The Brooklyn Daily Eagle from Brooklyn, New York • Page 82

Page Eight rage Nine Muldoon's Secret for Lon Lit promoters, boxers, wrestlers, managers and trainers with sented to accept the assignment on one condition that John L. would obey orders. Training quarters were established at Mr. Muldoon's home and the great John L. was given his first lesson in discipline the day he was to start training.

The trainer awakened his charge at daybreak and ordered him to be ready for work at 1 o'clock, before breakfast Sullivan roared with rage and refused to get up. Muldoon walked quietly out of the room and returned with a baseball bat. "I'm the master here," he told Sullivan firmly. Trainer Who Has Been Partly Responsible for Success of Tunney, Dempsey and Sullivan Tells What Is Necessary for Success Besides Athletic Prowess went to the floor and there was a wild wrestling bout lor a few minutes. Muldoon's skill gave him an easy victory and an idea, too.

For every day after that he made Sullivan wrestle with him. With the domineering tactics' he employed in directing Sullivan's training, Muldoon mixed a little diplomacy and talked to the fighter day after day, outlining what John future would be in the event that KUrain whipped him. The result was that he took Sullivan to the scene of battle in the best of condition. Sullivan won the fight and with it the undisputed right to call himself champion of the world. go four rounds, the winner to get $3 and the loser the other 2.

"Lots of fellows who would be in the main events of today would split a $10 purse $7 to the winner. They were called stars. Men came in there and ordered a fight just like they ordered a beer, and oftentimes there were days when one fight succeeded another for twenty-four hours. A good boy could get in several fights in one night. myself, being a wrestler, had an advantage; for I could alternate my activities and last through a lot of milling and tugging.

Things were decent 4T, I enough down mere mat. 1 -S yv I saloon ine spectators ui 1 xrS I ut to? 104 of bet" --iJ firm "My experience with Sullivan gave me my fill of training boxers as a business. Some time later I started the first big health farm in America, and it was here that I did what I regard as my most useful work. It was here, too, that I became acquainted with and the friend of some of the biggest men in the country. them were two Presidents, Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft.

My patients included men in all walks of life and of all financial standings from millionaires down. Boxers preparing for important bouts sought in vain to have me direct their training, and when I declined they invariably went to my place to take my course." 4 In 1906 Muldoon took in hand Chauncey M. Depew, who was then in the worst spell of "dumps" that had ever befallen him in his gay, light-hearted career. The Senator had made many a "don't worry speech" in his lifetime and his friends said that a cloud would never encircle his head, but it did, and Dr. Muldoon was the physician who pulled him through by simply making the Senator go through a system cf mental and physical training at his sanitarium.

That same year Euhu Root, then Secretary of State, came to him, and Muldoon in a very brief time made him the strongest man physically in President Roosevelt's Cabinet. "My system of physical training is wonderfully rimple but so rigid and trying that only two persons out of three have the strength and patience to endure It. It is even more psychological than physical the training of the mind to subdue the body. My manner with my patients is stem and unrelenting. I insist on bein obeyed.

It Is only through implicit obedience to my commands that I am able to restore my patients to health within a comparatively short time." To every man who has been with Muldoon for two days he is a tyrant and he plays tricks on his guests that would never be allowed in the proprietor of a first-class hotel. Por example: A story was once told by Cliauncey Depew to the effect that one day Muldoon rode horseback at the head of his company to a celebrated medicinal spring five miles away on his property. The patients hitched their horses in a wood back of the spring and drank the medicated water at the command of their host. During the drinking process the horses mysteriously disappeared. Fat men, Jean men and feeble men were compelled to walk the five miles back to the house.

A wail of wrath rent the air, but Muldoon was obeyed. Throughout his Jong life Muldoon has retained his interest in boxing and wrestling and he has constantly used his influence to elevate the standard of these sports and better the conditions under which they are conducted. His appointment, July 1, 1921, as a member of the New York State Athletic Commission, created under the WalkeT Law to regulate boxing and wrestling, was received with delight by those honestly interested in the two sports. Subsequently he was elected chairman of the commission and promulgated a set of rules that at the time were considered drastic He has ruled mi uou uu.ua, wnn ine resuu mat during his administration boxing and wrestling, in the opinion of experts, has been conducted more honestly than ever before. He has been somewhat criticized for" issuing a ukase, sealed with the great seal, forbidding Tex Packard from allowing smoking in the Madison Square Garden during fights.

