Much of the labor of getting these ill-assorted people together for the Philadelphia meeting was the free gift of Lieutenant John Townsend, a young American. He had learned his Europe while living with his father who was in the diplomatic service, and he had given his time day and night to the campaign for the unity of the small nations. He worked too hard and on the evening of the ceremony at Independence Hall, he suddenly collapsed. He never recovered. Gutzon was impressed by him. To a group of Czecho-Slovak officers he had this to say: We can all take lesson from his shining example. He was one of the young Americans who gave their lives to save Europe ... eager to help, uncomplaining, self-sacrificing. He was an example of the Western spirit that seems always to be at the disposal of the rest of the world. I, for one, will pray to live my life in the copy of his generous spirit. Everybody was touched. Nobody said anything about Gutzon’s part in the raising of the Czecho-Slovak army. CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN _THE NOBLE SPORT_ And then there was the matter of The International Sporting Club. It was among Gutzon Borglum’s most altruistic endeavors and certainly one that can be viewed without any reference at all to his art. It may seem to some readers that there is something of a retrogression when an artist involves himself in a sporting club--that the whole effort militates against his ideals of his craft. But that doesn’t seem to be the way Borglum felt about it. Boxing was just another odd subject that interested him and one with which he believed he could do something. He may even have fancied himself as a fighter--and, in view of later conduct, it seems that he did. Critical opinion being what it is, three propositions should be noted as a sort of prelude to what follows: 1. Many physicians agree that boxing, or, as it is sometimes called, “The Manly Art,” is an excellent physical exercise, particularly for those who win at it. 2. During the First World War, the United States Army made boxing an important part of the training of two million young men as soldiers. 3. After the war an extraordinary number of returned veterans (the estimate of the trade is 20,000) wanted to take up boxing as a profession because they liked it, or because there was a living in it with big money for those who reached the championship in any grade from bantam to heavyweight. There was no tangible evidence that the sculptor had gone very deeply into the study of these matters. But as a man who had raised an army on his own grounds he was one who undoubtedly would listen to any harangue about what was good for soldiers being just the stuff for virile men who were not soldiers. And the appeal came to him without his making any move to ask for it.