Zanesville Times Signal from Zanesville, Ohio • Page 17

no; bc- She Wants By H. Nonis London. HE a petite little lady with shock of dark hair sad deep-brown eyes that -were singularly steady. And she said what many a ssaa expert ia tha art of self-defense would have hesitated to say. "I'd like to take on Jack Dempsey for half a dozen rounds," she remarked ia her quiet English voice, "in an exhibition match.

Not as a contest of strength; that would fee absurd. Bat as a contest of skill. I hope such a match will be arranged. Deiapsey might honestly. I'm cot sure he would.

Anyway, I'm not afraid to challenge him." The girl who wants to fight Dempsey! "Whatever you think of pugilism as a new profession for women, could anything more clearly indicate exactly how- emancipated women, especially English women, have become? With more and more Bareness men are beginning to realize that gaining the vote was only a side-line, a mere symptom, of this emancipation. Women in bosing gloves, in the squared circle Accent on the 'niaa'!" you. Not'at all. Miss Annie Newton, London's first and principal woman boxer, for whom has been claimed without contradiction the title of the greatest woman boxer in the world, is the most feminine creature you could well imag-'-: ine. She is a war widow, who earns a living for herself and her 11-year-old daughter by giving boxing lessons to men in a big London gymnasium owned by her uncle.

She would like to give boxing lessons to women, but so far the number of women beside herself who seem eager to take up this art number jusr about zero. There is one other woman boxer in England, Miss Madge Baker, of Hackney, a London suburb. And when aa exhibition match was recently arranged between Miss Baker and Miss Newtoa she keeps her maiden name for professional purposes a roar of horrified indignation arose as caused violent seismographic disturbances even as far as the office of the Home Secretary. Weil, the match was canceled. But probably not since the suffragettes poured acid into the mailboxes in the days before the war has any -womars roused such a typhoon of public opjn- ion both for and against.

In the raids: of the typhoon, Miss Annie Newton stands today looking with amazement at the storm she has unwittingly raised. For since she was 10 years old Miss Annie Newton has appeared in sparring matches with men, for various charities, and it was only when she planned to appear in a sparring match with another woman, a match in which some of the gate receipts would go to the contestants, that chivalry, morality and tradition shrieked aloud as at a death blow. HINK what you may of pugilism as a woman's profession, it is interesting to meet a woman pugilist and learn why she prefers sparring to ste- ncgraphv. Of course, it is easy to vis- uali'e a woman lighter: big and huriy and bnxom, with a laugh you could hear ten blocks snd hands like sides 01 oeei- The beautiful corollary to your tneory or a ladv boxer should look is tnat it'-; ail wrong, in sum-total and in cetail. W.s Newton, who can punch a bag 900" times without' missing "I tried to do it more than that '--is Darely five feet tall ar.d weighs 108 pounds.

Dempsev weighs about twice as much, but it is in an exhibition match, no- a contest for the heavyweight championship, that this lady wants to meet mm; and the hands which she is eager match against the Dempsey fists are as steel and quick as uga.mng. Ther r-re small-hands, well shaped, and thev Jan deliver a left uppercut and a right to the body with accuracy, and thev can, and 5o 7 play the piano, embroider frocks for young daughter neal. Moreover, and cook a wigRo -i- it a lump of self-conceit in brain behind the hands which maKcs tns lacv she would like to meet in the ring; it is a lack of hypocrisy. or, rather, a knowledge of her own skill. "'Nothing surprised me more than this roar that wer.t sboat the proposed between Miss Baker and myself, said fas young woman in tne brow: kesha dress with its straign-, slim lines.

She sat on a DOS at iae riPgsHe in her cade's gymnasium sad while she talked she kept a critical eye on young men who were climbing ropes, young men who were punching bags and vourg men who were trying to punch each other. Miss Nekton, by ine way. has all her Her uose has been flattened, nor even or.e ear cauli- flowered. She will tell you why in a minute. "Von see, I've sparred all my Ine, the sryw and in public, and nobody before made the slightest objection Eyea now I don't at all understand wna.

they're at." She. spoke entirely without Miss Newton is not certain that Dempsey would win the boxing contest provided it were strictly a matter of skill rather than strength Jack fri a Grading Prize Fight, but in a Boxing Just to Prove a Woman's Skill and Agility, Says Annie Newton, English Girl Athlete, Lately the Rage of London Clubs Because of Her Prowess With Her Dukes to rescue wounded men. Ana reason is the secret--and not so either--fear of mta that women raay take yet another profession and iege away from their exclusive inent." Hisa Newton smiled and ttfta but the smile was uppermost. "As foi- the -women who shocked at the thought of-my sparnBt in puhtic, I wish the -who think a woman pujilist would tell me whether I i time at this exercise TI 'XXD vjrf-boardmg, men 11v s.SS-srrsr'r'Sy once." A curved her resentment, by the way. "There the slightest danger of my getting hurt or of hurting isy opponent.

I have taken part in a knockout fight, i wouldn't. To tell the truth, I don't care for them because I think they require less science than an exhibition match. It'y boxing is scientific; I aim to do it ''as efficiently as possible, not to give my opponent the K. O. "The ueopie who got so worked up over this exhibition match which we had planned appear to be vrerked op chiefly over the danger to a woman from a blow.

