Birmingham state herald., 1896-02-18
THEY WILL FIGHT FRIDAY FitzSimmons Tried His Best to
 Get Out of It. HE CLAIMED >SN- FORFEIT
 S. His Own FriyNSS scded That He Wasn't En- cs titled to It.
A BSS0DY FRACAS NARROWLY AVERTED
fltz Cursed and Fumed and Talked Fighting Corbett, but Was Reminded pillow He Had F1unked From
 Meeting Him.

El Paso, Tex, Feb. 17.-The fight at- mosphere Is clearer tonight than 1t has been at any time since the carnival pro- | gramme was broken into smithereens l by the development on Thursday after noon that Peter Maher was prevented
 by physical disability from fulfilling his part of the contract. With the minor fights abandoned and the rapid progress toward complete recovery of the Irish mans eye troubles, there is general belief that the outcome of the confer- ence today, at which Fitzslmmons was switched into line after he had broken through the traces and had declared that so far as he was concerned, the match was off for good will be ratified by the appearance of the men within the ropes early on the morning of the 21st. That the packers of Maher are sure of their ground was made evident by the avidity with which they hastened to put up the additional 5000 forfeit that was condition of Julians arrangement. The ministers, at least, satisfied both with the situation and the outlook. One of the foremost divnes responsible for the Catron bill. said tonight:
 We have nothing more to say or do.
 
 crowd. The sports have gone, and our city has resumed it's normal condition of peace and quiet. So far as l understand the arrangement made today, 1t pro-
 vides for bringing off of but one feature
 of the old programme, and this Is pri-
 vate--that Is, priate compared with
 the original plans We feel, therefore,
 that our attitude has been Vindicated.
 and that the matter as 1t stands Is not or
 a nature to demand our continued atten- tion."
 It is understood that Governor Anu
 mada inclnes toward a similar view. It was necessity rather than choice that compelled the Cornishman's manager to
 accept the proposition from the Maher
 side after his principal had, with an eye toward the speculation, retired, announce ing that the fight was off. When iurys which was selected by his opponent and was composed almost entirely of his own friends, decided that he was not entitled to the forgeit money Julian found him self completely whipsawed and was glad to fall back as last resort upon the
 proposition that a few minutes before
 Fitzsmmons had spurned with oaths and
 denunciations. The fact is understood
 to be that the combination is in as tight
 a place financially as 1t was at the time
 of the Hot Springs and Little Rock com
 plicatons and that if FitZsimmons had
 been taken at his word and the fight been
 declared off without forfeit Julian
 would have been at his wits end to get
 his party into New York where It has an engagement about two weeks hence.
 It was this extremity that induced him
 to fight to the last ditch for the handing over of Mahers forfeit as a condition
 precedent to the consideration of the pro-
 posal for fight next Friday. Repulsed
 however on every hand, there was but
 one alternative to finding himself strand
 ed, and that was to let his man try for
 thn t1fith htnh tn 1a
 present difficulties. Each member of the
 committee of five was pledged to secrecy
 concerning the facts upon which 1t based
 its verdict, but it Is known that Dan Stu
 art submitted proof not only that Julian
 had virtually consented to certain chang
 es in the articles of agreement, but that
 he had also been guilty of specific breach
 es of more than one clause of the docu-
 ment and by reason of which he was debarred, both legally and under the code
 of the ring, from seeking relief in the
 shape of the forfeit money. In the light
 of this presentation the five men had lit-
 tie difficulty In reaching unanimous
 conclusion. The parties to the conference
 were slow to get together this morning.
 Buck Connolly put in an appearance at
 10:3O with draft of new articles in be- half of Maher, calling for a fight be-
 tween 10 and 4 o'clock on Friday next.
 Julian stroled in fifteen minutes later, just as Connolly was receiving a tele- phone message from Maher, asking If
 he should take the morning train from
 Las Cruces The physician who fol-
 lowed Peter, strongly advised against
 coming out today, in view of the ex- treme glare of the sun. and Connolly ad- vised him that his presence was not nec- essary and that he had better keep to quarters.
 The "conference" was decidedly warm. Connolly made his proposition for the
 posting of an extra forfeit and a fight on
 Friday. Julian's response was a claim
 of forfeit Connolly said if forced to do
 so he would go into the ring tomorrow,
 but only to save forfeit, not to fight.
 Julian insisted on his point and Connolly
 demanded the stipulated twenty-four
 hours notice of location of the battle ground. Fttzsimmons became abusive, said Maher wanted to crawl and then, turning to the throng on the other side of the railing, he yelled louder than ever: This fight is off, gentlemen, I won't fight. They never intended 10 fight in the first place. Now boys, I give notice that I'll fight that big stiff, Corbett, at any time" And with this the pugilist stalked through the office doorway and
 pushed his way around the crowd to the street.
 Somebody shouted: Three cheers for Fitz." But the response was feeble. Julian, who seemed chagrined at Fitz- simmons talk, remained behind. The wrangling over the question of giving up the forfeit money continued and final ly Julian made the proposition that 1t be left to a vote of five men to be select ed by Connolly. The following were se- lected: George Siler. Lou Houseman. William Naughton, Tom ORourke and Hugh Fitzgerald Dan Stuart was chosen chairman of the committee. While 1 the committee were debating Fitzsim- l mons returned and repeated that he would not fight Friday, but Julian sue | ceeded in getting him to withdraw the 1 statement temporarily. The committee | decided that under the articles neither l man was entitled to a forfeit. Connolly | then made proposition that the Friday plan he considered. Julian agreed and l(,ontinued on Fifth PaceA