When the smokers lit up anyway, the Athletic Commission informed Mr. Rickard that when it said "No smoking" it meant "No smoking!" In vain the great dealer in cauliflower futurities expostulated that he had a. special ventilating system whereby one is almost led to infer the air actually becomes purer when diluted with blue cigarette smoke The heavy hand of William Muldoon struck through that ultimatum. The Iron Duke, as he is called, doesn't hke cigarettes. They are too effete.

And since cigarette smokers can take them or leave them alone ther get the same baseball bat that John L. Sullivan got On May 25, 1925, the occasion of his 0th birthday, William Muldoon was tendered a dinner by appreciative fight fans. Letters of appreciation-tog etliei with hundreds of telegrams of congratulation-poured in. The Iron Duke said afterward that it took hinrsr. entire week to go through this congratulatory correspondence.

It is said that MuMoon was heartbroken whei George Brower, noted Brooklyn lawyer, was appointed as his successor as chairman of the Commission. The grand old man of athletics offered his resignation frorr the Commission, but Mr. Brower refused to accept it. "Professional sport needs honest, clean-minded met like William Muldoon" said the new chairman on that occasion, "and we want to have him with us as lonr as he will stay." It is a curious thing to note that this oldster tlx trained the great ones of two generations ago, shoule believe that the fighters of today are better than the Sulhvans, Corbetts and Fitsimmonses of the golden a(re "All sports have improved," says Muldoon, "and boxers with them. I have no patience with the hopelessly low-brow pug, the bruiser who shows neither character nor intelligence.

But Jet me encounter one of the better type and 1 11 make the youngster one of my favorites, giving him such advice as 'Don smoke or drink, keep straight and stay away from crooks attend to business, don't be a damned fool, and some day you'll be champion." And sometimes they do become champions. Thus his fancy for such men as Tunney and Sharkey, anc' for a clean-cut middleweight from New Jersey namec James J. Braddock. "But the bulk of them with their magnificent bodiet and stupid brains do nothing but depress me." In action the Muldoon of today carries himself with great agility for a man of his weight and years. In repose be is as urbane an old gentleman as one would wish to meet.

Except when he comes to the city on Tuesday to attend the meetings of the Athletic Corr-missjon, he wears riding clothes, with puttees over well turned shanks; and there is nearly always a beautiful English sheep dog near at hand. The reddish hair is white now, and thinning in front, but there are few other signs of age. His teeth arc perfectly white and even, and his straight mouth with the close-cropped white mustache suggests Pershing's except that the effec is slightly heavier. His voice is not that of a doderer but well modulated, useful alike in polite conversation and bellowing out orders that would frighten a cavalry troop. The vast, rambling old house at Purchase that is his home overlooks as lovely a vista as may be found near New York.

On clear days the Iron Duke can stride out on the roof from his office on the second floor and see the Sound, with Oyster Bay and Wheatley Hills beyond. Muldoon is not insensible to beauty Far from it. He loves beautiful horses, dogs, the wooded uplands of Westchester and the sight of a gracelul boxer weaving and dancing under the lipht. But women? They are ail very well, but he's bachelor. He gestures toward the old gymnasium and speak of the hordes of human misfits who have passed throurh -there.

"They have been all I could take enre of." Indeed Muldoon was champion of the world before he had held a baby in his arms, a notable event whcr occiirred one night in St. Lcuis back stage. As Georeir Drew had to go on the stage, she quickly handed i bundle to him, saying, "Here, Mul, held this a minute. Soon her part was over and she come back and pot th bundle; not until she had taken it did Muldoon realiz. tlwt he hud been holding ar.

iiilunt. The bundle wa-Ethel Barrymore. Soon after his graduation from Cooper Union, Muldoon lelt the itch to go on the stage. Through his wrestling and boxing bouts in the Houston street saloon he attracted tke attention of a man who knew a producer. This Jed to a short engagement on the stage.

He played the role of Charles the Wrestler in Shakespeare's "As You Like It" in the same company with Maurice Barry more, supporting Madame Modjeska, "This taste of the stage increased my passion for it. I toured the country with variety shows, as was the custom Tor aspiring young wrestlers. Sebastian Miller, Hughey Leonard and Ernest Roeber of Brooklyn were in the same company. "But even though he was wrestling on the stage, Muldoon never faked a bout. He wrestled on the level and never refused to meet all comers.

