Monday, May. 03, 1926
O'Brien v. O'Brien
"Philadelphia Jack O'Brien, a retired gentleman prize fighter, one-time sparring partner of Anthony Drexel Biddle, who made Stanley Ketchel look like a goat, who backed up Tommy Burns, and was knocked out in 1909 by Jack Johnson, conducts an exclusive gymnasium and reducing establishment in Manhattan. He has many rich patrons. Last week one of them, delighted with her reduction, gave a party for him. To that party was bidden the brother of Philadelphia Jack O'Brien--Young Jack O'Brien (born 1895)--who won decisions over Ad Wolgast, K. O. Brown and Young Erne, and who now owns a gymnasium like his brother's. Although 17 years the younger, he became, as the evening wore on, increasingly critical of his brother's prowess. Mr. O'Brien soon rose from his chair, led the stripling into an empty room and locked the door.
The ice melted in the glasses. The food cooled on the silver salvers. Every guest stood trembling in the corridor outside the locked door, listening to the thud and rowdydow of fists, waiting for the best man to unlock the door and step out. Would the boy be too much for the curmudgeon? Or would the canniness of the old man prevail to wrest the championship of the O'Brien family from the youth? Suddenly, silence fell in the locked room; the guests gasped; the door opened. "Better go in and sew him up, Doc," said Philadelphia Jack. The real name of the two O'Briens is Hagen.