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7. We Become a Race of Champions
- Southern Illinois University Press
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7. we beeome a raee of ehampious Two things of world-wide importance happened in 1910. Halley's comet swept across the heavens dragging its nebulous tail, and Jack Johnson fought Jim Jeffries in Reno, Nevada. The first brought with it fear born of unscientific speculation. The effects of the comet were temporary and fleeting. For weeks the papers had talked about it. Artists had drawn spectacular pictures of the fiery body crashing to earth. The churches did a wholesale business with backsliders and sinners standing in line to kneel at the altars. Ordinary Christians became saints as zealous gentlemen of the cloth warned everybody to "flee from wrath to come." One night in April it appeared suddenly in the sky, outranking in magnitude every other star. It was awe-inspiring as it marched majestically across the heavens. For weeks everybody sat out on their front porches, or hung over their fences, and watched the comet until their necks were stiff or their backs were sore. Then they politely nodded good night to each other, said their prayers, and went to bed wondering if they would live the night through. But you can get used to anything. After a few weeks, people reverted to normal. Neighborhood squabbles, fights, and Saturday night drinking sprees came back into vogue. Alma Flagg and Ole Lady Brickels "played the dozens" across the back fence. The people along the tracks started stealing coal again from the loaded ears 71 it's good to be black in the north end. The Kingdom of God had receded, and Du Quoin became its dear, uninhibited self once again. The Jeffries~Johnson fight had been cooked up by that wizard of boxing promotion, Tex Rickard. Jim Jeffries was from Carrol, Ohio. He has often been referred to as the "strongest man in the ring." He possessed tremendous stamina and by 1904 he had fought himself out of opponents. Internationally, Tommy Burns of Australia became the acknowledged champion, but when Jack Johnson defeated Burns, Rickard and a few other smart boys labeled Jeffries "the white hope" and started to work on the old fighter's ego. Jeffries agreed to meet the young Negro fighter in an outdoor arena at Reno on July fourth. Every Fourth of July the Holmes clan spent the day with Aunt Judith and Uncle Charlie Thompson. Aunt Tolitha and Uncle Tobe brought their children; Grandpa Holmes and Miz Cordelia brought their two youngsters, Gilbert and Emery. We accompanied Mother, for Dad was taking care of the lunch counter in Mr. John Simmon's pool halL He very seldom went to the family reunions anyway , for he was an ardent baseball fan, and when he wasn't playing himself, he and Cousin Babe, Willie Turner, and Ernest Smith caught the St. Louis~Cairo short line and went to St. Louis to see the Cardinals or the Giants. No matter what the outcome, the thing they discussed most was not the merits of the individual players comprising the teams. They discussed the insanity of American race prejudice that kept Rube Foster out of big league competition. Sometimes Uncle John and Aunt Stella would bring their family. There were always a few close neighbors who came over, and Belle Woodson, Uncle Charlie's sister who looked like a dark Egyptian princess. The Holmes family 7" [44.200.210.43] Project MUSE (2024-03-28 13:46 GMT) we become a race of champions did not face extinction, for sterility, along with murder, was looked upon as a cardinal sin. Children were everywhere. They banged on the oblong~shaped grand piano in the par~ lor, overflowed the house, pushed each other off the benches under the grape arbor, pulled the half-green plums that hung over the fence from Effie Boner's yard, and trampled the few clusters of Shasta daisies that made a heroic but losing battle to beautify the fence along Park Street. Ordinarily, Grandpa Holmes was the acknowledged head of any family gathering. The children all loved him, the older folks respected him. He was a marvelous storyteller and historian, an excellent judge of human nature. On a picnic he could stand in one place and catch enough fish for the entire crowd. No matter how we threw our lines around or over his, sometimes tangling them all up, he patiently untangled the lines, warned us about the viciousness of hooks, threw his line back into the creek and quickly pulled out another fish. "Don't make...