The daily morning journal and courier., 1896-02-18
FITzSIMMONs VERY UGLY
HE SHooH HIS EISr AND SHOUTED
 FIT WOULD NOT FIGHT

The Matter Was Finally Left to a Commit-
 tee With the Result That the Battle With
 Maher win Take Place on FrIday-An
 Exciting Session-o ofiicsrs Are Alert.
 Fl Paso, Tex, Feb 17.--A conference regarding the Maher-F -Fitzsimmons fight was held here to-day. Maher was not present. He was represented by Buck Connolly. The interchange of opinions, which at times was decidedly warm, lasted twenty minutes. Julian asked Connolly if his man was here and ready to fight, and received reply in the neg ative. Then the Pittsburger made proposition for the posting of an extra forfeit and fight on Friday. Julian re- sponded that time enough had been given and that he now claimed the for felt. It was a strange thing, he said, that Connolly would know to-day when Maher could get into the ring, and yet insist that he could not do so an hour later. Connolly called attention to the fact that twenty-four hours notice of the battle ground had not been gruaran- teed and that it had not been given, to which Stuart, who presided, said that the ground is ready. <. "So is Fitzsimmons ready" said Ju- Han.
 "Yes, am ready" said the Austral- | ian
 I Connolly said if he was forced he would go into the ring tomorrow, but | to save the forfeit and not to fight. Fitzsimrnons asked whether, supposing he broke his arm, the other crowd I would not take his money, and Connol- ly said he would not touch a dollar of it. The latter continued to press the point of meeting Friday and Julian as strongly insisted that he wanted the forfeit money on this match, because they needed it. and they would talk about another match Friday. Finally Connolly said: T will have my man in the ring as soon as I ann notified. [ now demand my twenty -four hours mo- tice of location of battle-ground"
 Stuart kept silent and after a pause Fitzsimmons drew himself up and wav- ed his arm in the air and shouted at the top of his voice:
 Your man is not in condition to fight. He is another stiff like Corbett You are putting up a bluff"
 Not much" replied Connolly, quietly. 'sMaher is not afraid to meet you here or anywhere
 You want to crawl out suggested Julian.
 Yes, they want to crawl,' yelled Fitzsimmons. .They are a lot of - curs.''
 Then turning to the throng on the. other side of the railing he yelled louder than ever:
 "This fights off, gentlemen. won't fight. They never intended to fight in the first place. Now, boys, give notice I that I'll fight that big stiff, Corbett, at I any time. Let's have cigar!" and with this the pugilist stalked out to 1 the street. Somebody shouted Three cheers for Fiitz,' ? but the response Eas feeble. Julian, who seemed chagrined l at Fitzsimmons' talk, remained behind. The wranging over the question of giv- | ing up forfeit money continued, and finally Julian made the proposition that selected by Connolly. The following were named:
 George Siller, Louis Housmann, Will | V Hugh Fitzgerald Dan Stuart was chos- en chairman of the committee. While the committee was debating Fitzsinl-
 mons returned and repeated that he would not fight Friday, but Julian suc- i, ceeded in getting him to withdraw the statement temporarily. The committee I decided that under the articles neither man was entitled to forfeit. ,l Connolly then made proposition that l the Friday plan be considered. Julian agreed and explicitly stated that Fitz- simmmons would fight on Friday. The S3000 forfeit was placed in Stuart's hands this afternoon.
 It is understood that the Julian-Fitz- simmons combination is in a tight place financially, as it was at the time of the Hot Springs and Little Rock complications and that, if Fitzsimrnons had been taken at his word and the fight declared off without 9 forfeit Jul- ian would have been at his wits ends ] to get his party into New York, where l it has an engagement about two weeks hence.
 I Each member of the committee of five l was pledged to secrecy concerning the facts upon which 1t based it's verdict, but it is known that Dan Stuart sub- mitted proof not only that Julian had verbally consented to certain changes in i the agreement but had been guilty of specific breaches of more than one clause of the document. | It was due almost solely to the cool ness displayed by Connolly and Stuart l that the conference did not break up in a bloody fracas. or the mob of 200 sports and Rangers on the other side of the wire netting partition fully nine- tenths were armed and ready to shoot on the slightest provocation. When Fitzsimmons fiercely shrieked his opin- ion coupled with sundry unprintable | epithets. that Maher was stiff, a bluf- fer and a coward Connolly's fingers closed down upon his paper weight l fashioned of ore.
 Fdtzsimmons knew nothing of the af- l ter-conference until Julian went across the river an hour or so later. He was | inclined to kick over the traces, but finally admitted that the outcome was fair to all concerned. This afternoon he resumed his training.
 The battle ground is as much of a mystery to all but the promoters as ever.