if an unnecessary fuss has been made about those affairs of other boxers which have nothing whatever to do with boxing, there is some excuse in carpentier’s case, if only because he is the first frenchman to achieve real distinction in the sport.
georges carpentier was born at lens, in the pas de calais, in january of 1894. his father was a collier, and the boy, directly he was old enough (which probably meant long before he was old enough), followed his father underground and worked as a pit-boy, earning his five francs a week. at about this time a jovial little man whose face is now as familiar as carpentier’s, fran?ois descamps by name, was managing a gymnasium in the town. it was at this time that a wave of athleticism was passing over northern france, and the boys of lens, carpentier amongst them, used to regard this gymnasium as their chief amusement after work hours. amongst other exercises, descamps encouraged a certain amount of boxing—“english” boxing. la savate had practically died out, and the days when “charlemagne” the frenchman, “kicked out” jerry driscoll, the ex-sailor (amongst whose pupils have been some of the best of the english amateurs) were unlikely to return. still, though boxing was at this time a popular enough show in paris, few frenchmen themselves actually boxed, and descamps was, in providing gloves at his gymnasium, rather in advance of his time.
descamps forbade the use of these gloves by boys whom he had not yet taught, and when one evening he caught young carpentier thrashing a much bigger boy with them and by the light of nature, he rated him soundly: but he kept an eye on him. he was a natural fighter. it soon became apparent that he 177 must fight; the inward urging was there, insistent and never for long to be denied. and the boy, all untaught, could defend himself.
photo: “sport and general.”
joe beckett.
before very long descamps, who interviewed the child’s parents, overcame their natural scepticism by paying them the weekly five francs the lad had been earning at the mine, and undertook his training as an athlete, sending him out into the fresh air instead of into the pit, teaching him all he himself knew about the science of fisticuffs. mr. f. h. lucas, the author of from pit-boy to champion boxer, makes it plain that if ever there was an authentic instance of a fairy godfather stepping into a boy’s life and changing it in a day from gloom to unalloyed delight, it is the instance of descamps and carpentier. the young frenchman had an unique opportunity of succeeding well, for he was by descamps’s interference enabled to follow the pursuit he liked best from his boyhood onwards; and underwent, owing to that fact, a unique training, adapted as it was to that end and to that end alone.
it is unnecessary to trace carpentier’s career from the time he won his first success against an american boxer in a travelling booth and became “champion” of france at 7 stone 2 lb., and at the age of fourteen, until he beat the heavy-weight champion of england, when he was but nineteen and no more than a middle-weight.
carpentier’s success was by no means uniform. he got some severe thrashings both from english boxers and frenchmen—generally owing to the fact that he gave away weight and especially years at an age when youth is on the windward side of achievement. it is a wonder that the boy was not discouraged, but his pluck was unconquerable, and descamps a sympathetic and astute manager. again and again when it became apparent in a contest that nothing could save carpentier from a knock-out, descamps would give in for him, directing one of the seconds to throw a towel into the ring. his avoidance of the actual fact of a knock-out no doubt saved the boy much discouragement, and it looked better, and still looks better, in a formal printed record of what 178 he has done. of course, descamps was not always able to gauge the right moment for surrender, and it happened at least once in those early days that carpentier was knocked out just like any other boxer with no fairy godfather to supervise his defeats.
in 1912 he had a very hard fight with frank klaus the american, who at that time claimed the world’s middle-weight championship. this encounter took place at dieppe, and the american was nearly beaten early in the fight, falling from a terrific blow on the jaw. but he recovered, and his much longer experience came to his aid. in the end he gave carpentier a severe drubbing for several rounds until, to save him, descamps entered the ring: whereupon the referee gave klaus the verdict. but throughout this contest the frenchman was working hard, fighting all the time, never discouraged by punishment, showing what he had always shown, a perfectly unalterable, irreducible courage.