Of course, most women couldn't stand up to a fairly smart blow from a BUgiiist. neither could most men. And the whole point is that from child- And Now the Woman Boxer! as a child to early death because of frail health, Annie Neicion icent into a gymnasium with her uncle and set out to fight for the dearest of all possessions- life itself. Rigid training, dieting and exercise turned the scales in her favor. "Ski-jumping and ioboganning in Switzerland, fox hunting, 'fast'motoring and surf-boarding--why should a Ionian not take up boxing?" asks Miss Nekton.

"It teaches yon self-reliance, speed cf muscle, eye and mind, how to control your temper, and how to take defeat without -whimpering." So Annie Nekton is sure modern isoman is going to turn to boxing in numbers before long and profit thereby. As a means to health for girls Miss Newton recommends boxing. From childhood she has boxed, and now, at she looks 23, and other girls, she believes, would be similarly benefited by lessons in boxing hood I've been trained to give and take such blows as are necessary in a boxing raaich. Therefore, I'm not in that respect an ordinary woman. I'm a trained boxer.

I could stand more blows in five minutes than the average woman could stand in a lifetime, snd I'd think nothing of it. -Just as a bricklayer car. carrj- a border, ur.der which the city clerk would simply wither in his tracks." QHE jumped to the ringside to show or.c of the amateur contestants what tras Throng: with the way he held his "har.cs. The young man listened to her "i-ttrnctions with a deference that showed more plainly than a eulogy how real a bozer's reputation is Miss Nekton's. "And I never get hurt," sue said, re- conversation; "my body is always protected.

By what? Oh, yoa do I wear some sort of protector? Oh, yes, indeed. a smile she stretched out her slim arms. The upper arm and shoulder a are noticeably developed, and tried it at her iavita- tion--is like striking a brick wall. "The fi-c- I was taught, as every weU- ii-istracted Sghter should be taught, was to protect myself. I learned at once it 5s far tsore ortant to pro t'ne upcer part of my body thaa face But ve 0 Protect both for twenty-five years." You couldn't help gapiag in astonish- She looks 23.

at the most. So," Hiss Xewton confessed r.ot wi-ho'it -TustiSable pride, "and if I hadn't taken a'p boxing I'd have been dead years Ego. "I was a very sickly child. When I was only a kiddie my parents brought me to London or, a little visit to my uncle. He was shocked at my pale face and puny muscles, and he said that a course of gymnasium training was what I needed.

That's how it began, my career as a boxer. I saw men and boys boxing in my uncle's place and, like most voungsters, whether boy or girl, I wanted to have a try. My uncle taught me to punch the bag, and at last began to teach me, for his own amusement and mine, to spar with him. It developed that I had quite a knack for it." i rpHTJS modestly spoke the lady who can defeat any of the amateur and most or the professional pugilists who frequent her uncle's gym. "And so, instead of going into a shop and dying young, I kept on at the gymnasium, became a boxer, and never now have so much as half an hour's illness.

"Will you tell me--for I can't see it--why it's any more frightful for a womza to box than for her to fence? Or play baseball? Or basketball? Personally, I wouldn't join a woman's football team. Football is too rough. I'ra r.ot handsome, but I've more regard for my face than that. "And. really! All this talk about box- ins for women being 'degrading" and 'risk-.

11 ar.a 'too hard work' strikes me as very comic. Is it any more or half as hard work, as scrubbing f.oors? Is it any more risky than working in a munitions factory, or than riding to hounds? Or trying to swim the Channel? "As for being unwomanly--well, just where does one draw the line between what is womanly work and what isn't? In this country we have had women working at coal pits. We have women police, women aviators. Women are driving their own cars, shooting big game, taking part in hold-ups and burglaries, managing factories, governing States and whole empires. Kobody ever said Queen Victoria wasnt womanly, yet she ssrely filled a man's job and filled it well.

"Ill admit tiat the thought of a woman boxer is aa unusual one. So used to be the thought of a woaiaa smoker or a. woman telephone operator. But when yoa boil it right down, just why are people so frantic in their criticism of women going into the ring?" Miss Newton's direct brown eyes looked a little scornful for the first time. "One reason is that it's against tradition Well, it was against tradition for women to go out into a battlefield in here and got Sometimes they do, and hit them once or twice as hard and that usually stops the re But this man, as I found out la! approve of women boxing, and he intended, as he said, 'to show "He hit harder and harder tut i i ized his purpose.

I won't 1 4 ft didn't make me niad. I opening, and when it came I are than I ever thought I could. It him out, absolutely. Aao that's tta knockout that ever pleased roe. teaches yea to control "It teaches yoa to take defeat witJiTit whimpering.

"It teaches yoa self-reliance, spatd. muscle, eve and mind. "And while I may act see it, or yoa either, the day will come, like it or not, when the world will see women in ring. "The type of woman who presides over a fashionable drawing room may not be seen in the ring; each to hte particular taleftts (give me the rintZ). then, the type of man who is now in the ring does not usually apyear ifi the fashionable drawing rooai.

it would be better for the aai drawing room if he did. "Anyway, ni tell yoa how I believe in boxing. I youngster, Daisy, II years old. I taught her to punch the and can go to 300 withost a I am teaching her to spar, and sae's prttty good at it. If shs waats to ap sparring as a profession, though 'I won't force her tato it any more than Fd tajy to force her into beiag a surgeon tit painter or a factory hand, HI certainly let her do It," She walked quickly and from the room, this lady pugilist, the step of a girl of 16.

CJ WislSlp 'IjBSISiS JBf.