MANLYLIFE

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John L. Sullivans John L. Sullivans

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Dear Reader,

A mollycoddle youngster grow

ing into a mollycoddle man is

something that gets me sweari

ng mad, and theres too many

of them

to be seen these days. Now, I k

now the game of life from A t

o Z,

from soda to hock. Who has h

ad more living than me? Nob

ody! So

as one of the countrys foremos

t masculine icons, I feel compe

lled to

shy my castor into the ring an

d take up the fight to prevent t

he men

of this world from becoming d

udes and dandies. My style of

talk has

always been the kind that call

ed a spade by its own name a

nd not

an agricultural implement, an

d throughout my illustrious ca

reer, the

press printed my rhetorical jol

ts on everything from healthy

living to

war to womens hats. Read th

is collection of my hard-hittin

g thoughts

on leading the manly lifebo

th inside and outside the rope

sand Ill

guarantee it will cure us of ou

r mollycoddle affliction.

Yours truly,

John L. Sullivan

Share this free guide with the world under the terms of Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. 2013 Christopher Klein

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John L. on Attacking LifeWhether its in war, sport, business, or marbles, youve got to do more or less fighting

or youre simply talking in your sleep. And if youre satisfied to talk in your sleep all

your life, you might as well call for the undertaker now and save time.

John L. on Savoring LifeWe are going to be a long time dead and only a few of us know

how to enjoy life as it goes.

John L. on WarIf the nations would agree to pick a dozen of their boxers to settle arguments

with their fists, youd get just as much satisfaction and there wouldnt be half

the damage done.

John L. on CheapskatesThe fellow who nails his coin to the floor and wont give it a spin, nor let

anybody else swing it around for him, is responsible for making the whole

country go broke at times.

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John L. on TenacityI want to say to all men who want to make good in the battle of life, to learn to hold

on. The man who gives up and cries baby because he gets a throwdown or a slap in the

jaw, is never going to have the fire department putting out rivers hes set afire.

John L. on Wall StreetIf some fellows who are in jail were let out there would be more cells to rent to some

of the high financiers who have been copping out wagon loads of loot and getting

medals for it instead of jail sentences.

John L. on GunsI think any maker of firearms has murder in his heart.

He supplies the means to make sudden death easy.

John L. on PhilanthropyIf some of these millionaires who are trying to square themselves before they die

by giving back some of their money to the American public in the form of libraries,

colleges, and so forth, want to do something worth while, let them build laundries

where poor women can get their washing done free, or at a price they can afford.

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John L. on Raising BoysCut out this nurse business, let the boys go off with other boys and get their knocks

in the old-fashioned way. Dont spend so much money on them, and give them a

chance to grow up manly boys, instead of a sissy like yourself.

John L. on Teddy RooseveltNo champion ever retired with a belt that can show more class, gameness, and

walloptiveness than Theodore Roosevelt.

John L. on the Benefits of BoxingBoxing develops all kinds of courage in men, and if I had my say every kid in the

countryd have to get busy with the gloves, and thered be no sissies among the boys

growing up. If we had boxing as part of every boys training wed develop a nation of

Roosevelts, and thatd be going some.

John L. on Physical EducationWhat good is a man who knows all the Greek there is in the books if he cant digest

his food and has to have a nurse show him around? Punk. All the parents in the

country ought to get wise to Roosevelt and bring up their children with an eye to the

brawn as well as to the brain.

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John L. on NetworkingMy advice to young men who want to get on in the world is, be a good mixer.

In my time, I have met all kinds of people, from Teddy Roosevelt and the present

King of England down to One-Eyed Connolly, and with all Ive been able to

shake-a-day-day and break even.

John L. on Teaching Boxing in SchoolsIf theyd introduce boxing into the schools, more of our young Americans

would hold up their end in the struggle for bread and butter and the doctors would

not be so rushed with work.

John L. on RatsI never make any funny cracks when I hear of women jumping on tables when they

see a rat, for I dont blame them. Its the worst kind of feeling to have, and from the

day a rat attacked me Ive worn tight pants. You couldnt hire me to wear loose ones.

John L. on Womens HatsThese styles are made up in Paris by women who would get pinched as

street walkers if they hung out over here, and when they say a thing goes, every

woman in the world who can get the price falls for it.