the same sort of thing happened in his fight with another american, papke. this time carpentier had to reduce his weight, which is the worst possible thing a boy, still growing and with no superfluous flesh, can do. he began the fight weak, was severely hammered and finally had an eye closed. again descamps intervened, this time in the eighteenth round, to save him the technical knock-out.
regarded dispassionately, this sort of thing is excellent “business,” and does not, as far as one can see, do much harm to sport. if tommy burns was the first man who made boxing a matter of sound commerce, one may call carpentier, or more strictly his manager and mentor, descamps, the first boxing business magnate. between them they had made a literally large fortune before carpentier was twenty.
one of his hardest, longest, and best fights was with jeff smith, a hardy american who was a shade lighter, shorter, and with less reach than carpentier. this combat took place at the end of 1913, not a month after the frenchman had beaten wells, for the second time, at the national sporting club.
on this occasion carpentier boxed indifferently in the early 179 rounds, and seemed not to take the occasion seriously. his was the first blow, and it was a good one, which drew blood from the american’s nose. smith grunted and shook his head, and put in a left in reply. it was clear that he wanted the frenchman at close quarters, and he kept coming in close and hammering away at the body. carpentier made a perfunctory effort to keep him at arm’s length, but seemed after a while to be willing to fight smith on his own terms. he caught the american a very hard smack on the eye, which swelled up so that he was thenceforward half-blinded. smith even in the third round was a good deal marked, and not one of the spectators imagined for a moment that he could possibly last out the full twenty rounds. in the next round carpentier boxed very much as he pleased. they exchanged body-blow and upper-cut on the head, but the latter was the more severe, and it was the frenchman’s. smith kept on trying to “bring the right across” at close quarters, but carpentier always protected himself. he seemed to be waiting for a safe opportunity for knocking his opponent out, and did little in the fourth round. smith kept on leading, though without much effect, but scored more points nevertheless.
after a while smith began to get into serious trouble, and he held to avoid punishment. this is against the strict rules, and should be regarded as such; but, humanly speaking, when you are getting a very bad time, the instinct to hold your man’s arms to prevent him from hitting you is very strong. if you have the strength it is, of course, much more efficacious to hit him and stop the punishment in that way: but when your strength is going, as smith’s was, you are prone to follow blind instinct, rules or no rules. just after this he managed to put in a good upper-cut, but got a hard “one-two” in return—a left instantly followed by right, straight, taking him in the middle of the face. and then smith woke up, having got what is called his second wind. throughout the seventh round he gave carpentier a really bad time. two fierce blows, left and right, made the frenchman rock where he stood, and his counters were well guarded or avoided altogether. carpentier boxed better in the eighth round, but 180 there was no power in his blows, and the french onlookers began to look very glum. for his part, carpentier wished that he had trained better. he was not himself: the fire seemed to be dead in him. he was feeling desperate: there was no pleasure in this fight. smith kept on getting under his long arms and hitting him hard at close quarters, hammering away at his stomach. and carpentier grew weaker and more wild, and wasted his remaining strength on futile swings which clove the empty air. another hard blow on the jaw and carpentier staggered. it was all he could do to hold up. he replied with one of his vain and foolish swings, sent with all his remaining power whizzing through the air and missing jeff smith by feet. this effort sent carpentier hard to the floor by the momentum of its own wasted force. it is true that smith failed to follow up his advantage when the frenchman rose, but even so the round was decisively in his favour.
