The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1897-12-31
Beginning of the Hegira In Pugilis-
tic Literature.
GENTLEMAN JIM'S STYLE
INHARMoNIoUs UNION OF EPI-
THET AND SELF-CoNCEIT.
Reminds Fitzsimmons of the Remark
Made After the Fight at Carson,
and Asks Him To Be Consistent
What the Public Expects From
Jim's Standpoint.

Cincinnati, o., Dec. 3O.-JameS y.
Corbett today gave to the Times-Star
a copy of his challenge to Fitzsimmons,
as follows:
Robert J. Fitzsimmons, Champion OF
the World:
your published declaration, Mr..
Fitzsimmons, that you intend re-enter-
ing the ring, pleases me more than |
can at present express to yea. for, L
know that the pubic eSteems me to be
the only candidate for the honors you
thus place within reach. l am sorry
however. to note that in wording this
declaration, you give me the impress
sion that since we last met, you have
become unwisely forgetful; for in
stance you say that before L can claim
a return match with you, l must prove
myself to be worthy of it. You GER
tainly intend this as joke, for no one
in the world knows my ability better
than yourself. You cannot so soon
have forgotten your remark to me at
Carson, just after the battle. Jim,
you said, in your simple, earnest way,
I'll never fight again. You've given
me bloody good licking You, the
winner, uttered these words, with face
and body so battered as to leave no
doubt Of your sincerity; while l, the
loser, listened, with never a bruise or
scratch from head to foot which could
contradict you.
IS IT CONSISTENT?
Us this consistent with your now re-
questing me to go prove myself to be
worthy? You will find the confidence
of the public in my ability to entertain
you still You will find that the public
will insist upon your recognizing my
claim that you must meet me again.
But, surely, you have been misrepre-
scented. l refuse to credit you with the
lame memory, the broken Judgment,
the poor taste and entire untruthful-
ness which the printed remarks al
legged to have been made by you would
imply. I prefer to think that those
who have entered the ring with me
were men, brave and incapable of the
vulgar, lying and cowardly language
in which the newspaper version of your
remarks was couched. However well
L know what the great journals try to
be, and usually are, accurate to the let
ter in reporting utterances made by
important men upon important sub
jects, 1 prefer to believe that in this
case a grave error has been made
somehow, somewhere and for purpose
not worthy of one who wishes to be
considered above contempt.
THE PUBLIC EXPECTS.
What the public expects from me is
to maintain the manly dignity of the
ring and not be brawler, nor a shifty
evader of The honest principles which
govern honest men when adjusting
their respective merits.
This is all l have to say. But this
is what 1 propose to do. The day we
sign articles, 1 will give you $1,00 in
recognition of your courtesy. The mo-
ment you enter the ring, ready to
offer me battle 1 will give a second
$1,000 in token of my pleasure Upon
the completion of the tenth round, if
you are still undefeated, 1 will give
you third 81, 600 as a souvenir of my
surprise. Upon defeating you, no mat
ter if you reject, 1 will give you $4,000.
ON the other hand, should you de-
feat me, 1 promise, if still able to
move, to place my hat upon my head
and then removing it in your honor,
to proclaim you in frank and unmis-
takeable terms, my superior and state
that l then and there quit forever all
possible claim to the championship of
the world.
Let further remarks on this subject
be made by $1,000 clean honest money,
given me by the public that believes
in me. l have this day forwarded
these to Will ]. Davis, Chicago. in
testimony that [ mean every word 4
have herein spoken (Signed)
JAMES ]. CORBETT,
champion of America, Cincinnati,
O., Dec. go