WHITNEY'S WALLOPING WHIM.

NZ Truth, Issue 946, 12 January 1924, Page 3

WH ITN EY'S WALLOPING WHIM.

Causes Combat of Colors.

(From "Truth's 1 * Dunedin JRep.)

It is seldom that the American type of negro is seen about locally, but during New Year week, while the City of Quebec was tied up at the wharf, it was no uncommon sight to see several , of the species from her complement | swaggering 1 through the streets on | shore leave. With their neatly-tailor-ed suits, their gaudy colored ties and socks, and their caps set on their round heads at ridiculous angles, they! affected what the Yankeo would term some sure swell swank. They had an eye for beauty, top, did these "cullud" gentlemen, and any /bit of feminine fashion, that fluttered by was the object of their lascivious leers. A study of theif style and manners tended to a clearer understanding of, and a deeper sympathy with, the Yankee's intense antipathy to these overbearing dwellers of his country. On the afternoon of New Tear's Day, Robert Vance Whitney, a seaman from J the American ship West Nilus. entered ! into the Spirit of ' the holiday by m« dulglng m liberal libations at ft nearby hotel and when zig-zagglng his way back to go aboard he saw a big curlyheaded coon bearing * down over the .horizon. Strange to say, although the latter was so black that it could easily have been believed that he was a piece chlsselled out of the darkest I night, Whitney saw red immediately his gaze fell on him and he set about shifting the ear or breaking the nose of .what ho called H a greasy nigger." He carried out his intentions with all the craft and cleverness of a master of the art, too, for there was quickly what m war days would have been described as a hospital casualty. An S.O.S. message was sent out and it was answered by considerable reinforcements, the white squad from the West Nilus being followed by a surging WAVE OF BLACKS \ from the City of Quebec. They mustered just on three dozon all told, and, sorting themselves out Into pairs, they revelled m a fair dlnkum donnybrook. The advantage of both weight, and

reach lay with the dusky combatants, but the little terriers opposed to ihem countered this by cleverness of footwork. One huge compatriot of Jack Johnson's was not happy till he divested himself of the garments covering the upper portion of his body and displayed a set of muscles that would have shamed the ripples on a sheet of corrugated rooting iron. He, however, struck a snag m his opponent, who cleverly dodged the hammer-like swings of the big black paws and bore m beneath them to deliver blows which under the Marquis of Queensberry rules might have led to disqualification. KEveryblow was,sgs¥ftfltt'its mission ac? comj»af»fed '^ilfffifCniziH. that strjifsc strangely :1 6n^tJre unaccustomed einjs of "Truth's" representative, and etfeh although he committed t them to memory and hastened home to consult his dictionary as soon as the melee was over, he was disappointed to find that they were not included m its pages. Nobody was concerned when one of .the fighters was hurled over the edge of the wharf into the water, the only apparent effect of the incident being thut the edge was taken off the immersed one's keenness, for he showed no disposition torejoin the. surging, swearing mob.

Just as the battle was waxing 'fiercest and the coons were baring their teeth m a frenzy of fury, a third element m this combat of color was introduced by the appearance round ft corner of