Kangaroo

The Kangaroo is a trained carnival animal presented as a boxing opponent, but its unusual defense overturns Frank Sheeran’s expectations of the fight. Sheeran thinks the animal’s short arms make it an easy target; instead, its long, gloved tail repeatedly strikes him from behind. The mismatch between what he can see and what he understands drives the scene from a wager for quick money into a brawl, while the audience’s laughter and the presence of Mary Leddy Sheeran give the episode consequences beyond the ring.

The Carnival Challenge

Sheeran and his companions arrive at the carnival after selling their blood downtown for ten dollars a pint, hoping to have more money for drinks. A sign offers one hundred dollars to anyone who can last three rounds with a Kangaroo. To the group, that prize looks like a better return than the blood money, and they head for the ring.

The setup gives the encounter its straightforward appeal: a cash prize, three rounds, and an opponent Sheeran initially judges by its short arms. The trained Kangaroo wears boxing gloves. Sheeran’s confidence rests on a mistaken comparison with a human boxer—he expects a few jabs to knock it out. He does not yet know that its loose jaw means punches do not have the effect he expects, or that its tail is part of its defense.

The Tail Behind the Fight

Sheeran starts by jabbing, reluctant to hurt the animal. When the jabs fail, he throws an overhand right and knocks the Kangaroo down. A hard blow lands on the back of his head. He shakes it off and resumes punching, unable to see what hit him; at first he suspects that someone has clipped him from behind.

The hidden cause is the Kangaroo’s tail. According to Sheeran’s account, it is eight feet long and whips up behind the animal when it is knocked down. The harder he hits, the harder and faster the tail comes at him, and a boxing glove is fitted to it. The very action Sheeran believes is bringing him closer to winning—the knockdowns—also prompts the counterattack he cannot anticipate. The Kangaroo’s reach is not simply longer than he imagined; it comes from a part of the animal he has not been watching.

The fight’s comic reversal depends on that blind spot. Sheeran keeps directing his attention toward the visible opponent while the blow arrives from behind. His first explanation is personal: he thinks someone is hitting him. Only after the second round does he ask his companions what is happening. They tell him the referee is striking him because he dislikes Irishmen. That explanation shifts his anger toward the official, but it still does not identify the tail as the source.

Three Rounds and a Ring Brawl

By the end of the second round, Sheeran is groggy. He has been drinking all day, has sold blood, and has been struck repeatedly on the back of the head. He is also conscious of the spectators’ amusement and worries that he is not making a good impression on the pretty Irish girl sitting in the third row. His performance is therefore not only about the prize: he is trying to show off for Mary Leddy Sheeran, a young woman from the neighborhood whom he has seen but never spoken to.

Before the final round, Sheeran confronts the referee and threatens to knock him out if he hits him again. The referee orders him back into the ring. Sheeran enters with one eye on the Kangaroo and one on the official, furious and ready to react. He hits the Kangaroo hard; the tail strikes him hard enough that his head aches for three days. Then he jumps at the referee and knocks him down. The referee’s people rush into the ring, Sheeran’s companions follow, and the police struggle to sort out the resulting melee.

The Encounter’s Consequences

The carnival fight ends not with Sheeran collecting the advertised prize but with his arrest. He is taken to Moko, the name his group used for the city jail at Tenth and Moyamensing. The account describes an informal detention: the police keep him for a while, then release him without legal proceedings after they decide he has received enough punishment.

Sheeran goes straight from the jail to Mary’s house and asks her out. They arrange to hear Erskine Hawkins’s big band at the Earl Theater, where they have a good time. The Kangaroo encounter thus becomes the occasion for their first date and, in Sheeran’s telling, the beginning of his decision to settle down. He remembers Mary laughing in the third row while he struggled through the rounds, then recalls that he had already imagined marrying her by the end of their evening together. The animal is not given a later role in the account; its brief appearance matters because its unexpected defense turns a drunken wager into a public spectacle that brings Sheeran to Mary’s door.