The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1891-06-06
SCRAPS AND SCRAPPERS.
Gossip of the Fistic Arena From
the Paradise Of the
Slugger.
Luck at Present Running Hard
Against Colored and Antipo-
dean Representatives..
Jake Kilrain's Good Record In Hattie
Who Has Whipped Him ?-Wm
Slavin Do 1t?
r" :-WCORMRCkS BEST@+

SAN Francisco. June 1.-THE Chronicle
saws that the fstic world is comparatively
quiet after the recent excitement of the
Corbett-Jackson match. The next event
scheduled by the California Athletic club Is
the Maber-Mahan lightweight contest for
June. Both are determined, clever fighters
and ought to make a highly satisfactory
fight. Maber does not look the most rugged
of men. He has a deep, sepulchral cough
and the physical attributes of a man who
ought to be staving off consumption in
stead of fighting prize-fghts, and undoubt-
edly the first time he u up against n
sturdy punoher of his " GLASS Australian
stock will depreciate another point.
1t is queer how luok runs in arenic mat
ters, as in others. Last year Australian
and colored pugilists seemed as If they
could never lose a match. This year the
fates are against them, and it would not be
surprising if the white race, and the Amer
lean branch of it at that, held nearly all of
the championships.
jackson 10 unquestionably out Of the
championship race, and will be more 80
every month from this on, for the fighter
who has passed the t~birty-year limit has
never been q good winning card to back.
Corbett is now the leading American
heavyweight, Sullivan being out of the
arena. The young Californian has stopped
the most skillful big boxer Australia has
ever produced. and next comes the contest
between Jake kilrain and Frank Slavin,
the hardest-hittine heavyweight ever
turned out by the colonies. Slavin is ex-
pected to knock the ex-Boston boat rover
out very much inside the ten rounds of their
contest, on the 10th inst. Slavin's short
victory over Joe McAuliffe has doomed him
enormously. In fact it is doubtful if it has
not done the Australian some damage. for
opinion of him is so high that if he gets any
setback from Kilrain his stock will drop
below par at once.
Kilrsin was a great gun before he met
Sullivan at Richburo, and then he was en-
listed among the "stif" fighters, of whom
there is such formidable brigade. No one
thought him any good and he has not got
up much in his profession by whipping God
frey. The critics who saw him perform in
the California club were very much dlssat-
isfed with his showing against the colored
man and he gained very few admirers IN
San Francisco.
fairly p~ugilists are judged. They are either
w~orld-beaters or mo accounts" with the
majority of r%ing-goers. No allowance for
lack of condition or a hundred other con-
siderations is made. They must win every
time, and win in slashlng style, or dow
goes their stock. This is manifestly unfair,
n to no one more unfair than Jake Xii,
After his fight with Godfrey here Kilrain
was declared everything but a fighter. Yet
look at the record. Who has whipped him!
---- G-11i,,o- nu1 ho thu oh nH10n of
the world. No one else has ever downed
Kilrain, bad and slow as he is considered tc
be, and he has met some of the best men in
the world.
Years ago when Kilraip was rowing shells
in Boston old Jimmy Keenan,, a hard-headed
away. wanted to back Kiirain against
Charley Mitchell, then at the height of his
fame. keenan, had an idea that kilrain
was a safer man to back than Sullivan, and
he has shown himself a very safe man: even
if he is slow. He may not be a great finish
er, but he is strong, determined and game,
and will take a lot of beating before he
loses. He has been good enough to tight at
least a draw with almost the best of them.
and it takes a pretty good man to do that
Now comes Slavin to fulfill tho contract
of knocking Kilrain out in ten rounds. Oh
oouHse, if he can handle Kilrain like Joe
McAuliffe the ex-rower, will go out IN G
round instead of ten. 1t would be no sur.
prise at all to lots of people II Shawn dlC
not put Kilrain out at all.
1t may be asked, "Who is Godfrey?'-fo
mans victories are soon forgotten once HI
has been licked. Godfrey has licked nearly
all the good second-raters, and licked then
we'll. too. He dressed Jack Ashton, wht
was on the upward grade, and the muscula'
Cardiff, and Smith. who made such a show
ing with Peter Jackson for six rounds a
Chicago. All these are strapping big fell
lows, good enough to TRY OUT the bes
man in the world, although not veritabl,
champions. Yet kilrain beat the conquero
of all these without a mark. Even if i
took him all night, he did it and won tn
money, and that is the grand desideratum
It must be remembered that it is on
thing to whip q good man and quite an
other to keep from beng licked. JudginI
be a good speculation to back him to viii
Slayin, but it is a very different PROPOSE
ton for Slavin to attempt to whip him II
ten rounds. The Australian is not cleve
in the way that Jim Corbett and Pete
Jackson are clever. Both of these coul
outspar Kilrain in a way that would max
the Baltimoresn look very awkward, thong
he might worry them a good deal If the
had to finish him in a limited humber o
rounds.
If Kilrain stands off the Australian TO
ten rounds, he may as we'll go back to Eng
land at once, for he will no longer be
drawing card in America. Thu result @
the match will be generally regarded as an
other blow to Australian prestige, and tn
colonies will have to rely on middle-weight
and smaller champions to uphold thel
supremacy. 49,,
At present there is no American middle
weight who is as formidable in his class a
Corbett in the heavy weight and severe
little men in the smaller grades. Th
American middle-weight division is occu
pied by men too small for that classifca
ton. Young Mitchell, who il as sturdy
Young fellow az there is in the country, is
fair sample of the size of the leading Amel
lean middle-weights, and he looks a lot to
short for such rangy fellows as Jim Hal
with his six feet of solid muscle and bou'
1t ia hard to baiieve that a man like Ha
can fight at middle-weight. Fitzsimmon
of course, is a freak. He lacks Halls syn
metry, and is something like Mayber, a
gables and angles and out of shape. ant
however much luck he may have for
while, will most assuredly be pulled dow
by some speedy, well-set middl -weigi
with fair length and reach who can get il
side the limit. Freaks cannot continr
champions in the ring any more than the
can on the race track, and no one wou.
expect an equine dromedary, all out of pr
portion, to remain long at the top of Il
list.
AS to Fitzsimmons' victory over Dem
sey, it was unquestionably Il great piece
lpch for tho lankv New Iealander that