Monday, Oct. 29, 1923

A Dog

Joe Lynch, champion bantamweight boxer of the world, had agreed to risk his title against Joe Burman, Chicagoan. The day before the fight, Lynch reported himself disabled. Asked how that happened, he stated that in stepping from a taxi his feet had become entangled with his pet collie, he had lost his equilibrium, collapsed upon the sidewalk, arisen with a subglenoid dislocation of the shoulder.

Sportdom listened with suspicion to Lynch's tale. Burman scurried to the Boxing Commission, "weighed in" properly, was declared world's bantamweight champion. Promoter Tex Rickard went scouting in Harlem for a substitute for Lynch, returned to Madison Square Garden with a spindly Jew named Abe Goldstein.

Putting his slender arms into rapid motion, Abe Goldstein dizzied and dazzled Joe Burman during eight of twelve rounds, was declared winner and champion, went to bed with kindly feelings toward Joe Lynch's pet dog.