The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1898-01-04
CoRBErr TO FI1zsIMMoNs
He Sends q Challenge and Offers to Make
tho Champion Pay m v~ariousIy Con.
ditioned, Amounting to $4,000 to Enter
the Ring With Him-Fitz ,fmmons' Con-
Altions

/ dsttOneo, Amounting to S5.OOO TO Entel
the Ring With Him-Fitz,fmmons Con.
4itions
Cincinnati December 30.-Janes ].
: Corbett, today gave to the Tim Star
for publication his challenge t. light
Robert J. Fitzsimmons as follows.
; Robert ]. Fitzsimmons, Champion of
the World:
Your published declaration. Mr..
Fitzsinmons that you intended re-en-
tering the ring pleases me more than /
a at present express to you, for /
know that the public esteems me to be
the only candidate for the honors you
thus place within reach. i am sorry,
however, to note that in wording this
declaration, you give me the impression
that since we last met you have become
unwisely forgetful. For instance, you
say that before I can claim a return
match with you, I must prove myself
to worthy of 1t. You certainly in
tended this as a joke, for no one in the
world knows my ability better than
yourself. You cannot SO soon have for
gotten your remark to me at Carson,
just after the battle. 'Jim,' you said in
your simple earnest way I'll never
light again. You've given me a bloody
good licking You. the winner. utter
ed these words with face and body so
DIS 10 lcdNt 10 uOuDl Oh your
sincerity, while 1, listened with never a
bruise IT a scratch from head to foot
which could contradict you.
rs this consistent with your now re-
Questing me to prove to be a worthy
opponent? You will find the confidence
of the public in my ability to entertain
You still mistaken You will find that
b public will insist upon your recog-
nizing my claim that you must meet me
oooin PItt c,,r0lxy We haa~ -,;-
represented. L refuse to credit you
with the lame memory, broke judg-
ment, poor taste and entire u%ntruthful-
ness which the printed remarks alleged
to have been made by you would imply.
/ prefer to think that those Who have
entered the ring with me We're me-,
honest, brave n incapable of the vuI-
ger, lying and cowardly language in
which the version of your
remarks was couched. However well
I know that the great journals try to be
and usually are, accurate to the letter
in reporting utterances made by i'm
pOrtant men upon important subjects,
l prefer to believe that in this case a
grave error has been made somehow,
some where, and for a purpose not
worthy of n who wishes to be con-
sidered above contempt.
what the public expects from ne is
to maintain the manly dignity of the
ring, and not be a brawler, nor a shifty
evader Of the honest principles which
govern honest men when adjusting
their respective merits. This is all 1
have to say. But this is what I pro-
pose to do. THE day we sign articles,
I will s.ve you 81, 900 in recognition of
your courtesy. The me you enter
the ring, ready to offer me battle, 1 will
give yo- a second 81, 900 in token Of my
pleasure. Upon the completion Of the
tenth round, if o are still undefeated,
1 will give you a third 81, 900 as a sOuv-
enir of my surprise. Upon defeating
you, no matter in what round, I will
give you $1,000 more as a reminder that
/ am not an ungenerOus foe.
o the other hand, should you again
defeat ms, I promise, if still able to
move, to place my hat upon my head,
and then, removing it in your honor, to
proclaim yon,in- fron1 dho unIilSIaka-
bile Germs to be my superior, and state
that I then and there quit forever all
possible claim to the championship Of
the world.
Let further remarks or this subject
be made by 81, 900 clean, honestly earn
ed American dollars, given me by the
public that believes in me. 1 have This
day forwarded these to Will j. Davis,
of Chicago, in testimony that I mean
every word I have herein spoken.
lSigned.1 JAMES J. CORBETT,
Champion of America.
Cincinnati, O., December 80, 1897
New York, December 30.-Tom
O'Rourke, has i Cred to the Associated
Press from Fort Wayne, Ind, as fol-
lows: Julian and Fitzsimmons have
named 0 Wolcott ait the middle
weight man to meet Mccoy, and Peter
Maher to meet Corbett. If Mccoy and
Corbett win from Wolcott and Maher,
Fitzsimmons will meet both of them af-
terward. These are the only conditions
Fitzsimmons will make with Mccoy
and Corbett."