Quickly reversing his movements, he climbed back into the ring with the bucket. What for? To await the next fighter. Later in the dressing room he snapped back into focus, and was surprised to find out that while dazed, he had attempted to become a second. * * * * * A yarn that got a big laugh from servicemen to whom I told these stories during my visits to training camps and hospitals during the last war, concerned Sam Langford’s fight with Jim Smith, an inexperienced but towering 6′ 2″ Negro. It was in the Autumn of 1911, and I was assigned to cover the fight at the Atlantic Gardens on the Bowery in New York City, a famous old club that operated during the Frawley Law club membership days. Lew Raymond, a colorful figure, was matchmaker and promoter. Langford, a frequent performer at the club, was popular with the patrons who packed the arena every time he fought. Smith came into the ring physically unfit, and Sam decided he would end the affair in a hurry. I was in the dressing room with Sam and his manager, Joe Woodman, when Smith and his handlers passed Langford’s dressing room on the way to the ring. “Yuh gonna let me off easy, Sam, ain’t yuh?” Smith asked. “Yuh gonna stay so long as ah think it’s good fer yuh,” replied Sambo. The bout got under way. Smith started dancing around the ring to avoid Sam’s hits. Now and then Sam did contact his opponent’s body, but he couldn’t get over a clean shot. Came the fifth round. “Fer why yuh keeps running like dat?” inquired the angry Langford, as he stopped in mid-ring and looked at his opponent with disgust. “Is yuh so frightened you’se afraid to fight? Come on in an’ do some fightin’!” But all he got was a laugh from Smith. Suddenly, as Smith wheeled about to get out of the corner, Sambo leaped forward, let go one that came up from the floor and struck Smith with such force on that part of his anatomy where the monkey has his tail, that Big Jim was raised off the floor and landed with a thud on the canvas. He lay flat as Referee Billy Joh counted him out. When Smith finally got to his feet, he looked angrily at Sam and said: “Why yuh ’it me dere?” “Cause yuh got eyes in yoh head but dere’s none you got behind yuh.” * * * * * Here’s another on Sambo that took well with servicemen. In 1913, Sam was booked to fight John Lester Johnson, a burly Negro who could hit and who had fought a ten round no-decision bout with Jack Dempsey when the Manassa Mauler made his début in New York. Raymond had booked the pair for the Atlantic Gardens, and the place was jammed on the evening of the affair. Johnson was a “new one” on Sam’s list, but he knew enough about Sambo not to gamble on his punch. So when the bout began, like many other Langford opponents, he started to race around the ring.