St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1888-12-03
ALBERT's BIG HEAD.

ulous Terms-MOney Made by
Rowell.
New YORK, Dec. 2.-There are some
men who want the earth, and there are
some who might be satisfied with Can
ada. According TO all reports the presi-
dent-elect comes in the latter class, but
the great II am" Of the former is Jim
Albert.
For some time past there has been a
movement on foot in a certain quarter
to arrange six days race to be held IN
March. The promoter was AL Smith,
who has made six day matches, OF at
least all he had anything to do with.
successes, and of whom it was expected
that he would make the match race a
''go." But Mr.. Smith, although grand
schemer, fine organizer and possessed
of executive talents second to none, had
to give way before the immaculate
''gall'' of Mr.. Albert.
Now, l have always liked jim. be-
lieved him to be the greatest OF living
pedestrians, and know that when was
referee of the February race, in the gar
den when he made his great record. he
could have gone many miles more than
he did. [ did believe and do yet that on
that occasion he could have covered GAO
miles. L also believed he would like
another race, make a great record and
win pot of money, but was mistaken.
| am now satisfied that Mr.. Cathcart
does not want to race against hard men.
NV reasons for thinking so l will give
briefly.
During the past week was asked by
Mr.. Smith my idea of siX-days' race in
March. / replied: Good, if you can
get Albert" He then told me he had
telegraphed jim and that the latter had
wired back: "Have mailed you answer"
That looked favorable. and Al told me
his plan. He proposed to hang up S15,-
600 in prizes, of which $4,000 would go
to the winner, 5000 to second. 81 600 to
third, $500 to fourth, $3.50 to fifth. $50 to
sixth and 800 to seventh. He also pro-
posed to have RowelI, Littlewood and
Guerrero in against Albert, and make it
THE RACE OF RACES.
Then came Jim's letter, in which he
said he would only race for gate re-
ceipts, and not for a stated prize, and
then, at Mr.. Smiths request, l wrote
ing where it would be to his advantage
to compete. But it was no go.
jim didn't want to race, and he
proved it by his reply. He said that he
would not start in another race unless
his record was broken, and not then UNI
less given $1,000 before he started to
train. He felt confident, he said. that
he would make $4,000 out of race it
he ever started again, and talked III
such an irrational way that Mr.. Smith
gave him up.
Of course, Albert never considered
the fact that man
WOULD BE PLUMB CRAZY
to give him S., 900 to start in a race, and
thorough imbecile to give him any
thing at all to start after his record is
broken.
OF what good as star. may ] ask, is
pedestrian unless he is record-hold-
er? and, not being record-holder, what
right has he to demand concessions? Is
it not folly to talk business with such
men? But let us pass all this and come
down to the financial problem that agi-
tates Mr.. Albert.
Since October. 1878, or a little over
ten years, there have been twenty -one
SiX-days races of what may be termed
the first class. They were distributed
as follows: Two in 1878, six in 1879.
two in 1880, five in 1881. two in 1882, one
in 1884 and three in 1888. And of these
what did the winners get-S20,000? Not
much. The first Ashley belt contest,
held in March. 1879, the biggest race OF
the kind ever held but one, melted Row.
ell, who won, 1S,39S.31.
The Ashley Belt race of September,
1879, also won by Rowell, Melted him
$19,500. In the tirst-named race Ennis
was second, and in the last named Mer-
rift was second. and in the last Rowell
made record of $50 miles.
OF the other nineteen races, two were
won by O'Leary, two by Panchot, one
by Weston. one by Nick Murphy, two
by Hart. two by Rowell. one each by
Vint, Hazael and Hughes; three by
Fitzgerald, one by Albert and two by
LittleWoOd.
Although the record was raised in
those races from 400 miles by O'Leary,
in December, 1878, to 623 by Littlewood
in November. 1SSs,no winner approached
RoweIl in the value of his prizes. The
average in the twenty races shows about
Sc, 600, and yet Albert demands $4,000,
at least, and this when the game is al
most played out.