The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, June 10, 1899, Page 1

VOLUME LXXXVI-N O 10 PRICE FIVECENTS. CHAMPIONSHIP OF THE WORLD COMES BACK TO CALIFORNIA BEFORE JEFFRIES MMONS GOES DOWN IN DEFEAT T S S e o e S e . . 3 : 3 . 3 : . 3 . ® R4 ¢ . . : B . . ¢ . ¢ . ? @ * . ® * . ® . . @ . . P ! . )¢ 5 . . ¢ i * i . ? . ps i * : * 3 * ¢ ¢ . ¢ % . ¢ )¢ @ $ . s * . * P ® . . ) . < . . JAMES J. JEFFRIES, Ch i f the W : ! S J. JEFFRIES, Champion of the World. : o . [~ PO S D S S B T T e T Y ( ¢ hird. He looked like it and his [ not for him and, leaning his head g | backers believed that he had upon his hands, the man of iron | ) zed his man up and would soon | wept like a child. Ofte 1g ‘e blow Experts who watched the bat- L Bt t is the history of all| tle thought Jeffries was done at attles. Jeffries was simply tre- | the end of the seventh, but after Californian was hailed by from eight to ten dened spectators. S v Fitzsimmons’ jaw shot Jeffries’ awful left. The [ is stunned. His gl fell a little from true on. Inan instant es hot right across ritzsimmons was down and « He fell on his face, rolled bver on his side and then slowly upc is ba His lanky form enc 1 his arms lay wide open on the floor. | I ous he lay in the good right arm had sent 1 a man before him. His gameness had been great and admirable He was practically a caten man when he was knocked down the tenth round. his the boiler- as often as Fitzsim- n wice 1 terrible blows and had maker, but mons landed Jefiries was tired rather than really groggy. There is no doubt that in the ninth round Fitz thought himself a winner, as he did also in the greater wearied ¢ He ing giant 1 kward his stoop- 1g he landed on the 1ampion with an ease which sur- 11s warmest admirers. In he proved what Corbett and er finished boxers had said of Fitzsimmons, most difficult man to hit. Def| ated in what was to have been and doubtless will be his last , old “Fitz” gave the sport- ing public what, their was the greatest for their money they have had in a decade. He was beaten down, not alone by sheer weight and tremendous ength, but by a deceiving style of fighting which m own languag run en led him to place his jaw in jeopardy. In the early part of the fight, in the fourth and fifth | cah | come now another that his youth asserted itself and his tremendous reserve strength | his rescue. Fitzsim- the other growing desperate, and in the to on came mons, | eighth Jeffries had something the | best of it. that he is not the | 3ut after the fight was over the experts could think of | no man in the business to-day | who is at once big en ough and scientific enough to make a good fight for the boiler-maker. One thing is certain, no middleweight do the trick. There must giant to fight a giant. Jeifries is not a finished | sparrer, but he is wonderfully quick for a man of his tremen- | dous size—the quickest big man sporting men are saying to-night, | just as they used to say of John rounds, the realization seemed to | come to Fitzsimmons that he must make a short fight or none. His boast that we would win two rounds was i‘\)l'gnnun. 1S was Chief Devery’s threat that ‘he would the bout after t first hard blow. Fitzsimmons went to the floor four times in all, and he was often bathed in his own blood, but the Chief of Police sat through it it was predicted that he wou until the heart-broken seconds carried Fitzsimmons from the ring and brought him back to sensibility. Then the champion | knew that the mighty shout | which shook the building and which rang in his dulled ears was in stop 1e as Id | | superfluous flesh he could never | .. Sullivan when he was in his prime. Jeffries is bigger than Sullivan, and never was so big a man trained so fine. Had he had any have stood the pace cut out for Jut he stood it and im- 1im. proved at the very time his chances seemed poorest. When Jeffries stripped a mighty cry of approval went up from the thousands about the ring. An old-time fighter cried out with an oath: “He is the biggest beast I ever saw train. If he ever gets to Fitzsimmons its all over.” While there was this jubilant scene in Jeffries’ corner, “Dan’” Hickey and “Jack” Everhardt, hand, was | Martin Julian, | 3 £ | looks, climbed through the ropes and tenderly picked up the unconscious and beaten Fitz and carrfed him to his corner 1d ated him in his chair, “Fitz” was still groggy when his | seconds placed him in the chalr, and | his head fell forward on his br t He was bleeding freely from the mouth and nose and evidently suffering con- | siderable pain. His seconds worked | gallantly over him for several mo- ments, and signs of tion were visible. G the cha plon’s normal condition urned and | he looked about him in a dazed w When he finally realized his pc *turning anima- | ual tion, that was no longer the peerless fighter of the day, his eyes moistened and tears trickled down his cheeks. He looked over at his successful op- s head and then rested es on the floor. He felt his posi- | ceenly, but his seconds cheere and after a moment he shook off | ponent, shook hi his feeling of despondency, straight- ened up, and, after getting the blood | wiped off his face and a ower -rl'i water on his face, put on his bath robe | and walk ut of th which he had i the champion of the world, a beaten man Just before “Fitz” retired Jeffries | hed across the ring and shook hands en adversary. Time of final round, one onds. STORY OF THI:: BATTLE FOR THE CHAMP.ONSHIP and thirty sec- There Were Few Bets, and Vet Never Was Such Interest Taken in a Ring Fight. NEW YORK, June $.