source of worry to him. THE BLACK SMILE.

It was a wonderful crowd that looked on, and for once a boxing crowd was fairly impartial. The black ingratiated himself by his good-humored smile ; the while by his repeated acts of cleverness. Not one round could have been said to have been won by Jerome, notwithstanding that there were some very even ones, but there was always lurking in the back of the spectator’s brain the fear (perhaps in some cases the hope )that Jerome would shoot his terrific left to the body and, claim the victory. How Smith guarded against Jerome’s dreaded blow was the feature of the fight. It needed care ; before he used his own right he had to look carefully to it that Jerome was not in a position to send his left home, for Jerome is a right-advanced fighter. Twice only did the blow land with anything like full force, and both times, fortunately for the champion, they landed on a back-moving body. Smith was nonplussed almost at all times by Jerome’s crohch and smother, and, his habit of swaying snake-like from the hipe when in aycorner, and suddenly "and literally gliding out of dariger. Furthermore, he was never sure when the black was foxing. Jerome would be quiescent for minutes at a time, and would appear tired and beaten, only to come to life with a galvanic activity that wrs surprising. The eleventh round typified in major degree the elements that were uppermost throughout the battle. That round was waged in a storm of applause such as the Stadium has rarely heard. Now there were shouts for Jerome; now for Smith; now for both as one or other stood his ground and mixed things. SMITH’S SMOTHER.

Jerome attacked in that term, and jabbed his right yiciously into Smith’s face. Jerome’s use of his right was always puzdling. Smith retaliated with a left to the head, and a good right cross. Following up his advantage, the white man sent blow after blow, left and right, to Jerome’s head and body. The latter fell away before the attack and appeared to be tiring. Suddenly Jerome danced aside in a series of hops and drove his right hard to Smith’s head. The scene was changed—the back was now the pursuer, and he played his part with all the vim he could muster. Left after left he swung for Smith’s body, and once only he landed. That was enough for Smith. He took no chance's and smothered that vulnerable spot, and weathered the storm. To such a pitch was the house worked up that a minute later the gong that announced the opening of the next round could scarcely be heard. x

It was a hard battle—a contest between a hard-hitting boxer and a fighter. That the man of science won was as it should have been; but not one of Smith’s admirers could have felt mentally at peace until he heard the timekeeper call “Out” over the prostrate black. A moment later Jerome was on his feet, the broad smile with which he entered the ring still on his features. Both men were accorded an ovation as they left the ring.