The Savannah morning news., 1902-08-10
FITZ, KING OF PUGILISTS.
BagIey Calls Him the Grand Old Man
of the Prize Ring.

James Bagley in Milwaukee Sentinel.
With the passing of Bob Fitzsim-
mons there bids farefail to the prize
ring the grand old man" of pugilism,
the most picturesque figure that ever
sprawled under the rope and the great
est of all fighters since Hercules had
his little go with the beggarman. lie
was the only boxer who could train up
or down and be right either way. He
was the only man who held two cham
| pionshipS at the same time, middle and
heavy.
In actual pounds he was not much
heftier than middleweight-he is still
champion in that class, having won
the title from Jack Demsey and never
| lost it-yet he whipped all the heaviest
of his time. Corbett. Rubin, Sharkey,
! Godfrey, Maher, Dunkhorst, Jim Hall,
Jim DAILY and a few others until he
met the inevitable fate of the mug
that goes too often to the well.
The Hardest Hitter.
He was the hardest hitter that ever
| swung a blow. AS a ring general he
| was the daddy of all, and for a Loony
! fighter he had the rest of the bunch
skinner from hatband to kicks. And
game? He took to wallops as kid
/ takes to pie.
The peerless athlete goes down and
out leaving behind him a record that
will stand alone in the annals of The
| ring. The crazy vawp that his last
/ fight was a fake has been passed up
! by everybody who knows anything
| about the game. And no such silly at
| tempt was ever made to discount the
| Intelligence of those who care for box
| ing as this same babble about the
| Fitzsimmons- Jeffries bout being fixed.
OF course, when a man in a contest
has everything to gain by winning and
everything to lose by losing he puts up
a plan to lose. Yes? Then JEFF being
a 10 to favorite and there being only
| dribblets of Fitz money in sight and
no chance for Fitz to fight again for
| the championship if he lost, it was
good time for him to lay down. Yes?
You might work this tale off on the
| bapeaters of Terra del Fuego. but
there isn't salt enough in the big Utah
lake to make it palatable to anyone in
| store clothes.
| forth this feeble pipe wallowing in the
| mire of their own accusation in scant
hope of getting foothold on which to
make good.
It's a somewhat too previous play to
| pull a fire-alarm box and then hunt
| around for the smoke
Many of the stories that came from
| Fits training camps, which were
sometimes pitched close to salt water,
told of his wonderful prowess as a
swimmer. The truth is that fifteen
minutes overheard put a crimp in
! Bob's wind quicker than a 10-mile run
| at quarter clip. On the road he had
rubber bellows, but in the water he
was cowboy.
| The only time ever knew him to cry
Enough was when he was training
| for his fight with Rubin at Bergen
Beach. One Sunday-haneve did any
work on that day. invited Fitz,
George Dawson, his trainer and boxing
instructor at the Chicago Athletic Club;
jeff Thorne. his sDarring partner, and
| Mrs. Fitzsimmons to go sailing with
me in big catboat we had.
The GIad-Rae Way.
Fitz always went along in the glad
rag way when he was not working and
came down to the float in a Prince AL
bert raglan, carefully creased pajamas,
| a rail-fence collar and a four-story
silk lid. I asked him where the white
kid gloves We're. but he waived the
question and called my attention to a
serpent which he said he saw in the
offing.
vine lock around the overflow of my
jersey and l knew where I was going.
Now, all I had on besides the jersey
was a pair of half-mast duck pants
and I had him handicapped when we
struck the brine. He didn't intend to
accompany me. but changed his mind
when I hooked into the lapels of the
raglan. He let go his hold as the
bubbles closed over his lid and when
! tn he fr he cT11t
"Fun's over, Jim. Let's call It a
draw"
Fitz had scant liking for the white
lights and the repartee of the booze
booths. His delight was to roll about
on the grass with an animal pet. a
lion or a bear or some such gentle
beast. He has absolutely no fear of
wild animals and they have no fear
of him. [ have seen him in the New
York and Philadelphia ZOOS reach into
a cage, grab a lion by the paw and
drag the big cat up to the bars. The
lion accepted the treatment without
any fuss and Fitz cuffed him, unless
the keeper saw the play and stopped it.
He was always boy He was rough
and awkward and uncouth. But, like
a boy, he was frank aGd honest He
was fond as a kitten for not keeping
still and his enormous strength and
the weight of his ponderous arms
made him q rough playfellow. But'he
never fooled" with any of his asso-
ciates except those who were tough
enough to know how to take 1t.
With this love of rough play went a
perfect good nature that nothing could
ruff1e. He accepted defeat in any prank
as laughingly as If he wsre the victor
I lived with him for many months at
a time and never saw him angry.
Once at Bensonhurst, just after a
shower, he tossed me through a hedge
1t was Sunday afternoon and several
hundred people were watching him. I
had a pear in my hand at the time as
big as a young pineapple. Bob. 81
usual on Sundays, wore a tall silk bon
net. When I picked myself UP he
started to run. 1 let go the pear,
catching him where his red thatch
and the bonnet met. Whether he was
overbalanced in the running or his feet
got crossed I don't know. but when
the pear splashed over his top, car
rying away the bonnet, Bob went
sprawling on his mouth and nose in
the mud.
Everybody laughed, but none more
heartily than the giant who could have
crushed the life out of the author of
his discontinue with one slap of his
open hand.
ATTRACTIONS AT CASINO.