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SCRAP IRON


"WHAT'S in a name?"

It was a woman who asked that ques tion, and if Romeo had been more of a fighting man he could have answered it. Enrico Mustolini was never heard of outside the Eighth Ward, but as Iron Mush Murphy he took the whole town by storm. Let us examine into this matter of names.

It is well known that the followers of three professions, operating mostly after dark, often forsake their baptismal appellations. From time immemorial actors, safe blowers and boxers, moved by varying impulses, have sought the shelter of the alias. Thus Michael Donohoe becomes * ' Richard Montclair ' ' ; Bill Jones blos soms, not too openly, as "Frisco Red" ; and Isi dore Finkelstein chooses the nom de guerre of "Battling Clancy."

To tell the truth about the matter, Enrico Mustolini had never given any thought to the question of an assumed name. In the barns and back alleys where most of his unremunerated fighting had been done the preliminaries had

not included an introduction of the principals.

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