punch

Polish-American boxer Stanley Ketchel (birth name Stanislaus Kiecal) was born in Grand Rapids Michigan, September 14, 1886. In his brief professional boxing career he won the middleweight championship twice, and held that title at the time he was murdered, on October 15, 1910. A biography of Ketchel can be found at: www.boxrec.com/media/index.php/Stanley_Ketchel

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanley_Ketchel

Social commentary from the English "Punch" magazine. The 'faux French' caption reads: "Mais un monsieur qui pense lui meme tres beaucoups plus bon regardons que vraiment il est!" (Rough translation: Just a man who thinks he's better looking than he really is!"). The character in question may be a famous figure of the time, but more likely this is Punch identifying social 'stereotypical' characters seen around town, such as this business trader, perhaps seen as vulgar in his efforts to flaunt his wealth by dressing showily unlike the smartly dressed soldiers around him, something of a 'flash harry' type, with a phonetic knowledge of a foreign language passing for education. Or it may be a comment on how the French (the soldiers observing) see the English as uncouth of dress and speech? The lower picture now seems embarrassingly ill-informed, but was perhaps typical of the time.

Bob Diry (aka Bob Deery) had a brief career as a middleweight boxer in the U.S., losing six of seven verified bouts in 1913 and 1914 (BoxRec page.)

whyaduck: thank you for the additional information about Bob Diry. We will update the photo information and reload the description.

Other Bain/LOC photos of Bob Diry, posted on Flickr in May, 2010: And in August, 2010:

On December 15, 1913, Diry, a middleweight, was knocked out by George Ashe in the third round of a contest at the National Sporting Club, in Brooklyn, New York. Diry was from Ireland, where his name was spelled "Deery." Although he had won a fight in November, this was his second loss in a row, and he would endure three more knockouts in 1914 before he hung up his gloves for good. Diry's boxing record: boxrec.com/list_bouts.php?human_id=73885&cat=boxer New York Times story, December 16, 1913 (NYT says he was a German, and had won several fights, but the record contradicts that statement): query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?_r=1&res=9807E...

Hi Wystan. I tend to believe the Diry was indeed German, not Irish, as another NYT link credits him as the German middleweight champion (see his boxrec.com bio). The only source I'm finding that says he's Irish is the info at the top of his boxrec.com record, but I believe that's an error, and I'm also going to guess that whoever compiled his "official" record there got most if not all of the results and info from the same NYT links we're seeing.