HACKENSCHMIDT AS A BOXER.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVI, Issue 16, 19 January 1905, Page 2

HACKENSCHMIDT AS A BOXER.

ASPIRES TO BE CHAMPION. "I vill beat Jeem Jeffreys," announced George Hackenschmidt, champion wrestler of the world, and now in Melbourne. He spoke with the easy confidence of the man who has been accustomed for years to throw 16st rivals over his shoulders. ! "I am practising bock-sing mit 'Gooner Moir, and yen I reach America I vulj challenge Jeffreys to fight. Hackenschmidt has been sighing tor more worlds to conquer. It ia not enough for him that in both catch-as catch-can and Graeco-Roman wrestling the world cannot produce a man capable of troubling him. Hackenschmidt has exhausted the respect that Europe can spare for the successful athlete, and, seeing that the New World has contracted the habit of worshipping its boxers and /treating its wrestlers with comparative neglect, he is yearning for its respect as well. Hackenschmidt pronounces the name of the noble art as if he were referring to a Chinese cabinetmaker "Bock Sing"—but his heart is in the right place in the game, and so is his band, on occasions. When he admitted on Saturday evening, with characteristic ingeniousness, that "Gunner" Moir, his travelling companion, and a leading boxer in England, was his punching-ball at present, Moir raised his own hand and thoughtfully rubbed a spot on his cheekbone, which resembled a patch of the blue tattooing on his chest.

"I want to learn to box, so dat I can beat Jeffreys," remarked Hackenschmidt, and on its being pointed out that several other people had the same idea, he added, "But 1 vill beat him. In Russia, vere I come from, dey fight wit dere fists, but fight." Hackenschmidt laughed at the thougflts of the pugilistic encounters of his youth. "Dey fight so. like dis." For a couple of seconds there was a vague impression of two mighty arms whirling round in their sockets like windmills. The Russian style of boxing was, no jdonbt, ridiculous, and much effort was wasted, but those present momentarily lest their sense of humour I< st one of those "fiats might accidentally come into contact with them. Their endeavours to join in Hackenschmidt's hearty laugh failed lamentably.

"Sometimes dey land on de top of d» head; sometimes, and often, on <fe snoulder; dey hurt not at all," continued Hackenschmidt, in his description of Rus sian boxing. "Never dey come here." He touched the point of his jaw. "Never here." He laid his palm on his solar plexus. "Always like dis." Hackenschmidt was left a clear space in the centre of his dressing-room as he recommenced his object-lesson mi Russian boxing.

Suddenly he grew serious. "Dey say to mc, 'You will be not goot at becksing. You are too big, too strong, too heavy.' I say to dem, 'Jeem Jeffreys, he is taller, heavier dan mc. I vill beat him.' Dey tell mc a man as strong as mc would be too slow for catching worms in der ring. You have seen mc wrestling? Am I slow in my movements, den? Could not I catch worms, jUi?"

The memory of that object-lesson was too fresh to admit of criticism. Everybody cried, "No," with the unanimity o; a defiant Parliamentary Opposition.

"if I am quick to wrestle, I vill be quick to box," argued Hackenschmidt, "and as for learning, 'Gooner' Moir teaches mc, and I know something already."

Hackenschmidt threw himself into the position of the pugilist, his feet correctly placed, his left arm bent just sufniently for a straight blow, his right covering his vulnerable points. He sparred up to Moir, and it must be admitted that he displayed a -remarkable ease in assuming the movements of a boxer in attack and defence.

"I am getting on." concluded liackenschmidt. "No, I vill not box in Australia, I vill practice wit 'Gooner' Moir until I learn bock-sing perfectly. Thefti yen 1 get to America I vill challenge Jeem Jeffreys, and I vill beat him, too. You see if I don't."