SOME PERSONAL NOTES.

Feilding Star, Volume III, Issue 763, 28 December 1908, Page 4

SOME PERSONAL NOTES.

NOTES. "Massive" Johnson, the .!negro challenger, has been well named. He was born on 31st March, 1878, at Galveston, Texas, and, started his fighting career at school. Almost before he was into long trousers he had demolished men scaling 15st. When .he was eighteen he began ' m his important fighting, and punished all and sundry, till he ran up against the Polish Jew, Choynski, about seven years ago, and was severely drubbed. Then followed a long list of victories, broken only by a loss to Marvin Hart in 1905 and several indecisive combats. Towering 6ft Jin, and weighing about 13st, he has. fought on till Burns alone stood between him and the world supremacy. Johnson is very quick, very clever, and hits hard. The negro, like the Canadian champion^ has commonsense rules of training and living, but he does not disdain a cigar or a glass of beer. He is fond of praise, and likes a retinue about him. Between his b<mng bouts he finds time to sing and to play stringed in_ struments.^ When he is at home he is a prominent memEer of the local Methodist Church. He is a goodhumoured giant, with a smile for everybody except Burns, whom he regards as "the most sarcastical person" he ever met. . Burns is only a Briton by an assumed, name, and by unbringing. He born on June 17, 1881 (French 'father, German mother), at Hanover, Canada. He began life with a splendid physique, and started to be brilliant in athletics at the age of twelve. When a youngster of a dozen summers he won a place in Chesley's representative lacrosse . team, and was subsequently conspicuous at football, skating, swimming, diving, baseball, basketball, and hockey. By these exercises he put depth and I breadth into his chest and groomed • every muscle. Thus it comes about

that though he stands only sft 7in t < he weighs 13st of good bone, thew, and sinew, and can compass 74in when he stretches his arms against a wall. Quite casually Burns wandered into the boxing ring. While he was a member of the Detroit Athletic Club he filled a gap on .a "boxing night," won handsomely, and found his profession. ; He fights for glory and "sufficient inducement," and the incidentals have now made him a rich man. And he has his book yet- to write, and the fat foes for teaching the young idea how to box. ' < The stakes on Saturday were for £7500, and it was estimated tfiat the actual cost of the fight would run into £10,000. At the Burns-Squires fight, on August 24, 20,000 people were seated in the stadium. The "gate" totalled £13.400, 'and the boxers' share was £3000.