"It ts true that several times I put off a bout for a night in other words, a man might challenge one of the troupe and I might hold him off for a day or two before wrestling him. But that was done for the sake of publicity. In the end, I would meet him and would wrestle on the level." Later Muldoon joined Hallen and Hart's troupe and traveled for years with that organisation, meeting all comers. He had a standing offer of $2 a minute to any man that stayed more than five minutes with him. You could win $25 if yon stayed the full 15 minutes and $100 if you won.

Hallen used to make the announcement, introducing Muldoon as the world's heavyweight wrestling champion. "In the middle 80 I organized my own company. It was called 'Muldoon's Athletic and Variety Miller, Roeber and Leonard made up the company." He is one of the comparatively few professional athletes who rose to heights of greater fame after their clays of competition than during them. He conquered the professional wrestling world and retired as the undefeated champion, Greco-Roman style, before any of the crop of present-day champions were born. "To gain undisputed right to my title I was forced to do more than tour America.

I had to make trips abroad even as far as China and Japan. I floored all who disputed my right to the title; then I retired. "In the Interim between my stage career and the winning of the world's champion title. I spent five years on the New York police force. My fine physique and athletic ability won for me the position of physical instructor and trainer of the department's gymnasium." Muldoon added to his fame by supervising the training of John L.

Sullivan for his victorious bout with Jake Kilrain. He had never met Sullivan until John L. sought him out and urged him to assist in his training. Muldoon had known of Sullivan's reputation as a hard man to handle and of the boxer's utter disregard for rules and regulations. Muldoon con- You'll do as I say or take the conse-qences." Sullivan decided to do the former and tost no time getting into his clothes.

He went through an hour with the dumbbells before he was permitted to eat breakfast. During the second session, after the meal, when Sullivan thought he had had enough, he wanted to lie down and rest. Muldoon made him skip the rope. This was a new exercise to athletes. Muldoon had invented it for the purpose of strengthering the legs.

It was the first bit of real systematic training that Sullivan had gone through, and presently he was overcome by his vast thirst. He announced his intention of going downtown to get a drink. Out came the baseball bat again, and instead the Boston Strong Boy went back to the gymnasium. "If you'll drop that club 1 11 knock your head off," Sullivan threatened in a sullen tone. Accepting the challenge, Muldoon threw the bat to one side as he closed in on Sullivan and caught him with a firm hold.

They William Muldoon By Edmund Ingersoll Leeds Jr. MOST of this talk about how to prolong life is bunk," William Muldoon, 3, one-time actor, boaer. wrestler, trainer, policeman and since July, 1921, Chairman of the State Athletic Commission, declared The only way to live long is to observe the laws of nature. By following the laws of God and man I've lived to be 3. I expect to break 90." The man who has to a large degree shaped the careers of WiUard, Dempsey and Tunney and other well-known boxers, believes that parents are almost wholly responsible for the number of years that a child shall live.

This fact together with much of his own philosophy was revealed last week when, for the first time In his long and hectic career, permission was obtained to publish a biographical sketch of Jus life. "Every one has an equal chance to live a long and healthy life," Muldoon stated. "The trouble with most people Is that they do not study God's laws and live according to his precepts. If they did, they'd be healthier and they'd live longer. But they think it enough If they obey the laws of man.

They don't real-iaa that God's laws and nature's laws are the same thing. You can't keep healthy and live a long and full life unless you keep your body in training." Strangely enough, Muldoon believes that the converse is true. "You can't live long and be healthy if yon nenlect the training of the mind for the training of Uie body. Neither the one nor the other should be overemphasized," he feels. "And the early training that a child receives from its parent is the largest determining factor in how long he will live." Muldoon's own life seems to bear out this statement.

"I was a farmer's son and lrom my birth on ihc 25th of May, 1845, until the Civil War, when I enlisted in the Northern Army as a private, my life at my father's farm in BeHast, N. was a healthy one. But my mind as not neglected. I attended school until I went away to war in '61 at the ape of 16. "After the war I came to New York City, where I worked at a variety of humble occupations.

But during this time I continued to improve my mind by going to the Cooper Union night school. "It was about this time that I first became in professional athletics. In thouc days boxers id wrestlers were very poorly paid. "I used to pick up a few dollars alter my day's woik and my studies were done," said Mr. Muldoon, "in an old saloon cn Houston st, ever in the gas-housc district.

I met some tough ones there, all right. "There was fighting tliere el all hours and tlie boys were more than willing to mix. A fellow would come in and throw a 5 bill on the her. The barkeep would pick out two fellows he usually knew who were the 1 ungriest and the battle V.011IU be on. They would.