—The tendance at the ringside was 1as had been expected. At § ena. which holds 9000 pe only number, But inside mighty hum of and outside thousands pressed upon the clubhouse in spite of the cordon of police, enjoying the fresh and waiting within striking of the us - ent nees the time of the fight approached. Chief of Police D went to Coney Island early and personally supervised the police arrangements. There wi an army of policemen on hand, all the 'r, perhaps, because it was gen- erally said that any interruption of the early at- not 0 the ms, about one-third the build- fighting talk great a was occupied by of that air dis- until tance ery DO OB JEFFRIES THE BEST MAN IN THE WORLD. That - Is: the New Champion’s Own Estimate of His Status as a Prize-Fighter. EW YORK, June 9.—The fight was never for one moment in doubt, so far as I was con- cerned. | knew what I could do when | entered the ring, and | grew more confident every mo- ment from the time the gong first sounded. Fitz never hurt me but once, and that was a hard blow in the left eye. His body blows did not have nearly the force they may have seemed to. In my own estimation, I had the best of every round. Fitz was a good, clean fighter and probably the best man of his weight in the country, if not in the world. | wish him all success for the future. I believe I am the best man in the world and I am willing to defend the title which [ won to-night. JAMES 1. JEFFRIES, Champion of the World. 120 85 0% O o252 8 OROKURO fight would the signal for a riot ; , 2mong the ten thousand men inside | Nard to have the money awarded so s et i 4% they could get part of it. i n ¥ Aps twice as t since Corbett and Fitz fought in many more outside, all hungry for a | ¢ wuch in- fight to a finish that would be no | te vy Y child’s pl Deputy Chief McLaugh- | o'clock half of the S | XCUSE TO OFFER lin ws cond in command and, chief | Who surrounded the ring were standing | ' of staff and veteran as he is, he was | UP and discussing one or another ex- | pe el | pected phase of the coming lm_mn‘u The | & R R : old and wise of the sporting fraternit A faint blue cloud of smoke began | wera sumounded by groups who list H C S N th' M i e e s ook, e | wers umoinaed by g who Te: \He Can Say Nothing Mere Than before nine, at which time there was | fall, as, for instance, when “Billy” Ed- only a half-light in the arena, as the fierce white light which was to beat | | upon the ring later had not then been | turned on. There was little bett at this early hour. Men who had talked fight for a month talked it over again at the ringside, using the same old ar- guments in favor of their choice. Oc- | casionally, when some well-known | sporting man emerged from the crush | about the §7 and made his way slowly to a box there was a shout of | recognition. Occasionally a man high up on one | side of the ring shouted across to an intance on the other such pleas- | as, “Well, I see your finish. | tiff you are betting on will be | done in a punch,” and the reply would | come back, “I won't have to walk home, like you will.” The ring empty, but a ct in either corner toid where the principals were to be placed, and the super: tipus, always in evidence, at a fight, | talked serfously with one another | about misfortune in having the unlucky corner. This simply mear | that Fitzsimmons had won the toss f¢ choice and presumably had chosen the corner in which had been seated the | fewest losers in the past. | By twenty minutes to nine o'cloc all of the seats excent the most ex- pensive ones were practically filled, | and it was clear the clubhouse, which | is supposed to seat 8600 persons, would | be jammed to the doors, and now the | hum of fighting talk grew louder and | one could guess at the volleying roar which * was to come later when the | fighters appeared and moved to their places. Already it was a mighty crowd, and | all seemed confident there would be no | police interfe e and that they would | see what they had paid and hoped for, | the greatest heavy-welght contest ever | [ | | { pulled off in the Bast. A vitagraph | company had a stand erected above the heads of the spectators about sixty Men were ready 9 feet from the ring. and waiting long before | seize with their machine every and blow of the big fighters. The boxes began filling, and here and there one heard the cry “Two to one on Fitz,” and the revly, “You are on for fifty or a hundred.” The men rested in their dressing rooms calmy, according to their man- agers and seconds, but in reality wish- ing the referee had said his preliminary piece and that the gong had sounded for the first round. The Jeffries men at the ringside