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"Battling Nelson." The Danish lightweight champion Oscar "Bat" Nelson circa 1920s and what seems to be a punching-bag effigy of a black opponent. This glass negative, whose neighbors are dated March 1927, was probably used to illustrate contemporaneous newspaper accounts of Bat's arrest for larceny and subsequent placement under psychiatric observation, a convoluted tale related in the comments here. National Photo Company Collection. View full size.
Seeing that insulting, derogatory punching bag makes me want to punch the MAN in the nose! Looks like quite a few people beat me to it (although probably not for the same reason.)
My kids had a Joe Palooka punching doll not unlike Mr Nelson's. After a tough day, I sometimes couldn't help myself and would go down to their playroom and whale away at it. The fact that it always came right back up didn't help.
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