the tenth round found smith strong and hearty, boxing with sturdy vigour if not remarkable skill. carpentier had recovered a little by now, and, exasperated by smith’s coolness, rallied vigorously and rained left-handers on his opponent, so that the american was forced to “cover up” with his gloves on either side of his face and his elbows tucked in. carpentier’s round, but no serious damage done. and the next was much the same, and smith clinched a good deal, though carpentier’s hitting was far from strong. smith’s defence was admirable when he was not holding, but his vigour of attack had been in abeyance for a little while. in the twelfth round he woke up, and drove his right to the frenchman’s mouth, drawing much blood, and went on attacking. in the fourteenth round carpentier seemed quite done. he tried once or twice to swing in the hope of knocking his man out, but his blows were weak and smith was cautious. the american was still the more marked and obviously damaged of the two; but carpentier looked woebegone and ill. he, too, had a split lip which bled profusely. just at the end of the round carpentier did at last manage to put in a right cross-counter which had some strength in it, but before he could follow it up time was called, and smith had his minute in which to recover. 181
it was about this time that descamps declared that carpentier had smashed his hand at the very beginning of the fight. it may be taken as a fairly safe rule that when a man’s backers make this type of observation during the progress of a contest, they think he is going to lose it. when he has actually lost, they invariably say something of the kind. a smashed hand—a family trouble—an acute attack of indigestion—these excuses and all their manifold variations serve their dear old turn, and are promptly disbelieved at large as soon as they are uttered. it is possible that carpentier may have sprained a thumb slightly, but it could not have been more than that. the vigour that his hitting lacked was, on that occasion, constitutional. he was not in first-rate condition.
both men were sorry for themselves. smith’s eye was quite closed, his opponent was bleeding severely from his cut lip. for a time their efforts were about equal. carpentier kept trying to knock his man out, smith defended himself. the spectators could not understand the frenchman. all the time or almost all the time, he had fought like a man both weak and desperate. and then, quite suddenly, in the sixteenth round there was a change.
i have said that carpentier is a real fighter: he has the spirit and instinct for bashing, for going on against odds. he was weak, and for a long time he had plainly shown it. and yet somewhere in him there was a reserve of power and an unconquerable will.
to the utter astonishment of the onlookers and of jeff smith himself, carpentier sprang out of his corner for the sixteenth round as though he were beginning a fresh contest. he positively hurled himself across the ring at his antagonist. he landed at once, with a half-arm blow on the head, and blow after blow, mainly with the left, pounded the unfortunate american. smith was completely taken aback and could only clinch to save himself. it was all that he could do to withstand this slaughtering attack and remain upright.
there was a great uproar amongst the crowd. yells of delight greeted this great awakening of the frenchman: and when the next round began every one thought that smith must 182 soon fall. carpentier went for him again with animal ferocity. he leapt about the ring after him, sending in blow after murderous blow. smith reeled and gasped and staggered and backed away after each shattering, smashing right had landed, but he still stood up and fought him like a man. it was a fine show of pluck. the man was badly hurt. plenty of boxers would have dropped for a rest and even would have allowed themselves to be counted out, but not jeff smith. he was, as they say, “for it,” and he knew that he was “for it.” but he would go through with it.
the uproar increased. the spectators wanted to have the fight stopped, but without avail. the fight went on. smith staggered in, and more by good luck than any sort of management, contrived to land two pitiful blows. his legs were hopelessly weak—he could hardly see, and yet he managed to cover his jaw, and, try as he would, with all his renewal of vigour, carpentier could do everything he liked with his man save knock him out. it is necessary to make this quite plain. smith looked as though he must at any moment drop down and stay down from sheer exhaustion.
a minute’s rest. the last round.
men are oddly and wonderfully made. smith leapt from his chair just as his opponent had done a quarter of an hour before, strong, eager, ferocious. he tore across the ring at carpentier, flung amazing blows at him, made desperate and frantic efforts to knock him out at the last minute. carpentier was completely flabbergasted. he had never known anything like this to be possible. smith’s recovery was marvellous, not less wonderful than that. and indeed jeff smith was within sight of victory throughout that desperate last round. he landed a right-hander with all his diminished strength, and the frenchman crumpled up and fell forward to the boards. a little more might behind the blow, a shade more elasticity in the arm that sent the blow, and carpentier must have been counted out. but that was the end. carpentier rose just as the bell rang for time. and the referee gave the fight to him. the decision was not popular even among frenchmen—which is surprising, but strengthening to one’s faith in human nature.