2. During the First World War, the United States Army made boxing an important part of the training of two million young men as soldiers.
3. After the war an extraordinary number of returned veterans (the estimate of the trade is 20,000) wanted to take up boxing as a profession because they liked it, or because there was a living in it with big money for those who reached the championship in any grade from bantam to heavyweight.
There was no tangible evidence that the sculptor had gone very deeply into the study of these matters. But as a man who had raised an army on his own grounds he was one who undoubtedly would listen to any harangue about what was good for soldiers being just the stuff for virile men who were not soldiers. And the appeal came to him without his making any move to ask for it.
One Sunday afternoon in 1917 there came strolling up the driveway to the Borglum home in Stamford a stranger somewhat noticeably costumed. As he alighted from his cab and started a leisurely march to the terrace the Borglums were conscious of a broadly checked suit, a flaming tie, a monocle and a bright-yellow cane. The man’s face may have shown a hint of Irish, but otherwise he was unmistakably British and impressively advertising it.
At the door he introduced himself as William A. Gavin of London. “But I have come originally from old Ireland,” he mentioned. “I was taught to love the arts at my mother’s knee. I have never forgotten the precepts she laid down for me.... ‘A great artist,’ she always said, ‘must live very close to God.’ And I have come here, sir, as a humble pilgrim. I have seen some of your magnificent work and I stand in great awe of it. I should esteem it a great privilege, Mr. Borglum, if I could go home and tell some of my friends that I have had the chance to shake your hand....”
Mr. Borglum invited him in.
Whatever else Mr. Gavin may have been, he was a finished worker. He has been described by some of those who knew him best as a somewhat small, round, dapper gentleman with an amiable manner who was stiff enough to be nearly pompous. But he knew how to take his time.
In due course he mentioned what had given him his interest
