Evening Republican, Volume 15, Number 56, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 March 1911 — ONE-SIDED BOUTS TIRESOME [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

ONE-SIDED BOUTS TIRESOME

Public Anxious to See Wrestling Match Between the Big Fellows —Mahmout Ready. If the wrestling fans of this country were asked to pick the four aces of the sport there seems little doubt that Champion Gotch, Mahmout, Zbyszko, and Hackenschmidt would be the choices of the great majority. Any two of these men matched in a finish

bout that was on the level would prove a remunerative proposition for the promoters and an attractive event for the fans. It looks like a simple proposition, but the optical viewpoint is deceiving, the problem being one of the gnarled dak variety. In times gone by the challenges used to read “man and money ready at the Red Lion,” or something along those lines. Nowadays match-making is a far more complex proposition, says the Chicago Tribune. It is easy jo get the lion to lie down with the lamb, but, judged by current events, almost impossible to get two Hons together. It is charged the men who pull the strings control the wrestling puppets and that unless the grappler has a string attached to him about the best he can get is a thinking part. This at least appears to be the predicament in which Mahmout, the Bulgarian heavyweight, finds himself. Always sportsmanlike in his matches, and without a doubt a high class performer, the big fellow from the Balkan regions seems unable to get on a match, and the charge is made by his friends that his failure to do so Is because he is outside the “trust.” There may be such a trust, and again there may hot. If there Is the sooner it is “busted” the better. Stronger amusement combinations have gone to the wall. The public which supports the game wants to see the biggest fishes In the wrestling acquarium, and will not be satisfied with the whale against the minnow matches now being served up.

Yussiff Mahmout.