Los Angeles daily herald., 1889-05-20
SPORTING GOSSIP.
Note and Comment ON the Doings
of ssthe FaDcy,s Here and There.

tlOn In sporting CIRCLES III UulS clUy, our
ing the past week, has undoubtedly been
the probabilities of arrangements being
made for fight to finish between Jack
Dempsey and Joe Ellingsworth. That
the efforts in that direction of the South
ern California Athletic Association have
been in vain, will be regretted by every
one in Los Angeles and the adjoining
country who would like to see thor
oughly scientific exhibition of the manly
art, such as can only be witnessed when
two such adopts with their fists as the
two men referred to undoubtedly are,
start in to "do each other up"
*4*
Why the negotiations looking to the
arrangement of the fight ended in failure
it does not take very long to tell, and get
there is-and has been-for the past few
days more wrangliug and misrepresenta-
ton going on regarding the matter than
one could rehearse in fortnight. AL
most every other man one meets has his
own version of the obstacles in the way,
and almost every one gets mad If you
hint in the most remote way that he does
not know the whole thing as we'll as, if
not better than, the principals them
selves. Here is plain unvarnished
tale, delivered according to personal
knowledge and as the result of thorough
and impartial investigation:
Dempsey came to this Coast, il not for
the express purpose, at least with the
avowed intention OF meeting Ellings-
worth, whose advent here was. at the
time Jack started, almost dead GER
tsinty. Dempsey's engagement with
Williams's company was an incidental
arrangement which the champion mid
dleweight very sensibly took advantage
of as nice and easy way of paying his
expenses and giving him good look at
the country en- passant from place to
place.
*x*
When Dempsey reached San Fran
cisco he was, of course, Immediately
welcomed and lionized, as he unques-
tionably deserved to be, by the Califor-
mia Athletic Club, of that city. Mean
time he had received no definite, or even
indefinite, indication of what the
arrangements of the Southern Califor-
nian Athletic Association might be
as to the little affair between himself and
Ellingswortb. In the circumstances,
when President Fulda, of the California
Athletic Club, proposed to Dempsey that
his club should have the first claim upon
him in matching him for fight, the
champion readily agreed, believing as he
did that therein was his best, if not, in
deed, his only chance of getting a fight
on the Coast.
~
Everyone who knows Dempsey is
aware that he regards his word as as
good as his bond IN all circumstances.
Hence, when he made this excuse for
not accepting the offer OF the S. Q. A.
A., to match him against Ellingsworth
fo2 purse of $4,000. no one put a preju-
diced or unreasonable man could help
admitting that he was right. Does not
the local club take the very same ground
for refusing to allow Ellingsworth to
fight anywhere else but in Los Angeles? ?
Honors are easy in this respect as be-
tween the two men.
*x*
Ellingsworth cannot go to San Fran
cisco to fight, because he is bound to the
Southern Californian Athletic Associa-
tion to fight only in their club-room.
Dempsey cannot fight here because he is
bound in honor to the California Athletic
Club to fight only lat any rate, his first
fight in their clubroom. The men
stand precisely alike in these respects
with regard to the two clubs Would 1t
be Just or fair, then, to say that either is
afraid to meet the other, because his
hands ave tied as to the matter of local
ity? We trow not.
xx%
And yet some have been contemplate
enough not only to hint, but openly to
saw that Dempsey is afraid of Filings
worth and we regret to say that the lat
ter has gone 80 far in the columns OF the
Evening Eapress as to say as much. 1t
is Ieft-handed way CT magnifying his
own prowess which, to say the least OF
it, does not smack of asurplus OF modesty.
1t is lust another way OF saying: See
what sheol of a fellow am. Even
Dempsey is scared Of me-" 1t may be
that Joe only meant it in the same sense
as a man in a street brawl might say to
another: 81 can lick two such men as
you," or 81 could eat thing like you
without SALT" but it will be admitted
that it is not in the best taste and savors
of "wind."
Nv
Auy uldu WlO cuppOcOo thuo bClbpSOy
is afraid of any man OF his weight in the
world misses his mark very badly. 1t is
the first time that ever such an
innuendo was made as regards the
and it will be received with
shout of derision in the East where
Dempsey is known, and the knowing
ones will ask each other with surprise,
"What kind of chumps do they grow out
in the woody West anyway"
Those who are dissatisfied with the
course Dempsey has taken in this matter
profess to find an inconsistency in the
fact that, in spite OF the fact that he re-
garded himself as bound in honor to the
California Athletic Club, he was, never
theless, willing to clip" dollar to de-
eide whether the fight should take place
in Los Angeles or San Francisco. With
regard to this we have only to say that
Dempsey was "hounded" : actually
making some such propo-
ton by the sneers of "Snap, Snarl and
Mangry, and the little dogs all, who
did bark at him." the burden of their
baying being that he was afraid OF
Ellingsworth. In the second place, since
the case stood as between the two clubs,
that the one had a claim on the one man
aud the other on the other, the Tipping
of the coin would have been the fairest
way of deciding the question as to which
club should have the fight.
M
As to the expenses to which the South