Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1899-11-25

strength he made Fitzsimmons look like
a dirty deuce in a soiled pack of cards.
Then his strength gave out and it was
that and nothing else which enabled F'itz
to get in the punch that despoiled him of
the belt This Of course will not be
pleasant reading for Charley White, but
/ give it almost verbatim as Delaney told
it to me-"
Now a few words about the referees
decision and his explanation of it. He
was in the best position to view the fight
of all the men in the hall, but, notwith-
standing this fact, there were others, and
! was among the number who had OPP
p%ortunities of judging Of the mems work
almost equal to his.
Bear this fact in mind, it was a limited
round contest. one of 25 ounds, and not a
light to the finish. and the man having the
best of the 25 rounds, not of any one,
two, three, four or five particular ones,
should AVE had the decision, if there was
no knock out, or at least an ever break
with the man who fought on the defensive
four-fifths of the time and only cut loose
at the finish. Sharkey did 50 per cent OF
the leading, that l think will be admitted
by every fair minded man who saw the
contest. More than once he had Jeffries
in a bad way: so bad that parties sur
rounding me shouted, "There he goes
now" and Paul Dana, the editor-in-chief
of the New York Sun, who sat Immediate
ly behind me, said to me, There will be
no new coon in town tonight, but there
/ will be an Irish champion OF America
Sharkey was fighting a man his super
Tor in youth, height, reach and weight. He
did foul his man repeatedly, and had l
been in Siler's place l would have dis
qualified him for fouling after duly noti-
flying him not to do it. Twice he lost his
head and struck Jeffries after the gong
had sounded for the cessation of the
rounds. But his most fragrant foul was
three times repeated. He encircled Jeff
ries' neck with his arm when Jim had
ducked under it, and did his best to
strangle him or otherwise injure him by
his foul hold. 1t wasn't a momentary
clutch, but on one occasion he held on to
Jeffries' neck until Siler by main strength
broke his hold. Had Siler disqualified
him then and there he would only have
done his duty. He passed over the Incl
dent, however, and having passed over 1T
the presumption is that he did not think
it should have any effect whatever upon
the final result. This being the case, ne
has no right to allege them in extenua-
ton of his verdict. Sharkey either
fought fair or he fought foul. If he
fought foul he should have been disquali-
fled. If he was not disqualified the infer
ence is that he did not fight foul. There
is no getting away from this proposition.
On the other hand, Jeffries violated the
rule against "holding' more than twenty
times. He laid his huge bulk on Sharkey
and bore him down with all his might and
main. All this was wrong and should not
have been allowed. 1t was clean fight
ing, but it was something which helped to
weaken Sharkey and to wear him down.
1t was excellent policy from a wrestling
point of view. but according to the rules
az tho Marn,1jC of bloomsbury even as
amended by the New York clubs and the
National Sporting Club of London,
wrestling is expressly prohibited.
Mr. Siler made another mistake, but one
which / nave seen other referees make
before him. When Sharkey penned jeff
ries' fist with his arm and Jeffries in en-
dea voring to free it had his glove pulled
off, it was no part of the referees duty to
turn himself into a second of the crippled
man and attempt to replace the glove for
him. There is nothing specific in the
rules on this point. In England the ref
cree does not enter the ring, but remains
outside of it all through the contest.
What Mr.. Siler should have done was to
send the men to their corners. Jeffries'
seconds should have replaced his glove.
Tile referee should have seen that time
was called. and the instant the glove was
properly adjusted to his satisfaction, re-
neWed the round, compelling the men to
fight out such time as still was due until
its legitimate termination. So doing
would not have been in Jeffries' favor,
for there is no denying the fact that
Sharkey was half groggy when Jeffries'
glove was pulled off, but that is the for
tune of war. Sharkey has wonderful re-
Cooperative powers, and / have no doubt
that he would rest out wonderfully dur
ing the time it would take to adjust the
glove.
In one respect this fight was without
q parallel. The men fought under a pam
oply of electric light and heat that GER
tainly must have had some effect on the
result. The heat in the ring must have
been fully 100 degrees Fahrenheit, while
the glare was almost binding. Four hun-
dred electric lights, a~ggregating $4,000
candle power was suspended about 10 feet
over their heads. AT least 900 feet of pol
ished tin reflected these electric lights
upon the men. 1t was an ordeal such as
no other fighters in the world had ever
passed through.
When Billy Edwards and Sam Collyer
fought their last fight in a glen on the di-
Viding line between Pennsylvania and
West Virginia, the thermometer showed
that they fought in an atmosphere of over
101 degrees Fahrenheit, for the suns heat
was intensified by the fact that a natural
gas We'll within SO feet Of the ring was
set aflame by the indiscretion of a spec
tatOr.
rain fought at Richburg the temperature
was above 100 degrees in the ring. Ed
wards and Collyer We're trained to the
hour, but neither Sullivan or kilrain was
in first class condition. Both battles last
ed over an hour, and the latter over two
hours, but these fights were fought in the