Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 35, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 February 1918 — WRESTLING IS JUST AS MANLY SPORT AS BOXING, THOUGH NOT AS POPULAR [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

WRESTLING IS JUST AS MANLY SPORT AS BOXING, THOUGH NOT AS POPULAR

Strange that the reformers never raise a howl against wrestling. They go the limit to slam boxing. They bring out their hamtners against Sunday baseball and horse racing, but, as a rule, they never make as much as a whimper against the mat game. Boxing, according to our best little reformers, is brutal. Baseball on Sunday, and horse racing are demoralizing. We have the word of the reformers for it, which doesn’t make it unanimous by a whole lot, but they continue to yelp. Wrestling, when properly conducted, is just as much a manly sport as boxing, though not as popular. But wrestling, as it was conducted in the recent international tournament in New York, was a knock to Itself. Still, no one made much- of a howl except a couple of wrestlers, who protested against losing part of their anatomies. “Strangler” Lewis, who was mqch in evidence in the recent .tourney, uses

what he calls a headlock. It just manages to escape being a twin for the strangle hold, which is under the ban, but because there was no rule against Lewis’ hold he was allowed to get away with it to the point where he came close to taking Wladek Zbyszko on a personally conducted tour to a world unknown. The head hold is apparently more dangerous than the strangle hold. It is so dangerous that Zbyszko became unconscious from the effects of it, and everyone who saw the match agrees that it should be bayred. Wrestling is very much a man’s sport. It requires ability to stand an unlimited amount of punishment and it requires men of great strength, but it. Should be cleansed of such things as the head hold. It can get along without them, and the promoters should see to it that the game is protected by rules which leave no opening for bone-crushing methods.