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John L. on Curing AlcoholismThe treatment to cure drunkenness and the treatment to cure consumption is pretty

near the same. People get consumption because they dont get the right kind of food

and enough of it, and the right kind of rest and enough of it. People take to drink

because theyre worked or worried to death, and the way to help them is to get rest for

their minds as well as their bodies.

John L. on LuckIt aint so much luck that makes a man a success, as it is the right kind of

fighting, no matter what the odds are. Bad luck can be turned into good luck

with a few wallops placed right.

John L. on CharityWhen you have it, dont be afraid to let go, for you cant tell how soon

youll be down and out yourselves and trying for a hand-out.

John L. on His Spending HabitsI kept such a lot of the rhino circulating that you couldnt squeeze

in a panic if you tried.

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John L. on Healthy LivingIf some of the broken-down ones will get their food cooked right, chew it up fine

before downing it, take plenty of exercise (but not too much), bathe in water, cold, but

not cool enough to shock, and take an alcohol rub once in a while, theyll thank me

for the change in them and put half the doctors out of business.

John L. on WorryingCut out the worry thing. During the financial depression good men have gone

broke in health worrying about things they cant help. Thats all bunk. Dont worry.

Whenever a bunch of worry is handed to me I give it the laugh, and thats the finish.

John L. on Skin CareA lady reporter who wrote me up a while ago said I had a complexion

like a massage salve advertisement, and thats no dream.

John L. on Saving MoneyTheres a good deal of rot in all this talk about saving up for a rainy day.

Whats the use of saving up your money till youre so old you cant have

any fun spending it? Whats the matter with enjoying it when youre young and can

get some good out of it?

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John L. on Staying in ShapeA man past fifty shouldnt do much toward reducing his weight.

The effort will do more harm than good.

John L. on WillsWhen you make a will, it looks as if you were getting ready to die.

John L. on DeathIt has to come some time, and I am not looking for it in a hurry, but

when it does come I had rather be snuffed out quickly by something like

heart disease than to suffer with a lingering illness.

John L. on DrinkingI have been intoxicated, but I never was drunk.

John L. on SobrietyNot even the most seductive beverage concocted by the god Bacchus

will ever tempt me to break my resolution never to drink again.

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John L. on PatriotismThere isnt a self-respecting American, no matter what tomfool ideas he may

have about boxing in general, who does not feel patriotic pride at the thought

that a native born American, a countryman of his, can lick any man on the face

of the earth. It is human nature.

John L. on SocializingIs it in the nature of a boxerpugilist, if you willto keep away from

allurements of sociability? You cannot by any process known to a living being

make a monk or a hermit out of a prominent pugilist.

John L. on Traveling to FranceThey pelted me with parleyvoos I couldnt understand.

John L. on Travelling to AustraliaNo more of Australia for me, not till they get a balloon service

thatll do it in a day and a night.

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John L. on the Science of BoxingTheres nothing to fighting. Just come out fast from your corner,

hit the other fellow as hard as you can and hit him first.

John L. on the PressIf I took a glass of water they would say it was gin.

John L. on the Canadian PressIve taken a lot of joshing from the reporters on American papers,

and I stand for all of it, because most of them are my friends, but when the

Canucks get funny and try to slip across some of their foreign humor at me,

well, Im there with the short arm poke.

John L. on PoliticsA man who can quiet a crowd in Madison Square Garden,

as I have done, can make his presence felt in Congress.

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John L. on American BoxersIt is pretty hard to understand how a foreigner can beat an American, and when it

does happen, you can be pretty sure that the foreigner has not met the best American,

or that the American has not been taking care of himself.

John L. on ManagersI got gray managing managers, and I had a tough time making some of them behave.

John L. on BaseballWhen all the young fellows who now go looking for trouble Sunday afternoons can

be herded into an open lot and made happy with a ball game, I can tell you that every

city and town is going to be a heap better off than they are now.

John L. on Baseball UmpiresEvery candidate for a job as umpire ought to know how to use his mitts;

the rules of the game come after that. When I hear of an umpire suspending a player,

or taking a bite out of his salary by fining him, it gets me going. A wallop or two

placed by the umpires early in the season would straighten up the big leagues till the

Worlds Series was rolled off.

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John L. on Thin PeopleThere are too many second-hand jokes fired at fat men by slim jims that look as if

they were too tight in the wad to buy themselves a square meals victuals. If you ask

me whoever gave these skinnymelinks license to get gay with people who show their

keep, Ill tell you they havent got any.

