Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1893-12-24
THE FIGHTERS.
CAPTAIN COOK, OF BOSTON, TALKS ABOUI
JIM OORBETT.
The Noted Pugilisfc Authority Thinks that Mich
ell is Going Against the Hardest Game Of his
Lits-What an AdmiFsr Of Charley Mitchell
Has to Say Regarding the Englishman's
Chancss-Sporing Moths Of all SOr,S.

BosroS, Mass, December 23.-No
pugilist has ever lived unless ~perchance
il was Tom Savers who had as many
enthusiastic friends as has James j;
Corbett at the present moment, and
they scout the idea OF there being a man
in the world who can beat him. Per-
haps the most enthusiastic admirer that
he has is Captain Cook, who is widely
known throughout the country as a
crank on fighters. The Captain was
never enthusiastic over Sullivan's abili-
ties as q pugilist, but he appears TO
hay gone clean daft over Pompadour
Jim, OF whom be recently wrote as FOL
lows:
"Of the many pugllists Of distinction
in America who have achieved cham
uionship in their class James j. Corbett
Is today the most successful in ability
to command money for fighting. In re-
spect TO winning, fighting and money
making ability he is among American
heavy weights entitled to be considered
the ablest. He has not done scramo-
ling scraps or four round k%nockouts,
but he has defeated Jake Kilrain, Dom
mick McCaffreY, Joe Choynski and John
L. Sullivan.
"All of Corbett's contests since his
first departure from San Francisco have
been followed by very decided, solid
gains OF reputation. Credit is due TO
him for discerning always where to d.
rect his energies for the best results to
his reputation. Battles In which q lot
of hard fighting is done, although VIC
tories are won, are not always followed
| by big results for the fortunate side.
| Corbett's really hard fighting was done,
I. think, in his comparatively young
DAYS against Joe Choynski in their
local contests in and about San Fran
cisco. While nine-tenths OF our
people believed that he had a serious
undertaking on hand when he met sui
| Ivan, the result showed that he had
o at all mistaken his adversary. 1t
is we'll to observe Of Corbett now, l be-
lieye, that in his fighting career he has
| been accurately posted as to the size OF
| his successive tasks. Three times he
has certainly upset nearly all precon-
| ceiyed opinions, viz: (D When he
bested Kilrain; (2) when he made a
/ draw after sixty-one rounds with Jack
son; 81 when be defeated Champion
| John L. Sullivan. He demonstrated
/ beyond cavil in each OF these Instances
that he was 6stically and physically SUI
perior TO all that was expected OF him,
and he left everybody inquirlng wheth-
err the American fighter ives
who could have bettered MS
performance. 1t still remains
TO be proved whether the battle Cor
bett made with jackson, indecisive
though it was, could be improved upon
in execution so as to have won the day
for anv other man living. Except to
minps filed with prejudice and precon-
ceived opinions, Corbett is an artistic
pugilist, although 1t is not to be ex-
pected that a success with Mitchell will
force q confession from the relpsStr~nU
mouths Of those whose dislikf o. n,9
springs from the fact1Eksss = Nt Uoi%Ieu
2Iji gyy&aa2g With onine-tentSs :
putable followers Of sport in England
and America have been hoping and
mourning for a decade to see done-the
effect In extending the conviction that
Corbett Is a marvellous pugilist must
nevertheless be powerful. Mitchell can
be relied upon to fight with cool and
desperate courage, but when the utmost
measure Of endurance has been reached
Mitchell will fall back and leave of
like any other nan
81 honor Mitchell most for his self
reliance IN matching with COrbett.
Such self-reliance can only be appre-
ciated by those who know that the
courage necessary for an old-time
fighter Of |unbeaten record to 90 through
a battle is not u be compared with the
courage necessary in him to make a
new match and run the risk Of defeat
at the hands Of a %yOungster. The fate
OF a battle is the result OF q moment of
thought, said Napoleon. If Mitchells
action on January % keeps pace with
his design, it will be idle to pretend
that he will enter the ring without a
chance or that he is surely destined
to fall easily. Mitchell has not the firm
ness and stamina, which in his
fighting Sullivan seemed to in
crease with the excess Of his
dangers. His confidence aud his
faith in himself have been contagious
and made men believe in him as equal
TO anything he undertakes. He mas
never blundered and never utterly fail
ed, and so many sport followers cannot
bring themselves to believe that he is
going TO miss it in meeting Corbett. /
believe, however, that Mitchell as a
finish fighter with the gloves, under
Queensberry rules, is not so good as his
reuown. In his early career there show
ed In him a certain dnshing precocious-
ness, but what is really in him we never
have been allowed to know, because he
has most of his life done sprints instead
of finishing journeys. He VAS equal,
or more than equal, to the occasion OF
the match in France with Sullivan, but
he never has, I believe, had such a field
of trial as awaits him in Florida"
-
1.-THE man who are argues that Mitch
ell has no chance with Corbett Is a fool"
remarked al old g%aayhaired sport in
the presence OF a little group who had
assembled in a downtown sporting re.
sort last evening.
Mind you that I do not say that he
a whip the champion" be continued,
'but l do say that he has something
better than an outside chance of doing
so. l saw him when he fought John
L. Sullivan at Chantilly and saw the
Corbett-Sullivsn fight at New 0rleaus, ,
so 1 have something tangible on which
to base an opinion. The Sullivan who
fought Mitchell aud the Sullivan fought
Corbett were two entirely different
men, and so was the Mitchell Of that
day and that the Mitchell Of this, for
the Englishman has ceartainly improy-
ed, he having grown stronger and
heavier. Whenever anyone speaks Of