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R-NA >S-AT IINUM IENRY 1ENRY BATTLING NELSON Lightweight Champion of the World LIFE, BATTLES AND CAREER OF Battling Nelson Lightweight Champion of the World By HIMSELF ILLUSTRATED BY TAD AND EDGREN HEGEWISCH. ILL. 1908 Copyright, 1908, by BATTLING NELSON INTRODUCTORY RICHEST PUGILIST IN THE WORLD TELLS HOW HIS PROWESS IN THE RING HAS BROUGHT HIM WEALTH- PROUD OF HIS RECORD OF 100 PER CENT AT ALGEBRA IN SCHOOL - SHREWD INVESTMENTS OF HIS EARNINGS - BORN ON DANISH INDEPENDENCE DAY AND BEAT CANS ON THE GLORIOUS FOURTH - HERE'S A SCRAP- PER WHO SEEMS TO BE A PRETTY LEVEL-HEADED BUSINESS MAN Oscar Battling Matthew Nelson, lightweight champion of tht world and richest of all living pugilists, is the one "New Giant" who has accomplished his life ambition. The left half-scissors hook on the liver that blasted Joe Cans' ring career and ended the Old Master's reign as monarch of the lightweights made Nelson the happiest man in America. Nelson is a unique champion. He is a fighter, pure and simple. There is nothing of the fancy boxer about his style. His rug- gedness and apparent disregard for his opponent's blows have finally conquered all of the other claimants to the title which he now holds. He has never been knocked out, and from his past record it appears that he never will be. Terry McGovern, Young Corbett, Jimmy Britt, Aurelia Herrera and finally Joe Cans have all struck Nelson flush on the point of the jaw and in the solar plexus or rather where the solar plexus ought to be only to have Nelson shake the punches off, come back and win. Several of these men have sent Nelson crashing to the floor with sufficient force to break his bones, but the Battler has always risen before the fatal ten had been counted over him. Terry McGovern jammed his sturdy fist against Nelson's jaw time and again with all his strength and weight behind it and Terry could hit but the blows never feazed the Dane, and he II BATTLING NELSON kept coming without appearing to have even felt the jarring punches. Nelson is the fourth real lightweight champion since the peer- less Jack McAuliffe retired with the title. The Durable One says he is worth a quarter of a million dollars, and does not care if he ever sees a glove again. He has always fought on the level, and says he would rather fight than eat. Withal he is intelligent and posseses more schooling than the average prize ring champion. He boasts of his record as a mathema- tician. He began at the bottom of the pugilistic ladder and grad- ually worked his way up till he reached the pinnacle of success in the ring. Bat has also written a special story My Ring Experiences With the Negro Population. In addition to Battling Nelson's own stories of his life, he has written a Synopsis of the two foremost cartoonists in the world T. A. Dorgan known as TAD, Sporting Cartoonist of the New York Evening Journal, and Robert Edgren, known as Bob Edgren, Sporting Editor and Cartoonist of the New York Evening World-. There are also a few stones of the Battler's career that tell of the thrilling times he has had during his climb to the cham- pionship. They are reproduced in this book, word for word, as they were written by the authors. The stories that appear are: By John R. Robinson: Dr. Dudley A. Sergent's Examina- tion Nelson A Human Being. By Bat: Synopsis of the Lightweight Champion. By W. J. (Spike) Slattery: Fighting Dane Thrives on Pun- ishment and Wears Down His Rival. By John Wallace Crawford: Why Battling Nelson Fights. or "the By Jack London : Brain Beaten By Brute Force, Nelson, Abysmal Brute," Beat Britt, the Intelligent Creature. By Miss Etta Foster: How a Woman Views a Fight and Fighters. * BATTLING NELSON III By Ashton Stevens : Tragedy Is Mirrored in Face of Britt's Father. By Fred Eldridge: The Battler's Training Camp at Essing- ton on the Delaware; Preparing for McGovern Fight. By English Jack: The Battler at Los Angeles Assisting the Destitute of San Francisco's Calamity The Earthquake Shock Came 5:18 A.M., April 18, 1906. By R. H. Guelich: That Little Battling, Fighting Dane. By Chicago Examiner : Nelson in a Class by Himself, Says Joe Cans. By R. A. Smyth : Youth, Perpetual Motion and the Durability of Concrete Wall, a Winning Combination. By D. D. Crowley, M.D. : Nelson's Heart Is Like Man of Iron. The Nelson Family, One of the Oldest and Most Blue-Blooded in His- toric Old Denmark. THE CHAMPION COMES OF THAT GRAND OLD DANISH FIGHT-ING