| QUOTE |
| "Gotch was a lucky man, but it was not he alone that made me quit; it was he, cocoanut oil mixed with kerosene, plus the referee who gave him the verdict. Gotch's tactics: gouging eyes, tearing ears, using foul language, etc., did not affect me at all. My most difficult adversary, until the end of the match, was the soil. I could not overcome it. I wasted my strength gripping Gotch's wrists and arms ... He slipped out of every grip. "Before five minutes passed, my trunks became as greasy as Gotch's skin, from rubbing and cleaning my hands of oil. I then appealed to the referee, and suggested we should have a hot bath before continuing. His answer was, 'Don't squeal.' This is the bitterest memory that I hold of the Chicago affair and of all the thousands of wrestling bouts that I contested in clubs, circuses, theatres and stadium. Nothing my hardest and toughest opponents, including Gotch, every did to me hurt me as much as the words, 'Don't squeal,' from Ed Smith, the referee in question. "I should have walked out of the ring at that moment and insisted on a bath. I know I would have beaten him quickly if I could only have managed to hold him. I was much the stronger, and I had wrestled and beaten much stronger men before. But the combination of Gotch, oil and Smith was too much for me. "I had been in generally bad condition for months before the match, with water in my knee joint. Yet I would have beaten Gotch were it not for his greasy skin. After one hour and fifty minutes of wrestling, I saw the opening for which I had been searching and went quickly to the floor, to roll him from that position. No one ever escaped from that hold, but I could not get the hold on him. He was as slippery as an eel. Seeing the uselessness of all further efforts caused me to give him the match." |