John L. on Fancy FightersThey make too much talk of these fancy moves with arms and feet and

they forget that the lad with the wallop has them all faded if he steps in and

hammers a few into the block and the breadbasket. When thats the case,

the bigger they are the harder they fall, and the smaller man with the punch

swells his bank account just as easy as anything.

John L. on ProhibitionIf all the firewater in the world was destroyed there are lots of people who

would be busy right off mixing red pepper and kerosene to get something that

would taste like the old stuff.

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John L. on Fight PursesI never in my life had a guarantee as to how much I was going to get before

I went into the ring. The old plan made a fighter do his best from the drop of the hat,

for he knew he had to win to get anything.

John L. on BostonThe fighting men Boston has turned out never gave her any bad name, and shes been

turning them out since Bunker Hill.

John L. on Boston PoliticsI live in Boston where they open campaigns with baseball bats and

close them with ambulances.

John L. on Meeting RoyaltyWhen I met the present King Edward VII, then Prince of Wales, in 1887,

I shook his flipper and wished him well. He struck me as a sport of the right sort,

and we chinned one another for two hours.

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John L. on Bare-Knuckle BoxingIm not sorry that the London prize ring rules have been put overboard, for they

were sure brutal and tantalizing. The glove is as good for showing superiority as the

naked fist, and with the glove there isnt the brutality of the old days.

John L. on His Place in Boxing HistoryI claimand it will not be denied by any sport who has been wise for the

last quarter of a centurythat I made professional boxing respectable,

so that decent men were not ashamed to go to a boxing show.

John L. on Opponents of BoxingBoxing is as legitimate as baseball, croquet, tag, hop-scotch, poker, whist,

or any game you care to mention thats played in society for fun or prizes.

They ought to cut out this juk-throwing at boxing. The mollycoddles and

pinheads never gave it a square deal.

John L. on the Craft of ActingYouve only got to walk around, get off your lines, mind your cues,

and there you are.

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John L. on FootballBare-knuckle fighting, gouging, bone-breaking, leg-twisting, spine-snapping and

all the other brutal things I helped to put out of the ring now go to make up

the game of football.

John L. on the Benefits of BoxingIll give boxing as a remedy for most anything. Any man who works with his nut,

like a lawyer, doctor, editor or business man, will be a better duck every way

if hell take a dose of the gloves every day.

John L. on the Brutality of BoxingTheres nothing brutal in boxing. Any of our big sports have more dead and injured

charged against them than has boxing.

John L. on His Fighting StyleI won all my matches because I began to fight from the moment the gong tapped.

That was the kind of stuff that kept me on top, and I went down at last, not because

my plan was punky, but because my bellows wouldnt stand the gaff.

ADVANCE PRAISE

You dont have to be a boxing fan to want to time travel back to the 1880s and sample some nickel beer, free lunch, horse trolleys, and the Babel of immigrants. Christopher Klein, in this well-researched book, delivers the sportin life of the Gilded Age when Americans crowned their first athlete-king, John L. Sullivan, in coast-to-coast banner headlines. Richard Zacks, best-selling author of Island of Vice: Theodore Roosevelts Quest

to Clean Up Sin-Loving New York

Sports biography at its best. Rich in period detail, anecdote, and fresh perspective, Strong Boy paints both the good and the bad sides of success, as Americas growing celebrity culture turned a simple Irish American gladiator into a national, in fact international hero. A very human story with profound parallels for our sports-obsessed culture today! Nigel Hamilton, author of Biography: A Brief History and The Mantle of Command: FDR at

War, 19411942This admirable biography has a Citizen Kane feel to it: Strong Boy both celebrates John L. Sullivan as a sports hero and lights up the pathos of Sullivan the man-child. If he could lick any son-of-a bitch in the world, John L. could out-drink and out-eat all contenders. The first million-dollar man in sports died broke. Christopher Klein does justice to the legend, the man, and the times. Jack Beatty, author of The Rascal King: The Life and Times of

James Michael Curley, 18741958

BUY NOW FROM

STRONG BOY The Life and Times of John L. Sullivan, Americas First Sports HeroBY CHRISTOPHER KLEIN

The gripping story of the hard-hitting, hard-drinking Gilded Age boxer who became the countrys first sports superstar and Irish-American hero.

Lyons Press368 pages, 16 page photo insert ISBN 13: 978-0762781522www.strongboybook.com www.christopherklein.com