The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1899-06-09
GREAT PRIZE FIGHT
RING BATTLE BETWEEN FITZsIM-
MONS AND JEFFRIES ABSORBS
PUBLIC INTEREST


dOus Strength His Sole Claim to
Chance for the Championship.
The meeting between Bob Fitzsimmons
and Jim Jeffries tonight will be a fight,
sbre and simple. all talk to the contrary
notwithstanding. The principals, and
their hackers and handlers, the New
York police, the men who pay big prices
for admission to witness the battle-ail
know that from the sound of the gong
the gladiators will have in view but one
purpose-namely to knock out his OPP
Ponent as quickly as possible. All the
talk about a picture snap: about Elk
ed affair between the principals: about
the "gentleness" of the boxing that will
be INDUCED in by Fitzsimmons and JEFF
fries. Is bosh. The fight will be for a
fortune and for fame that will bring
to the winner another. Thousands of
men will sit spellbound beneath the roof
of the Coney Island club house and await
the blow that will end the battle. and
thousands Of other less fortunate admir-
ers of the game will watch the bulletin
boards and eagerly seize their newspa-
pers to learn the minutest details of the
greatest prize fight of modern times
FASCINATION OF A FIGHT.
Did you ever see prize fight between
really great g1adiators? If you did you
know what 1t means to watch the feint
parry and counter as the men strive for
vantage. Two splendid specimens of
physical perfection, with eyes bright as
diamonds, glittering with the intensity
of the nervous strain of the moment,
skins glistening with the perfectness of
health and careful training. beneath
which punches, and rolls, and humps
and cords of muscle play their part as
the gladiators glide in and out of dan
gers way in repeated efforts to land the
ateful blow that will mark them victor
III the contest There is no chatter, no
mfFth, no need for admonitions to keep
quiet In that vast assembiage of men
Who are there to witness the most al
Turing of all sports-a prize fight. Each
movement of each fighter Is noted and
in the critical stages of the contest, when
blows that would fell an OK are being
rained, the onlookers, all unconscious of
what they are doing saying-stand,
rather than SIT, and breathlessly await
the delivery of the blow that will mean
to one defeat and to the other gladiator
the plaudits of the people
REPULSIVE FEATURES LACKING.
There is a general misrepresentation as
to the responsiveness Of the scene formed
by two men, trained to the hour, deliv-
ering and receiving blows that would do
serious harm to the average Individual.
There is little to repel, and everything
to faScinate In q glove battle. The. re-
Voting features of the London ring rule
bare knucke fight are made impossible
by the use Of the glove. Shedding of
blood in profusion is a rare occurrence
i'll a Queensbury battle. The acme of
interest is conferred in the fact that
blow may at any moment terminate the
contest There is. at a well regulated
boxing contest, an absolute absence of
roWdyisrn. Senators, bankers, profess
sional and business men elbow each 9TH
or as the fight progresses. and there is
little difference noticeable in the en-
thusiasm of the youth and the intense
interest in the outcome displayed by the
venerable member of congress or the
state legislature, the doctor, lawyer. or
merchant, each of whom is ready to for
get the defeated gladiator and add his
mite to the applause due the winner.
OLD AND NEW
What a vast difference there is in the
prize ring of today, when America rules
the world in that particular, and in the
time when England boosted the cham
pions Of the world i'll the Anglo-Saxon
method of defense-the fist. All the great
gladiators of the English prize ring
fought more for glory than for cash.
When Heenau and Sayers battled for
s5.0eG there was great excitement over
the large amount involved In q fistic
contest And that was the biggest purse
of the London ring battle record. Such
men q Crib, and MolineauX, and Per-
rim, and Johnson, and Mendoza, and Jack
son, and War;. and a host of the early
dow Ao1,f rrIoI 70 - ,;-I.
for the modest sum of SO. while for ESQ
they would do their very best. And that
money was not Eaid by the spectators
Oh, Eoi The hackers of the men put up
the stakes for which they contended.
There was no talk Of a barney" in those
days. 1t was not until the money began
to go with the fight that the word was
coined. Tonight Fitzsimmons and Jeffries
will battle for sum exceeding the salary
Of the president of the United States for
one years service. 1t is expected that the
gate receipts will exceed $4,000.
CoRBETTs CONFESSION.
Despite the efforts of men of the Cor
bett stamp to make 1t appear that Fitz-
simmons and Jeffries are not to fight
on the level, it Is more than likely that
the men will strive to win from the very
outset The admission of Corbett that
he deceived the American public during
him thousands of friends who have stood
faithfully by him as he slides down the
toboggan of proper condemnation. That
Corbett tricked the people is not at all
surprising. He was never great fighter
but three-sheet poster money maker
for himself and Billy Brady. and it is
probably Brady's connection with the
Observation-Disclosures affair that has at
tracted to it some of the bad odor that
invariably followed in the wake of events
of the ring in which Corbett was a prin-
cipal.
MERITS OF THE MEN.
AS to the merits of the principals of
tonghts battle there is scarcely room for
comparison. Jeffries is a big, strong
young fellow, who has been blessed by
nature with a physique that is possessed
by but few mortals. There he ends.
Could Goliath have laid hands upon Da-
vid. the story of the taking off of the
giant by the pigmy might have been un-
written. Unless Jeffries is an undiscov-
cred wonder, or has not done his best in
his previous ring encounters, he will
be defeated by Fitzsinmons tonight, and
in short order. There is possibility that
the big Californian is the man to become
champion of the ring. If he Is so des-
tined he has as vet done nothing to indi-
cate his marvellous prowess. Fitzsim-
mons should defeat him handily. He is
an established, undisputed master of the
art of self-defense He has met all the
great fighters OF the age, and in no battle
has he as much as thought of losing The
minute that Fitzsimmons showed how or
binary boxer was gallant Jack Demp-
sey, in comparison with himself, he also
demonstrated that the premier of the ring
had been discovered. Fitzsimmons Is an
other Tom Sayers. only greater fighter
When he is defeated the man who tri-
umphs over him will be entitled to the
plaudits Of the world. for he will indeed