The Portland daily press., 1899-06-12
SAYS IT WAS FORGED.
Ohio Man Claims to Have Letter
From FitzsimmOns.
Ex-champion Denies Writing the Pro-
ductIon and Offers Reward for NJ.

Cincinnati. Ohio, June 1l.-Leonard
Shilly an attache of the sheriHis office,
who Is a personal friend of Bob Fitzsim-
mons, some days ago received the follow
ing letter from the prize fighter. 1t
shows plainly that Fltzsimmons feared
defeat at the hands Of JeHeriesgand bad
evidently warned all his friends against
placing too much confidence in the out
come OF the battle:
New York, May 81.
Mr.. Leonard Shilly:
Dear SIr:-Knowing you to have been
an ardent admirer of ms in the past
thinking that you probably will have
oonhdsnce in my ability as a pugilist, I
write to you as 1 am doing TO all my close
fr lends in order that their faith In me be
not aroused. You no doubt are well
aware OF the fact that am getting along
in years and have for long time been
liv ing q life of ease and quiet and. as the
saying Is, have not kept up with the
times.
My opponent, Mr.. Jeffries, 1 must adj
NIT, Is without peer in our profession
today, and / would consid sr it no disgrace
to meet defeat at his hands. He has
youth, science, strength and courage, and
in my opinion should havesno trouble to
defend the title (should he gain ny from
any man OF the present time. You must
| understand that say this confiden TALLY
and would of course not make public
statement of this kind, and further
am sure that You would not make use Of
this unless it be for your Individual bene-
| fit. My object in writing this letter iss
You may be IA betting man, and like q
great many more, may have. stubborn
Idea that 1 am inyinctble. II such be the
| case, you might bet E9cklessly. would
advise you TO be careful and not bet on
general results. 1 will certainly do my
best and hope TO gain victory. feel
safe in saying that will remain five or
ten rounds, and IL my usual good luck
does not desert me / will certainly win
the fight. Hoping that you will appreoi-
| ate my letter of caution, remain
Your sincere friend,
ROBERT BITZSIMMONS.
New York, juno 1l.-Bob Fitzsimmons,
ex-champion heavy weight pugilist, in
company with his wife and his manager
| Martin Julian, attended a ball game at
West Endtield club, Jersey City, this af-
| ternoon. Fitzsimmons acted as one of che
two lmpires and after the game he and
Julian denied the assertions made by
Leonard Shilly.
II never wrote such a letter." said
| Fitzsimmons. II DON'T know Shilly.
| Since l went into training some weeks
ago, 1 only wrote one letter, and that
| was to DIR. Kelly, a dentist of Peoria, ILL.,.
1
of victory or Of def eat in it. I'll tell you
| what I'll do" continued Fitzsimmons
| sin order to show the public that never
wrote such a letter to Leonard Shilly or
any other person, III give $500 to the
person who will produce such adjournment
and furthermore, If any one believes that
he has such letter will pay his ex
| penses from wherever he resides to thil
city and make him a present of $3.50 pro-
viding that such q communication can be
-.
forgery If such letter exists but want
TO be satisfied as to It's existence and ]
also want the public to ne satisfied that
never wrote 1t, nor had it written foI
me.
''I am at loss to understand why any
person could make such statements, be-
cause see no reason why any one shoulc
try TO injure me in this underhand man
ner"
Martin Julian, Fitzsimmon's mana
ger was equally emphatic in his denunci-
| alton of the report and said:
| "FitZsimmons and l are close friends
and / know that he never wrote such
letter. 1t is a lie on the face of it. Fitz-
simmons is not making any idle boast
when he says that he will give S25O0 for
the production of the letter II 1t can be
proved to be authentic. This we can
easily afford to do, seeing that we know
If such a letter exists 1t must be for
gerry. During his training Fitzsimmonl
wrote only one letter, and that whs SEM
to a medical friend of his in Peoria
Now let those people come to time and II
there is a negro in eSe wood-pile weswill
soon dig him out. If the letter can be
placed in evidence, we will gladly pay
$3.50 to the person presenting i6 as well
as all other expenses, in addition to S2oOO
promised by Fitzsi mmons
Mrs. Fitzsimmons who was present
said that she was positive that her hus-
band had never written such letter.
"Bob was more than confident of sue
cess, and all those who saw the fight
must certainly agree with me in saying
that he did his utmost to retain the
championship. He had no doubts as to
his ability to defeat Jeffries, and al
though he was beaten, l am not quite
satisti= that he cannot reverse the order
of things. 1t Is just possible that Bob
may try conclusions with Jetfries again.
but i cannot speak positively on the mat
ter as chat remains within the jurisdic-
tion of Mr.. Julian and my husband"
Several rumors are in circulation that
Jetfries had offered to spar with Fitzsim-
mons at benefit for the latter, but Man
ager Julian said tonight that Jeffries and
his manager, instead of giving benefit.
the proceeds of which would go to Fitz-
simmons. had made a proviso that they
should receive fifty per cent OF the re-
ceipts. When this proposition was made
to FitZsimmons, he and his manager de-
clined to have anything to do with 1t and
stated that when Hltzsimmons gave a
benefit for Jack Dempsey after he had
, defeated Dempsey, Dempsey received all
the receipts.
= /
A PRIEST TRANSFERRED.