Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-06-17
CANNOT PICK WINNERS


room who, having gone over to the prize
fight last week, had the center OF the stage
and the hmelight when that subject came
up, dye know that Washington has in
variably had the wrong end of 1t in its Sc
lection of favorites in the big smuggling
matches? This struck me before 1 went
over to the Coney Island mill. I don't
know of any city in the country that has
been more consistently out of line in the
matter of big pugilistic encounters than
Washington.
I've been mixing up with the crowd who
talk fight in Washington in advance of the
big mills for the past twenty years or so,
and never yet, to my recollection, have we
landed whoopingly and properly on the
winner.
This was only mildly Sullivan town
at the very height of the big Boston slug
gers eminence, and We were always light
ing on some one or other of the low FORE
heads matched against him to beat him, un-
til he did meet his match, and then we had
switched back to the Sullivan end Of 1t.
Take the real beginning of Sullivans ca
reer, when he thrashed Ryan. Washing
ton was for Ryan through and through
that time, and We all offered any old odds
tnat RYAN would make mincemeat of Sull-
van That was the original big dump in
my remembrance when Washington had the
false end of it. Washington was so sore
over the defeat of Ryan that we tried for
years to get Sullivan thrashed, and the
amount of money that the Washington men
interested in fighting lost in this vain at
tempt was something remarkable Sullivan
boWled EN- over as fast they turned up
IN 'front.' of him, and every time he fought,
as happen to know, the bulk of the Wash
lngt0n coin went on the chances of The
other fellow. We at length ceased to ex-
tract amusement from this sort of thing
so that, when Sullivan was finally matched
to go up against Corbett we decided to
take the short end, and we became Sulli-
VaMtes through and through While the
Wnoie country had been shouting for Sulli-
van ana throwing its hat up in the air for
Sullivan for more than decade, we didn't
land on the bull-necked Bostonian as the
real thing until he faced Corbett, and YOU
Know what happened to him then. AS for
Fitzslmmons, Westinghouse never took
him into their confidence at all to any very
overwhelming extent until recently When
ne fought Jack Dempsey Dempsey was the
washington choice, and the few Fitzsim-
mons people here got all kinds of a price
on their man. No matter who the man
was who was stacked up against the Cor
nisnman, we always had him picked to win
mere In Washington. l don't mean to say
mat there weren't supporters of the winner
that there haven't been, in fact. support
ers a-plenty for all the winners-but / am
speaking now of the consensus of public
opinion.
Bring it down to the nippy day out I'm
Carson City when Fftzsimmons and Cor
Dett got together. Any man who stood in
front of the Washington bulletin boards
Wnen that scrap was going will re-
member that Corbett was an overwheim-
ing faYorite among the bulk of the shout
ers, and L know positively that most of
the money bet on the affair in Washing
ton was Corbett money. Then Corbett,
after having fooled US into a belief in his
1nvinciblity, got that little solar plexus
tap, and once again we went into mourn
ing.
Skipping over a few of the affairs. take
Sh1r lynt- " -lN1tt
was heap disguised with Corbett for his
lose to Fitzsimmons, but we didn't cal
culate that any shell-backed ex-man-o'-
wars man could come along and do any
thlng worth speaking of to such a prac-
uced tighter as Corbett, and Washington
took the Corbett end of it by a large ma
jority. Consequently, the sailor walked in
and walloped Corbett to a standstil and
the men in front of the Washington bulle-
tin boards had another dose to swallow |
always went down in these wrecks myself
to the extent of all the spare change l had.
"A few months ago, when this man JEFF
Tries came along to Washington with
variety show, l went down to have a look
at him. He seemed to me to be about as
active as a cook stove and as timber as an
ice wagon. He looked like a big piano
mover. He aroused absolutely no con-
fidence among Washington men and he
was openly sneered at
What, that big duffer lick Fitz? L
heard 'em say all over the house when
Jeffries tame bout with his sparring part
ner was over. Why, he couldn't thrash
my little sister, He's a big, clumsy mutt,
with no more science stiffness than
load of hay and what'l happen to him
when he breaks into a ring with Fitzsim-
mons will be a-plenty.'
This was precisely what thought my
self. But 1 had lost a whole lot of good
iron dollars listening to the Washington
view in connection with big fights, and so
when I happened to be over in New York
on the night of the fight last week l took
it into my head suddenly to "copper"" as
it were. the Washington opinion to the
probable outcome of the battle.
individually and personally said I to
myself, I think this man Fftzsimmons will
just win in a big, sleepy romp. but my
home people think the same way, and I'm
going to play the other fellow for that
reason
Il got two-and-a-half to one on the after
noon of the fight, and a much shorter price
on Jeffries when the crowd had assembled.
and for the first time since I've been at
the thing I won out. When I got home
here | found all the fellows wearing long
countenances over the throw-doWn of
Fitzsimmons. The boys here didn't think
the farrier could be beat. Washington is
lucky, all right, in some things, but it's a
hoodoo on prize fights