“I had believed you would,” said Gavin. “At the moment boxing is my own principal interest. That is one of the reasons why I have come to talk with you. Unfortunately few people in New York have ever seen a boxing match. They do not know what it means to watch the effortless movement of a pair of skilled boxers--to note the extreme precision with which their effort is controlled.” To him, he said, such contests were the most beautiful thing in the world--expressive of the fundamental male instincts, inspiring. And after that he got around to the reason for his visit. It had occurred to him, he said, that Mr. Borglum might be of help to him in raising the level of boxing in the United States. He had come from England because he hoped to do what Lord Lonsdale had done over there to get outstanding people interested in the art instead of the heedless ruffians who now controlled it. Gutzon’s name had been given him, he said, as that of a man whose integrity was well known to the community and who had expressed some sympathy with the people who were trying to make ring contests legal. If Gutzon would join his list of sponsors, he said--and he named several highly respectable men of Gutzon’s acquaintance--he would form an immense club, restore the manly art and form a national association to promote it. He, himself, he mentioned, would advance all preliminary expenses. The sculptor joined this crusade without further pressure. Nobody connected with him could have doubted that he would. Boxing had some of the artistic appeal for him that it theoretically had for Gavin. He had known about fisticuffs since boyhood, and, as his sculpture progressed, his continuous swinging of the tools had broadened his shoulders and put power behind his punch. Boxing had become one of the things that he thought he might learn to do better than anybody else, and he had tried to prove it. His friend Bob Davis had brought the world’s heavyweight champion Bob Fitzsimmons to the sculptor’s studio just as a test. Borglum had made a somewhat secondary showing against the champion, but that hadn’t hurt his enthusiasm. Maybe he didn’t know as much about ring mayhem as a champion, but he still knew as much about the theory of boxing as anybody else. That’s what he was thinking when he signed Gavin’s prospectus--which was quite a prospectus. It turned out that there was a lot of business about the boxing reform movement that Gutzon had not suspected. In September 1919 there came into being The International Sporting Club, Inc., of New York, an organization that was to show the National Sporting Club of London how sports really should be conducted. According to the plan ably outlined by Mr. Gavin, there would be 2,250 members. Each member, to get the great movement started, was to buy a gold-debenture bond for $500 as a sort of initiation fee. The bond was to pay six per cent annually. After that the dues would be $100 a year.