Imperial Valley Press

By HENRY McLEMORE
United Press Staff Correspondent

SWAN LAKE, N. Y., May 21. -

You don't have to take his word for it, of course, because there's an outside chance he's a bit biased, but James McLarnin says he will knock out Barney Ross when they meet for the welterweight championship next week.

James confided this to me yesterday upon our return from Monticello, N. Y., where, for some unexplainable reason, we had gone to watch Brother James A. Farley, the Haverstraw handshaker, dedicate a new post office building. I was a bit disappointed in Brother Farley's dedicating technique, for after all when a man has dedicated as many post office buildings as he has, he should never be over par for a post office, which is around 30 minutes. But he was well over, keeping the customers shifting about on their feet for over an hour.

Probably the greatest free-style dedicator this country ever saw, pound for pound, was Jimmy Walker, who used to do a bit of fancy mayoring around New York. In his prime Jimmy could dedicate anything in 15 minutes. They all looked alike to him - subways, night clubs, bowling alleys, music conservatories, zoos or schools for stutterers and stammerers. Given a freshly pressed suit, a trowel of cement, and a free hand, he could knock off the fanciest dedication you ever saw in 10 minutes. He'd have dusted off that Monticello post office in five minutes, and without even getting out of his car.

Jimmy's dedication masterpiece probably was his work on the Madison Square Garden bowl out in Long Island. Or rather, his dedication of the ground where the bowl was being scooped out. Accompanied by a hundred frock-coated Tammany officials, and all the heads of Madison Square, he walked up to a muddy spot on the open field, whammed in a shovel and, turning to William A. Carey, Garden president, said:

"You're going to have to work like hell to get this joint ready for Sharkey and Schmeling in June. Bet you 50 you won't do it."

That was all. The bowl was dedicated.

But to return to James McLarnin, or the Vancouver Dynamiter, as he was christened. After the dedication James and I stood down by the edge of Swan Lake and skipped rocks across the water. I had just brought off a nine-skipper and was feeling mighty pleased - when James said:

"Yeah. I'll knock Ross bow-legged."

As this was in direct variance with a statement issued by Ross, and the opinion of most of the experts, I asked James for an explanation.

"All right," he said, "I'll give you one. I've fought Barney 30 rounds already, haven't I? In each of those rounds I hit him at least five solid smacks in the belly. That makes some one hundred and fifty times I have stuck my right or my left in there where it hurts. What do you think those punches in the belly did to him? They softened him up. He may not know it, but they have. I'm a pretty fair hitter, and when I belt a guy that much he ain't going to be the same. He'll be ready to be taken next week and I'm going to take him. And I wouldn't be surprised if a hook to the stomach was the finishing crack."