The advice was taken, so that when he repeated it, his voice penetrated
farther. Again and again he shouted it, and slowly, zone by zone,
the silence pressed outward from the ring, accompanied by a muffled
undertone of smacks and thuds and scuffles as the obstreperous
were subdued by their neighbors. Almost had all confusion been
smothered, when a tier of seats near the ring went down. This was
greeted with fresh roars of laughter, which of itself died away,
so that a lone voice, far back, was heard distinctly as it piped:
"Go on, Glendon! We're with you!"
Glendon had the Celt's intuitive knowledge of the psychology of the
crowd. He knew that what had been a vast disorderly mob five minutes
before was now tightly in hand, and for added effect he deliberately
delayed. Yet the delay was just long enough and not a second too
long. For thirty seconds the silence was complete, and the effect
produced was one of awe. Then, just as the first faint hints of
restlessness came to his ears, he began to speak:
"When I finish this speech," he said, "I am going to fight. I promise
you it will be a real fight, one of the few real fights you have ever
seen. I am going to get my man in the shortest possible time. Billy
Morgan, in making his final announcement, will tell you that it is
to be a forty-five-round contest. Let me tell you that it will be
nearer forty-five seconds.
"When I was interrupted I was telling you that the ring was rotten. It
is--from top to bottom. It is run on business principles, and you all
know what business principles are. Enough said. You are the suckers,
every last one of you that is not making anything out of it. Why
are the seats falling down to-night? Graft. Like the fight game,
they were built on business principles."
He now held the audience stronger than ever, and knew it.
"There are three men squeezed on two seats. I can see that
everywhere. What does it mean? Graft. The stewards don't get any
wages. They are supposed to graft. Business principles again. You
pay. Of course you pay. How are the fight permits obtained? Graft. And
now let me ask you: if the men who build the seats graft, if the
stewards graft, if the authorities graft, why shouldn't those higher
up in the fight game graft? They do. And you pay.
"And let me tell you it is not the fault of the fighters. They don't
run the game. The promoters and managers run it; they're the business
men. The fighters are only fighters. They begin honestly enough, but
the managers and promoters make them give in or kick them out. There
have been straight fighters. And there are now a few, but they don't
earn much as a rule. I guess there have been straight managers. Mine
is about the best of the boiling. But just ask him how much he's got
salted down in real estate and apartment houses."
Here the uproar began to drown his voice.
"Let every man who wants to hear shut up the man alongside of
him!" Glendon instructed.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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