BUFFOONS AND CLOWNS

NZ Truth, Issue 1204, 27 December 1928, Page 8

BUFFOONS AND CLOWNS

Australia Worked Out, They Try New Zealand

Of all the impositions .that have been foisted on to a New Zealand , public those wrestlers at Auckland are the snake's step-ins. . '

A USTRAIiIANS are generally held to rl.be a hard crowd to put anything over. Ijike the gentleman from Missouri, "you have to show me." But Australia m general, and Melbourne m particular, fell heavily for the grapplera, and the good money that was paid to witness what, m years gone by, was called kidstakes, was heartrending. : ' ; All. the old buffers that could be dug put of Wildcat Gulch, Pompeii, and ■''Timbuctpo, were shipped to Sydney to "entertain" a gullible audience.! > ■'- ■..■;. ■■ : ••.: ■;.;/■ ■ •'. That they did entertain cannot be denied, but that most 1 of ' them wrestled, can. The 'ibnly. < time they wrestled was on; v the . "Monday mprnings when at Stadiums ;Litd:, offices coll ec ting their cut. . It was their roll that they looked after scientifically. . Clowns and buffoons, they staged all manner of tricks that' were as foreign to wrestling as ice is. to a celebrated ! hot locality. , Showmen.; to their finger-tips, they gave the crowds great imitations of how; to niatil and bawl, but when it came to' scientific wrestling the*majority weire; like the link— missing. Rough-house work got a small : section excited and Parliament even entered into d.' sct J ss ' on over the bjoodthirsty methods" adopted. But those m power were quite prepared to leave it to tlie right authorities;, the ,police.

And the police did not interfere with the entertainments. They, wise birds, knew that they were ' dealing with clowns, and any move they made would only help the clowns to collect more money from a poor, deluded public. .■■-■■. \, ; / : .. Bui there is an end to all things, ana the Wrestlers left Australia. < A couple of them had to stop off m Auckland and they were matched. t As they had done elsewhere they, did not wrestle m Auckland. They "attacked" each other m a ferocious manner and kicks, punches, slaps, bites and ...grimaces, were turned on ad lib. The referee also had to be dealt ■with, as referees had been dealt with m Australia, and the poor unfortunate had his shirt torn when he had the temerity to issue an oruer. Two of the most 1 nauseating "exhibitions" imaginable were given : m Auckland. But they served a good purpose. . ■ , , They put the mat ganie so far back m the -box that it is riot' likely to be heard of again seriously m the next decade. . They placed boxing- on a pedestal that all the Mike Pploneys and SquareJawed Limburgers could not knock it off if they worked for 24 hours a day from now on to Doomsday. "Laugh, Clown, Laugh". — but the laugh is . against you m New Zealand. : ;