BURNS BUMPS BIGOTS.

NZ Truth, Issue 173, 10 October 1908, Page 6

BURNS BUMPS BIGOTS.

PINS THEM ON THE POINT PRETTILY.

What Father Bernard Yaughai Did Say.

The Battle of the Boyne. "King William was a Dutchman Same as Kruger, I suppose ; He was married to a Papist, And he had a Roman, nose ! But a yearly jubilation Crowds of simple people join, 'Cause this Dutchman beat a Scotchman In a skirmish on the Boyne! And we ought to keep his memory G-reen (Or Yellow) should we not-r-This tinpot Irish rot 'Twixt a Dutchman and a Scot ?',' Tommy Burns is no slouch. Besides being the undoubted boss of. the ring m the world's .championship class, he can sling a very deadly "write," and he tackled the king bigots of Australasia m Melbourne recently. Burns happens to be a Roman, who owns up to his religious convictions, and the "Dilly" tribe ofwretched wowsers were wild when lie thumped the best that could be pitted against him silly m quick time, and won the goodwill of sane citizens by his manly conduct m the ring and elsewhere. In the Bent Stated THE SECTARIAN DEVIL is stirred up by sanctimonious sinners periodically, and the press is at the service of the parsons, who drag old-world . troubles into the country with them. "The Argus" on different occasions published letters written against" Burns by wild wowsers, but the Canadian champion did not counter until Secretary Batly, of the Australian Protestant Defence Association, warped words and cornered himself. This is how Batly blundered :— He (Burns) held m his han,d a pic-\ ture showing Cardinal Vaugian m America blessing Burns before entering on one of his brutal contests. Mr Burns was a P e * son of the Roman Catholic Church — so Was Mr Squires — and on this occasion, as there was no Protestant to knock out, '..'■■ NO BLESSING WAS GIVEN. Burns was "a Brothers' boy*" and he got home clean on the point every time when he sent a small pareeb of print into the camp of his bigoted critics. He wrote,:— ■ y "Ever since my arrival m Australia, I have stated publicly, as ■' well as,privately, that the Australians were more like Americans than any o.ther people I have met m my travels, more liberal m their views, more open-hearted and less conservative,; That there .would be bigotry here never entered my head, .as 1 thought that was a thing of the past. But, after the above articles, I shall have to qualify my opinion, or, rather, I shall take it as the expression of one or of a body that is beneath contempt. "Who would think that m this enlightened age, anyone Would tolerate the mouthiiigs, of a fanatic such as this grand secretary has proved 'himself to be ? And, like all fanatics, he has no regard whatever for the truth, and takes as facts the wanderings of his own lurid imagination, for Avh&t he has stated is nothing more or -less than ". . . A TISSUE OF LIES. In the first, place, I have never received a blessing before entering the ring, nor is such a thing ever -done; secondly, there are no such persons m the Roman Catholic Church as "pet sons;" whatever may be the case with the Protestant Defence League ; thirdly, Squires is not, and does not profess to be, a Iranian Catholic, though certainly he is not a member of s the Protestant "Defence Lcagus, for which nobody is more thankful than Squires himself ; fourthly— but this' is a small niatter evidently m tlis eyes of the aforesaid Grand Secretary — Cardinal Vaughan (who, by the way, blessed the soldiers before they went to South Africa to light for the' British Empire against the Boers), has been dead for some time, and, as far as I can learn, had never been m America ; fifthly, Father Bernard H'aughan, a brother of , tlie Cardinal, was the . reverend gentleman present on the platform with- me on one occasion m Loadon,. who, if he were to be- . ' ; BELITTLED BY A, COMPARISON between himself andAhe Grand Secretary already alluded to, would, m the opinion of people of all creeds of not the United Kingdom only, but of the world, tank as far above the Grand Secretary heretofore mentioned, with; reference to sanctity of life, charity towards, the poor, x not to mention good family,' intellectuality, manliness, and courage', as man is above the ialkn angels! "Now, for the facts which , have been perverted so barefacedly by the Grand Secretary/ An entertainment was gotten up by the clergy of Sts. Mary. and Michael's Church (Koman oatholic) m Com-mercial-road East, one of the very poorest districts m London, m order to relieve the distress' of the poor m the nei«h!jorho d. As a public entertainer ' I was requested to lend my services foe the cause of charity, which, as I knew it to be genuine, I gladly did. Father Bernard Vaughan, who is as WELL KNOWN AMONG THE POOR of the East End of London, as. he is at his Farm-street Church, m the tieart of the aristocratic section, signified his intention ti> be present, 'although 1 was unaware of this until I entered the hall. I was performing at Croydon, some 10 miles out of London, and was obliged to go to London and back m time for ,the second house, after my first performance was over. This I managed to do, although at one stage of the proceedings it seemed as if I could not do/ soj' an item that would have caused me quite some pecuniary loss, as I should have lost that week and two succeeding weeks > at £250 per week. I did not enter a • brutal contest, as the Grand Secretary would class an ordinary contest, but I boxeu" two exhibition rounds with my present sparring partner, Pat. O'Keefe. 1 received no raon- . ey for this, nor should I have taiven it • any more than . I should hi the case of a similar charity . here m Australia, and Father Vaughan, to quote his own words, , 'was pleased to stand on the

SAME PLATFORM WITI-L ' THIS " CHAMPION BO^ER of the world, v ! a man .who" by his own clean life set -ait example that our young men should follow, lie is with. us to-night, performing for charity, whereas he might have charged a large sum elsewhere to show us that while he is successful, he still rememfcers his poorer brethren.' Father Vaughan then shook my hand heartily, as I was st'll m my boxing costume, and 1 thanked him and the spectators, as best I could m a short speech, for tlfb very generous reception they accorded me."