Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1899-03-08

tests which it was Announced would lead
up directly 30 the championship. In every
one of these affairs it was widely adver-
tised that the winner would be matched
against me, the recognized worlds cham
pion. whether / was willing or not. There
was no case of Barkis about it. I cut no
figure in their schemes. They were going
ahead with the old fool game of trying to
play 'tHamlet" with the star character left
out That sort of play, of course, could not
go on forever.
A great American, Abraham Lincoln,
once said, "You can fool some people all
the time you can fool other people some
of the time, but you can't fool all the peo-
pie all of the time" That idea hits the
people of the present day exactly. The
people wanted to see Sharkcy, Corbett,
Mccoy, Maher or Jeffries fight me and
clamorcd for such a match through the
daily press They would hear of no cham
pionship contest in which was not a
principal The fakirs made some bluffs at
challenging me, but the moment called
their bluffs they all ran heller skelter to a
point of safety. One mana real man,
jim Jeffres-accepted my challenge after
the alleged Hercules Sailor Sharkey, and
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a moment later
was particularly anxious to take on
Sharkey simply as matter of satisfaction.
l defeated him once fairly and decisively
in San Francisco, but was robbed Of the
decision, as all the world knows, by lot
of 'surc thing gamblers. He knows,
and so does his manager know, that can
repeat the performance at any time, and
hot ic NV o ch nj, lie
and takes on a broken down, aged Grip
pied fighter, Charlie Mitchell Of England,
for a purse of Sill 200, less than half Of
what he and could fight for in America.
He is perfectly willing to meet Mitchell in
May and cross the ocean to do SO, but the
moment match with myself was debated
he must have something like a year in
which to recuperate his lost energies. He
and his manager let the awful secret leak
out that he has rheumatism, lumbago,
spinal meningitis, locomotor ataxia or
something of that sort and necessarily
must have long rest. Bosh! 1t is a
much simpler disease he is afflicted with,
and that is heart failure, when the under
signed is the subject of discussion. This
bulky sailor may be a great fighter with
inferior men, but I made him look like a
| Spaniard when took him in hand. He
was afraid of being twisted into Filipino
il he met me second time, SO he flunked.
He has had his chance, and will now pay
no further attention to him He can take
on galvanized corpses like Mitchell or easy
| propositions like Corbett, but he cannot
advertise his road exhibitions at my ex.
| pcnse.
/ have made match with Jcffries be-
causehe is the only heavyweight of noto
whom have not whipped Sharkey Cor
bett, Maher and Choynski have already
| polished off, and I don't see tho logic Of
repeating the performance with them, al
though they all had chance for another
battle and lodged the issue when it was
up TO them. Besides Jcffries is the man
lest of the whole bunch, tho only true
piece of metal among a lot of gold bricks.
don't mention kid Mccoy in this cat
egory, because he has some sporting spirit
in him and, furthermore. because he is a
middlewcight and not a heavyweight
have frequently offered to fight him at tho
middleweight limit but he evaded the
proposition until l had entered into nego-
tiations with Sharkey and Jeffries for a
match. Now he must wait bit. After
my contest with the big California boiler
maker will take on the festive "Kid' in
my own good time. ! have done more
lighting than any other man alive and
should have something to say as to when
and where l will fight in these ''liplo-
macy" days Of the ring.
Jeffries, my next opponent in the magic
circle, I look upon as the best of all the
heavyweights except myself. He has new