Pawtucket tribune. (Pawtucket, R.I.) 1890-189?, 1894-03-28

PETER JACkSON'b POWERFUL BACK.
fornian wanted no more of it. He even
went so far as to peremptorily refuse to 90
on with a match which his backer, Phil
Dwyer, had entered into with "Parson"
Davies on behalf of Choynski.
The victory over Choynski was Corbett's
entering wedge to fame. Note his marvel
Gus good fortune from that date. First he
meets poor old Jake Kilrain at New Or
leans In a six round bout for &, 900. Kilrain
was suffering from a chronic malady and
had not recovered from the fearful beating
John l.. Sullivan had administered to him
short time before. OF course Corbett wen.
That victory served as further herald to
renown. Corbett journeys north, and to
keep his hand In engages in limited con-
test with Dominick McCaffrey in Brook
lyn. McCaffrey had once bested Charley
Mitchell and stood up eight rounds before
John l.. Sullivan without being inducted
into state of somnolent quietude. Nc
Caffrey had been in physicians hands for
a long time, was pudgy and clumsy In
movement and notoriously unfit for a con-
test of any kind. Naturally the Califor-
nian whipped him with scarcely an effort.
Now we come to the only time in which
Corbett ever made what sportsmen call
dangerous match and one in which he in
vited Waterloo. That was the famous
one with Peter jackson. The young Cali
fornian was getting near the top of the lad
der then, and despite the advice Of friends
he resolved to "chance it" and give Peter
battle and get step higher. Here again
his Clevelandlike luck stood him in good
stead. jackson sprained his right leg
short time before the battle, and after fight
ing for an hour or more that leg gave way
and was practically useless. Corbett dis
played great generalship and kept out of
harms way. The result was draw Of 81
rounds after four hours and four minutes
of fighting.
That battle afforded Corbett the oppor-
tunity of lifetime, and he was not the
man to neglect it, II put him In the cham
pionship class, and he went canning for
champions, not for sturdy, youthful, az
gressive fellows of the Frank p. Slavin or
even Joe Goddard order, but for champions
who were either broken down by dissipa-
tion or disease, or both, although they did
not know it "a champion never does). John
l.. Sullivan or Charley Mitchell would do
TO nicely, but Slavin and Goddard must
be avoided-at least until their strength
pHd Deen sapped by dissipation or other
wise. To Jackson's opportunities for an
other battle Corbett turned deaf ear. He
wanted no such game until IL had been
thoroughly seasoned. "Ill take on Sulli-
van first and then Mitchell. !" he said, with a
laugh, to Macon Mccormick, "and after
that jackson can be accommodated. Mean
while Peter won't be growing any younger
or any better" and the big Californian
chuckled complacently over what he rightly
adjudged to be an exhibition Of cunning.
II is an English maxim that match well
made is half won. Corbett can give the
foreigners cards and spades at that game
and beat them out. That was demonstrate
ed In his two greatest matches-those with
Sullivan and Mitchell. Hewould not have
any part Of either of the Australian giants,
Slavin or Goddard. while they were still
unbeaten men, rugged and strong, but he
was open for John l.. Sullivan and Charley
Mitchell at any time These two men he
finally caught In his web. Sullivan was
the first victim. He was utterly broken
down by his numerous excesses, slow,
clumsy aud unwieldy. Besides be was a
prematurely old man, fat, gray and griz-
zled. lie had been at deaths door a few
years before with typhoid fever. pneumo-