The Horrible Dummy and Other Stories by Gerald Kersh & 9780571304516

Author:Gerald Kersh & 9780571304516 [Gerald Kersh]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780571304516
Publisher: Faber & Faber
Published: 2023-01-23T00:00:00+00:00

THE DRUNK AND THE BLIND

THE name of Cork Concannon stirred up a silted debris of memories. I said to myself: Concannon, Concannon…. Cork Concannon…. Then it came back. I had read something about him in a back number of Ringside. When they have exhausted all the celebrities, and all the legendary figures of the ring and the mat, they dig up the forgotten history of some old-time second-rater, like Jim Barry; comb the morgue for a picture, and so manage to fill out two or three pages.

Cork Concannon was a heavy-weight boxer of the time of J. J. Sullivan—one of those mediocrities of uproarious personality, whose whims, quarrels, and vices skyrocket them into the headlines. Concannon had been the perfect type of the wild Irishman. He beat policemen and smashed bars. He had a lunatic vitality, and a crazy kindheartedness. He tried to stun an ox with one blow of his right hand, and broke two knuckles. He gave cigars to beggars. That was the nature of Cork Concannon; if he had seen a baby crying for milk, he would have shed tears, too, and bought it a bottle of champagne. Today, he would have been described as a playboy. Ancient photographs of him depict a big, strong, blond man; moustachioed; curiously barbered; clad in tights, and standing in a classic attitude—a species of boxer as extinct as the brontosaurus. Women adored him. So much the worse for him. They were his downfall.

Shortly after his fight with Johnny (Chloroform) Lewis, he was cited as co-respondent in the tragic Ritzer divorce case. The newspapers tore him, tooth and nail. A leader in the Chicago Democrat-Observer was typical of the public attitude. Among other things it said:

“There were no more rules on the boxing ring left for Cork Concannon to break, so he transferred his foul tactics to the forbidden circle of the Wedding Ring. There were no more saloons left for this lust-crazed Kerry swine to befoul and ruin so he took to wrecking homes. He broke two hearts at one blow—the first time Cork Concannon ever hit so high. The Ritzer tragedy spells the end of this Don Shaun…. This amorous pugilist’s only glory is, that he has taken a few beatings from a few better men. (It would have been hard to find any much worse.) He found a few dollars in his jeans, and rampaged like a bull in a garden. What did it matter to him if he trampled down some of our fairest flowers under his dirty hoofs? … Back to the bogs, Lothario! We love and admire the Irish, but we do not like their snakes. You are through in America. As a boxer you are weak; as a man you are weaker; and as a whole, you are a failure, rotten to the core….”

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