POOR DARCY!

Wanganui Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15127, 23 January 1917, Page 5

POOR DARCY!

NEARLY £IO,OOO IN TWO YEARS. “BREADWINNING” AT £6O A WEEK. DETAILS OP HIS INCOME. Pity poor Les Darcy! ' The ex-Australian champion, who sneaked out of Australia, and is now in the United States, has, according to a cable received by thef Sydney Sun a few days ago, told a New York Sporting Life interviewer that he ' left the Commonwealth because he was the breadwinner of a large family, who would Suffer if he were disabled or killed at the war. His case is truly a sad one. For, since June, 19 IN, he has received from Stadiums, Ltd., which controls boxing in Australia, only £9697 6s Id. It would not be fair or proper / to ask a man who earned over £3OOO a year to go to the front and fight for his country. Let the poor devils whose wages do not reach more than a couple of hundreds in the 12 months do that. A £3OOO a year man is a breadwinner, whoso life and limbs should be safeguarded. * Of course, such justification Is not always necessary. Although making more than £3OOO a year, Georges Carpentier has not expressed a desire to leave France, lie has shown himself a real fighter and a real patriot—not merely a fighter in a roped' square for money—and has won distinction on the field of battle for bravery. But why make comparisons? They are odious at best. . The fact remains that Darcy, despite his threat to enlist and his talk after he left Australia that lie W'ould volunteer in Canada or Great Britain, who proclaims that “lie left Australia because he was the breadwinner of a large family, who would suffer if he were killed or disabled at the war.”

In view of this, some authentic ■particulars of his earnings in Australia will prove specially interesting. On a couple of occasions ap* proximate figures have been published, but the details now given of his earnings from Stadiums, Ltd., are unquestionable. And they show that from the time he came into the limelight in Sydney in June, 1914, up to the time ho ran out of his return match with George Chip, which was fixed to take plcae in Melbourne, he was paid £9697/6/1. From June, 1914, to June, 1915, his income from Stadiums. Ltd., was £3126/10/-, while in the following months his pittance from the same source was £5526/8/6. On top of that ho received £944/7/7 for his last two fights in Sydney. During the six months prior to his clandestine departure from Australia he earned £2526/6/7, details of the amounts he received being as follow:—March 27, v. Les O’Donnell, £129/5/-; April 8, v. George Brown, £413/3/6; May 10, v. Alex. Costica, £309/14/6; June 3, v. Buck Crouse, £303/11/3; June 27, v. Dave Smith, £426/4/9; September 9 v. Jimmy Clabby, £375/7/6; October 3, v. George Chip, £569/0/1; total, £2526 6s 7d. Of course, nobody would suggest that all the money Darcy’s fighting ability brought him in Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane was clear pro* fit. He was said to have paid £IBOO for the farm he bought his parents; but his only other large item of expenditure was the money he spent on his motor car. Apart from these sums there were his training expenses, but a liberal estimate could not place those at more than 30 per cent, of his earnings. So that, after allowing for everything, it would be safe to say that when Darcy disappeared he had a reserve of cloHe on £6OOO.