STOCK. BY BATTLING NELSON, Lightweight Champion of the World. My full name is Oscar Battling Matthew Nelson. I was born on June 5, 1882 in Copenhagen, Den- mark, the day on which \ve Danes celebrate the winning of Indepen- dence. Though born on foreign soil I herewith proclaim myself an American in every sense of the word. When scarcely one year old my parents and their small family emi- grated to this glorious land of the free, and the home of the brave. This was in 1883. Father and Mother had relatives in the West, and therefore we did not tarry in New York. We landed in BAT. long Oshkosh, Wis., that fall, and settled down on a neat little truck farm which father had pur- chased. We remained there one year after which we moved to Dalton, 111., a place not far from Chicago 7 8 BATTLING NELSON proper. The following Spring we moved to our present home Hegewisch, 111. Therefore the Nelsons have been residing in Hegewisch for 23 years or more. THE BATTLER GOES TO HEGEWISCH SCHOOL. I was sent to the Henry Clay school when six years old, and continued to master English until I was 13. Hegewisch is located within a short distance of Wolf Lake and Lake Michigan, one of the largest bodies of fresh water in the world.. The chief industries of this thriving little town in those days were truck gardening, Ice cutting, and meat packing. The lakes in the vicinity each winter gave up tons upon tons of beautiful clear ice which was shipped to all parts of the country. The winter seasons found nearly every able bodied man, youths, and mere kids like myself employed cutting, stor- ing and packing the big cold cakes for the Chicago market. Boys were employed to drive the horses used for hauling trie ice. I showed an early aptitude for the SUWI.Y HOO>$ OUT TMt 6KTTUR IAAY COMPlE TE AHOTMtft t*6 WHO* i wou THE STO&Y of Mr UFE." BATTLING NELSON 9 business, and secured a steady position with John Daline, the ICE MAN of Hegevvisch. My first week's work netted me 90 cents, or 15 cents per day. I remained in Daline's employ all Winter, and as I had been attentive to business and worked hard Mr. Daline appealed to my father to allow me to continue in his employ. I wanted to go back to work in preference to going back to school. I forged ahead gradually, and before I quit Daline to enter the employ of the G. H. Hammond Co., I was drawing one dollar a day. I picked up the fine points of the business rapidly and from driver was promoted to cutter, timekeeper, and finally assistant foreman. During this time I was going to night school. It was this early taste of heavy, hard outdoor work . which served to build up and make a strong, sturdy "kid" of me. Though not very tall I was stockily built for a youngster, and when I quit the Hammond Company I was really doing a man's work. HE FIGHTS CIRCUS CHAMPION. I was in the employ of this company when I made my first public appearance as a boxer, or prizefighter, at Wallace's Circus, in Hammond, Ind., on Sept. 3, 1896. Hammond is only a few miles from Hegewisch. At the time I was working as a meatcutter. On ac- count of the warm weather we were working only three or four days a week and, of course, being such a kid, I was anxious to see the circus when it arrived in town. I applied there and asked for the job of carrying a banner in the parade, or carrying water to the elephants. The manager lined us up in the parade and after its conclusion we kids were put to work carrying water to the elephants, for which work we were handed passes for the show. I had gained quite a reputation about Hammond and Hegewisch as a shifty, hard-hitting sort of a kid and naturally my ability as a boxer was greatly 10 BATTLING NELSON admired by all the youngsters in our vicinity, most of whom worked in the factories thereabouts. We learned that Wallace had a world renowned prize fighter traveling with the big show who was meeting all comers. The strangest part of the affair was the fact that no one seemed to know just who he was or where he had won his reputation as a "maneater." Wallace positively refused to divulge his identity. COMRADE MAKES BOLD CHALLENGE. We hove in front of the main entrance of the show long before the affair had opened, and one of my com- rades, who possessed an unusual amount of nerve, boldly stepped into the manager's tent and said : "Say, boss, we've gotta feller here wid us named Bat Nelson wot's willin' to meet dat champ of yourn to-night.

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