Buzz-Saw Belter

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I’ve told this story to a lot of people without telling them who the lead character is. Some of them think the story is about Stone Gowal. He has a part in it. A lot of prominent people have come off the hot, littered pavements of the East Side. A lot of little kids who are now sleeping out on the fire escapes to get out of the heat will be making headlines when they grow up.

Stone Gowal grew up on those streets. Seeing him from a distance he looks like any other hard boy. Short neck, big shoulders, heavy face bones. A lot of pounding has thickened his brows and his lips and widened his nose. Close up he’s something else. Close up his skin has a hard, grayish look, and under the shelves of his brows his eyes are a pale watery gray. Killer gray.

By tradition, outside the ring, he should be a big, happy, gentle animal. But all he has is the animal aspect. He is vain, ruthless, brutal.

Maybe this is rightfully a story about Len Kennedy. A lot of boys have drifted into the boxing game via the college route. Few of them have been any good. None of them have been champions. The writeups have given Len Kennedy some American Indian blood. He looks it. He is what the folks think about when they talk about turning fighting into a clean American sport.

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