The Studs Lonigan Trilogy - James T. Farrell [43]
bandstand at one end of the stand, why, it was a dream. And all the color and noise and foment, and the crowds shouting, the betting and the excitement, when Burns, or Turner, or Burnett would lead a horse into the home stretch. And some of them horses, too, they were beauts, Hurley Burley, Enchanter, Imp, and them two horses that were god-damn good nags, Ben Hadad and Saint Cataline. Johnny’s mother knew how good them horses were, because she had had a good time more than once on their winnings, right after she got married, and yes, sir, them horses had bought Johnny’s sister Mary something when she was learning to walk. Yes, sir. And he told them of Garrison. Garrison, he said, was the jockey who was such a good man in the home stretch that they took the word, Garrison-finish, from the way he rode a horse. He’d seen Garrison ride, and Sloan too. And he spoke of the trolley parties and picnics of yore, and the dances and prize fights at Tattersalls. All the kids used to sneak in, the way kids always sneak in. They had a million ways of crashing the gate. One of their tricks was to bribe a stable man to let them in through the stables. Well, one night during a big fight, all the lights in the place went out and the management had to give tickets for the next night. Well, you should have seen the crowd that came. Every newsboy and teamster in town must have had a five-dollar ringside seat. And of all the old fighters he’d seen in action, Bob Fitzsimmons, Jimmy Britt, Jim Jeffries, Gentleman Jim Corbett, who could wiggle a mean tongue, and don’t think old Gentleman Jim didn’t know how to curse. Terrible Terry McGovern, ah, there was a sweet fighting harp for you, a real fighting turkey with dynamite in each mitt and a fighting heart that only an Irishman could own. Young Corbett, who was born with a horseshoe in his hands and a four leaf clover in his hair, and who put a jinx on Terrible Terry; Benny Yanger; the Tipton Slasher whom Old Man O’Brien knew personally; Stanley Ketchell who didn’t know when to quit fighting even when he had a gun jammed against him; Joe Wolcott, Dixon, Joe Gans, Young Griffo, the most scientific fighter of all times with maybe the exception of Nonpareil Jack Dempsey, who came before Mr. O’Brien’s time; Tom Sharkey--all of them old boys. They didn’t have fighters like that nowadays. None of ‘em were no-fight champions like Jess Willard, and most of them were real Irish, lads who’d bless themselves before they fought; they weren’t fake Irish like most of the present-day dagoes and wops and sheenies who took Hibernian names. None of them were no-fight champions like Jess Willard, the big elephant. Why, an old timer like Philadelphia Jack O’Brien or Kid McCoy could have spotted the big elephant all his blubber and laid him low in a round. Now, McCoy was the trickiest fighter that ever lived. He had a brain and a corkscrew punch that made the big boys see stars once it landed. Once he was fighting some big bloke, and he suddenly pointed down and told the big ham his shoe laces were untied. The ham looked down, and the old corkscrew snapped across, and the big bum was rolling in the resin; and another time, McCoy pointed to the gallery, and the big dummy he was fighting looked up, and the old corkscrew right went over and the dummy started trilling to the daisies. And the baseball games in the old days of Spike Shannon, Mike Donlin, Fred Tenney, Jimmy Collins, Cy Young, Pat Dougherty, Fielder Jones of the Hitless Wonders, and even earlier when he was a kid, and they had the Baltimore Orioles, and he used to see Kid Gleason pitch, and there was Hit-Em-Where-They-Ain’t Willie Keeler, Eh Yah Hughie Jennings, Muggsy McGraw, old Robby, Pop Anson, Brothers and the Delehantys. Hell, even Ty Cobb wasn’t as good as Willie Keeler.
“And you know who was the greatest of them all?” asked Old Man O’Brien.
“Who?” asked Studs.
Studs usually didn’t give a damn about baseball. Danny O’Neill was the one who knew all about it. But when Old Man O’Brien talked of baseball, it was as exciting as going to see a movie serial,