The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-02-18
FITz DRIVEN INTO A FIGHT.
EUCHERED OUT OF THE FORFEIT,
HE GIVES MAHER TINE.

at the Conference W hich Preceded
the Agreement-Maher's Eyes Bet
ter and He VIII Resume Work i'm
ahe Gymnasium.
FL PasO, TEX, Feb 1.-THE fight atmos-
phere is clearer than it has been at any
time since the carnival programme was
broken into smithereens by the develop
ment on Thursday afternoon that Peter
Maher was prevented by physical disabil-
ity from fulfilling his part of the contract
With the minor fights abandoned and
the rapid progress toward complete re-
covery of the Irishman's eye-trOubles,
there is a general belief that the outcome
of the conference to-day, at which Fitz-
simmons was whipped 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 rati-
fed by the appearance of the men within
the ropes early on the morning of the
2lst. That the hackers of Maher are sure
of their ground was made evident by the
avidity with which they fastened to put
up the additional thousand forfeit that
was a condition of Julians arrangement.
The ministers, at least, are satisfied,
both with the situation and the outlook.
one of the foremost divines, responsible
LOT lHe AdlTOn DILL Sdlu lO-lllEnL- we
have nothing more to say or do. There
is no longer any carnival or any crowd.
The sports have gone, and our city has
resumed its normal condition OF peace
and quiet SO far as l understand, the
arrangements made to-day, it provides for
the bringing off of but one feature of the
old programme, and this in private; that
is, private as compared with the original
plans. We feel, therefore, that our atti-
tude has been vindcated, and that the
matter. as it stands, is not of a nature to
demand our continued attention"
1t is understood that Gov. Ahumada in
clines toward a similar view. 1t was ne
cessity 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
| spectacular, retired. announcing that the
fight was off. When a jury, which was
| also selected by his opponent and was
composed almost entirely of his own
| friends, decided that he was not entitled
TO the forfeit money, Julian found himself
| completely whp-saWed, and was glad to
fall back, as a last resort, upon the propo-
SItlon that Few minutes before EitZ had
spurned with oaths and denunciations
The fact is understood to be that the com
bination is in as tight a place financially,
as it was at the time of the Hot Springs
and Little Rock complications, and that
If tftz had been taken at his word and the
night been declared off, without a forfeit,
Julian would have been at his wits ends
| 10 get MS party into New York, where il
has an engagement about two weeks
| hence. 1t was this extremity that in
duced him to fight to the last ditch for the
handing over of Maher's forfeit, as a con-
} | dition precedent to the consideration of
the proposal for fight Friday. Repulsed
however, on every hand, there was but
one alternative to finding himself
strapped, and that was to let his man try
| Tor the $4,000, with which to tide over his
| 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
stuart submitted proof, not only that Ju-
nan mad verbally consented to certain
changes in the articles of agreement, but
mat tnat ne ne had also been guilty of specific
preaches OF more than one clause of the
document, and by reason of which he was
debarred legally, and under the code of
the ring from seeking relief in the shape of
forfeit money. In the light of this presen-
tatlon the five men had little difficulty in
reaching an unanimous conclusion.
The parties to the conference were slow
TO get together this morning. Buck Con-
nelly put IN an appearance at 1920 O'clock
with draft of new articles in behalf of
Maher, calling for fight between 10 and
O'CLOCK on Friday next. Julian strolled
IN hfteen minutes later, just as Connolly
was receiving a telephone message from
Maher asking if he should take the morn
| ing train down from Las Cruces. The
physician who followed Peter on the wa,e
| strongly advised against coming out to-
day, in view of the extreme glare of the
sun, and Connolly advised him that his
v. q
had better keep to his quarters
The conference" was decidedly warm
Connolly made his proposition for the
posting of an extra forfeit and a fight
on Friday Julian's respCns was a claim
of forfeit. Connolly said if forced to do
so he would go into the ring tomorrow,
but only to save the forfeit, not to fight
Julian insisted on his point, and Connolly
demanded the stipulated twenty-four
hours notice Of the location of the battle
ground. Fttz 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 fights
off, gentlemen; l won't fight They never
intended to fight in the first place Now
boys, l give notice that III fight that
big st1m Corbett, at any time" And with
this the pugilist stalked through the Of
flee doorway and pushed his way around
the crowd to the street.
Somebody shouted: Three cheers for
| Fftz, but the response was feeble In
liam, who seemed chagrined at Fitzs talk
remained behind. The wrangling over the
question of giving up the forfeit money
continued, and finally Julian made the
proposition that it be left to a vote Of
five men, to be selected by ConneIlv The
| following were selected: George SiIer
Lou Houseman, William NauChton Tom
o. Rourke and Hugh Fitzgerald. Dan
Stuart was chosen chairman of the COM
mittee.
While the committee were debating
Fitz returned and repeated that he would
not fight Friday, but Julian succeeded in
getting him to withdraw the statement
temporarily. The committee decided that
titled to a forfeit Connolly then made
a proposition that the Friday plan be con-
sidered Julian agreed, and explicitly
stated that Fitzsimmons would fight on
! Friday.
It was due almost solely to the coolness
displayed by Connolly and Stuart that
the conference did not break up in a
bloody fracas OF the mob of 200 sports
and rangers on the other side of the net
ting partition, fully nine-tenths were
armed and ready to shoot on the slight
est provocation. Neither Connolly nor Fitz
carry gun, but, when the latter shaking
with passion, fercely shrieked his opfn-
ion, coupled with sundry unprintable epi-
thets that Maher was stiff buffer and
a coward, Connolly seized a heavy paper
| weight and answered with a taunt that
| Fitz had hunked from meeting Corbett.
| Then it was that Fitzsimmons shouted
| that the fight was off and left the room
| Fitz was inclined to repudiate the de-
| cision of the conference on the forfeit
| question, but later cooled down and be-
| gan training.
| Reports from Las Cruces tonight saw
! that Maher is improving. and the doctor
=