Rensselaer Republican, Volume 26, Number 1, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 August 1893 — BLUFFING THE SCRAPPERS. [ARTICLE]

BLUFFING THE SCRAPPERS.

How the Slim YouMg-Maa Intimidated Several Pugilistic Sports. Detroit Free Press. “I saw a funny thing in Cheyenne a few weeks ago,” said a Detroiter who returned from a Western trip "tKei other day. “I was wandering around town to see the elephant, and chance led me into a big saloon where all the trappers made their headquarters. Baek of the saloon was a building where a professor of the manly art gave instructions, and the ‘pugs’ thumped each other at exhibitions. They were ‘trying out’ a new arrival that day and I should say there were forty or fifty toughlooking chaps in the place. So after I entered a young man who had come through from Denver in my car dropped in. He couldn’t have been over twenty-four years age, while he was over six feet tall and his weight only about 120 pounds. He was long-faced, thin and long-legged, and reminded you of nothing so much as a boy on stilts. Two men were getting ready to go on when long legs peeled off his coat and vest, tie and Collar, put them in my charge and climbed upon the platform.” “That was a defi to the crowd?” “Exactly, and in about a minute they put a man up to punch his head off. They gave long-legs a second and the first thing he did was to take the glasses off the young man’s nose. The latter reached for them and said: “ ‘Excuse me, but I always fight with my glasses on.’ “ ‘But they’ll get knocked off er jammed into your face.’ “ ‘Don’t you believe it! It’s never happened yet, and don't think it will now.’ “The scrapper over in the corner couldn’t make it out. Here was a man so sure of himself that he was going to put up his dukes with a pair of eyeglasses on his nose. He must, perforce be a knocker-out from Knockersville,. and it was better to retreat than- to carry around a broken jaw. He therefore retreated. Several others came forward, but when they saw long-legs seated cross legged in his corner with those glasses placed so jauntily they didn’t want anything of him. Then he got up and said: “ ‘Gentlemen, there is no limit to weight. I always fight in glasses, as I’m a little near-sighted. I will, however, remove my glass eye and false teeth if deemed best. Will your best man step up here for a couple of rounds?’ “But no one stepped. He waited a minute or two and then pulled off the gloves with a look of disappointment and got into his clothes and we went out together. He didn’t look to me at all like a scrapper, and as I walked down the street I said: “‘What sort of a deal were you giving that crowd?’ “,‘A gigantic bluff,’ he answered with a laugh. “ ‘Are you a fighter?’ “ ‘I never struck a blow in my life, not even in fun.’ “ ‘But suppose one of those scrappers had tackled you?’ “ ‘I should have backed down and asked ’em all up to take a drink. But there was no danger. I’ve tried it half a dozen times before, and the glasses always settled ’em.’ “ ‘How about the glass eye and the false teeth?’ !‘ 'T simply rung ’em in to help on the bluff. Haven’t got a false tooth in my head, and both eyes are perfect/ It’s a bluff of my own invention and works like a charm. Please don’t give it away.’ “And that afternoon,” said the Detroiter in conclusion, “when we took the train east there were a hundred sports at the depot to see long-legs off, and I’m a duffer if they didn’t present him with a bottle of wine and give him three cheers and a tiger.” - L —■