THE LATE LES DARCY.

Taranaki Daily News, 31 May 1917, Page 8

THE LATE LES DARCY.

aUSTEpiA'S -JfIOKJBMOST BOXEB.; ■

THAT CAME TOO rMa;., ; 'Late< ': j The* first intimation that Darcy was ill came in a'cable message from Memphis oti Tuesday, which stated.! "Les (Darcy the Australian boxer, is in a critical condition. His physicians say that only, his wonderful vitality, will save him." After it meteoric career in the Australian ring, winning the middle-weight championship of the world and the heavy-weight championship of [Australia, and when he was being acclaimed as one of the foremost boxers in the workb Dttrcy fell from his pinnacle (by suddenly disappearing from Australia within a few days of his 21st birthday, when 1 he would liave been expected to enlist in jtlie 'Australian Army. Conscription was toeing talked of at the time, and Carey feared that he would be forced to enlist. So he stowed away in' a steamer to America. His path in the .United States proved a' thorny one, for when matches were arranged for him the authorities prohibited him from taking part, and he was plainly told lie was a slacker. Evidently Darcy repented his ill-advised action, and on March 15 he wrote a letter from' New .York to Mr, E, iL. Baker, of the Sydney Stadium. Darcy said: "You will no doubt bo anxious to know of my whereabouts and doings, despite the mean way in which I left you. lam very sorry indeed to have left the way I did, but I thought I was doing the best. I thought if I told you I was going you would have mc stopoed for sure. I tried to, do the right thing. I offered the authorities £IOOC before I left to let me come over here for six months and then go home and enlist, but they turned me down. To tel! you the truth, Mr. Baker, I did not want to.go to tho war just then, and 1 don't think anybody else in my position would want to go either. I have, a; you know, right now a chance of sottino my family on their feet for the rest ol their lives, and can do it in a short time; then I don't care what becomes of me. I'll go to the front, but I think I. would be a bigger/ cur if I went to the front and left a starving family at home. The British Army would not miss me for a few months. The Governor has stopped me from appearing in a contest in New York, and we have issued an induction against him. It is now left to the Courts to decide. I still intend to enlist, Mr Baker, after I have had a few fights here, and if the authorities over in Australia will overlook my wrongdoing,. I will return and enlist in the Australian Army. If they are going to grab me, and gaol me, I'll stay where I am or go to Oanadi. and enlist. If you thought it worth while, and the military authorities are not going to do anything, I would he glad to have an offer-from you. 1 could box for you and give a percentage of my earnings, to the different funds for the war while I was in Australia. This would be worth a good deal to them and the Stadium too. -.- •. Now, Mr. Baker, I won't do anything until I hear from you. If the military authorities will forgive mc for running away without a passport, T will return in a few months, and, perhaps, make yourself and them a lot of money before I go to the front. I have had lots of letters from Canada, inviting me into their regiments and promising a furlough, but I would prefer to go back to Australia, and enlist in the Australian Army, provided conditions are all right. I would enlist on arrival. I intend to enlist in a few months, and if I cin't go back to Australia and enlist I intend going to England or Canada." Commenting on Darcy's letter, Mr. W. C. Corbett, the sporting editor of Sydney Referee, says:—The most that is expected from even a hardened sinner is a confession of his transgression, an expression of, sincere repentance, and a solemn promise not to offend again. All this is embraced in Darcy's letter, and lie certainly is not a hardened sinner. He committed an offence against the laws of his country and against the feelings of his compatriots, which many othere had committed before and more have been guilty of since, but because of his strong prominence his appeared much greater than theirs, though as i) fact it was not nearly so bad. They had not the same tempting future; some of them had no future at all, beyond what chance might bring. It did seem that all Darcy had to do was to go where the money was and gather it up, thousands of dollars at a time, as long as his health and his punch stood to him. lam sure he did not fear to fight for the country that treated him so well, and I am sure, also, that had he remained the sturdy country boy, the blacksmith's apprentice he was before the ability to box with better results than his fellows developed within him, •ie would have dropped the hammer and left the anvil as readily as so many, young men in the neighborhood of his 'home dropped the ploughshare for the sword, and hearkened to ( the call immediately. It was the lure of the ring that held him, and how powerful an influence that is has been demonstrated over and over again by the large number of have-beens who clung to the game until the last shred of ability left them in the hope that they might regain some if, if not all, their departed glory. • • But the lure was much greater for Darcy than it was for anybody else I can remember. Darcy, left to himself, might not have 'gone away at all. I know for a fact that he was counselled in several place" toy people of mature years and of standing, whose knowledge of things older persons than he might have been inclined to respect. . . What is here set down is not in defence but in extenuation of Darcy's mistake. lam always with the offender truly repentant. The matter rests with Senator Pearce, the Minister of Defence. It 19 for him to say whether or not one of Australia's greatest pugilists shall he given the chance he prays for.