I met him in connection with a psychic depression which only partially
reflected itself in my physical condition. I might almost say that I was
sick spiritually. At the same time I was rather strongly imbued with a
contempt for him and his cure. I had heard of him for years. To begin
with, he was a wrestler of repute, or rather ex-wrestler, retired
undefeated champion of the world. As a boy I had known that he had
toured America with Modjeska as Charles, the wrestler, in "As You Like
It." Before or after that he had trained John L. Sullivan, the world's
champion prize fighter of his day, for one of his most successful
fights, and that at a time when Sullivan was unfitted to fight any one.
Before that, in succession, from youth up, he had been a peasant
farmer's son in Ireland, a scullion in a ship's kitchen earning his way
to America, a "beef slinger" for a packing company, a cooks' assistant
and waiter in a Bowery restaurant, a bouncer in a saloon, a rubber down
at prize fights, a policeman, a private in the army during the Civil
War, a ticket-taker, exhibition wrestler, "short-change man" with a
minstrel company, later a circus, until having attained his greatest
fame as champion wrestler of the world, and as trainer of John L.
Sullivan, he finally opened a sporting sanitarium in some county in
upper New York State which later evolved into the great and now
decidedly fashionable institution in Westchester, near New York.
It has always been interesting to me to see in what awe men of this type
or profession are held by many in the more intellectual walks of life as
well as by those whose respectful worship is less surprising,--those who
revere strength, agility, physical courage, so-called, brute or
otherwise. There is a kind of retiring worshipfulness, especially in men
and children of the lower walks, for this type, which must be flattering
in the extreme.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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