held out for odds of 2 to 1, and as that seemed a long price to many, laying was slow for a time. Later on perhaps 10 to 7 would better express the price, which in Broadway late in the afternoon had ruled at about $1000 to $600. By 10 minutes to 9 more than two-thirds of all the seats | were crowded, o'clock to feint and so the managers were not wor- | ried on that score. ing men, in the general sense, but bankers, lawyers, doctors and others life were to be seen around the ring. The fact that it was down here by the | sea lent more of the old-time fighting | the case had it been held in the city. | The attendance proved that thousznds wanted a fight, pure and simple, and cared nothing for the bickerings of the | stopped when hard blows began to fly and those which were | not filled at that time had been sold | It was a great crowd, not only sport- | foremost in every prominent walk in | | by Siler’s absence from the ringside. color to the bout than would have been | the seconds of Fitz, wearing gloomy | politiclans of Manhattan, wha tried so | | became qui | bett was immediately surrounded with wards gave his view of prospects S kT w1 DAL Jeffries Is the Best Man He Ever Met. s he was two y ago. He is big enough to fight anybody in the world. El-‘_\\ YORK, June 9-—"I can’t say any more than that Jefiries is the best man I ever met. He was too big and strong for Jeffries has youth as his stronge: point, for youth means greater powers of recuperation. The betting, 1 shoulc say, is about $1000 to $600. That means that most men have a strong belief in the powers of Fitzsimmons, backed up, as they are, by his great ability as a me. It is proof positive that youth and 2 2 2 hitter and ring general and his long weight will tell in a fight. T can make no excuses. experience in the business. FR R o Tt "Was announced at 9:15 that"the ROBERT FIT B=3 DO20LIORDN0 2% O O in readin nd would principals wer at 9:30, according to the enter the ri RORORGROUHLORONORO ramme The picture m:u‘hinvv. its | corners several days ago, and ected | MacAuliffe, Griffo, Choy Billy ger said, was in fine WOrking the southwest corner, known the | Smith, George Godfre Plimmer order and would prove success. “Lucky Corner Many successful and Johnnie Grifin. They all won their time, a quar- | fighters had occupied it in the halcyon | respective contes Many old-time The great arena at th ter past 9, was filled, with the excep- tion of some vacancies in the $20 seats, and the hum of fighting talk was be- coming a roar. Men talked louder than usual In order to be heard. and a bab- | ble of sound was the result. days of the old Coney Island Athletic Club. In the corner occupied by Fitz have sat such fighters as Dixon, Jack | L e e s e S ] A - * sporting critics who witnessed suc- cesses of the fighters named in the days of the old Coney Island Club regarded Half past 9 o'clock came. but did not | bring the fighte The crowd was on : edge. Then moved slowly | owd from the north of through the the cl g , and a roar greeted his appe: But, instead of climbin into the ring, he moved on to his dre; ing room nd the disappointed crowd The stage waited for the actors. The great crowd became impatient. The smoke cloud which hid the rafters be- came thicker anc blu utes to 10 o’clock and, of many, there was sti £ There was not even a Sponge or el to whet the fighting appetite of waiting thousands. They began to Wwhistle and stamp and applaud But the coy fighters still kept under cover. Chief Devery had taken up his station near Fit er, where the licht fell full upon his f and hun- dreds . tried to read from his counte- nance whether the men would be or whether, was the general ex- pectation, they would go on to a finish. Jim Corbett arrived near the ringside at 12 minutes to 10, and a little of the pent-up enthustasm was lavished upon him. as he moved to Jeffries’ corner and took his seat where he could watch and coach his former sparring partner. This was the northeast corner. Cor- A A0 S a0 o gt S U D S SO SO e @ R men who urged him to tell them the last news bearing on the battle and | who wanted a able tip.” The absence of a preliminary bout tried the crowd’s patience extremely. Most of those present had been waiting for three hours as they would have | waited for few things on earth. They wanted to seé one or the other of the big men pound his opponent into insen- sibility, and they would wait until mid- night if necessary. False cries “Here they come” moved the throng as minute by minute and the ring was still empty. Rumors gained ground that the fighters had failed to agree on an interpretation of the rules at the last moment and that they were wrangling over the matter with the referee. Color was lent to this *o LSt SROSS SRS o Sk B e S At Sl o g -9+ 4-O- OO+ O+ Chief Devery leaned far back in his chair, his eye on a level with the floor . of the ring, and waited, the most & patient man in s(fi\hl. and yet a max‘x r’yln f p vh thoulders.there was more weight i Than on any one sxcept, perhaps, the ROBERT FITZSIMMONS. é principals. Fitz won the toss for choice of ‘a@ B B e e e e e S i i o e o