Waterbury Democrat., 1902-01-18
FIGHTS AND FIGHTERS.
Sharkey and Maher Indulge In
 a Fake Battle.

a Fake Battle.
 The Referee Stops the Bout and De
 clares It No Contest-Thousands of Disguised People Present-Maher
 and Sharkey Arrested Before the l Battle-"Doco O'Connell, We'll
 Known Boxer, Is Dead.
 Philadelphia, Jan 1S.-About the most monumental fake ever imposed on a confding sporting public. That 1 was what the loudly heralded and widely advertised bout between the heavyweight pugilists, Tom SharkeJ and Peter Maher, in the Industrial Athletic club In this city last night, proved to be. The men did not fight. In the middle of the third round the sporting men from various cities, who had been gulled into giving up their money to see q genuine contest, arose in their wrath and stopped thh 1t- That was what 1t amounted u, ue-s cause at this stage the crowd was in such an angry mood that it might not have been well for Sharkey and Maher l II lA0y uttu COItluuGu WILL IASlI AdhOs It was in the middle of the third round that Referee Recap stepped to the side of the ring. The crowd nd been in an uproar. They stilled their angry shouts to hear him.
 | Gentlemen he said, II came here to referee contest. This is no coll test"
 Then the f1oodgates of wrath were I0nona6 Nxyido 1lx1f no Ch1r. l key attempted to make a speech, hut he was hooted down. The fake was stopped then and there The crowd cried that they should have their money back and shrieked fake" but their cries and their shrieks alike were of no avail. They had been buncoed once again. That and nothing more. l Because the men were arrested in the afternoon and bound in bonds of 5000 each to keep the peace, 1t proh- l ably will be said that the action of the police was responsible for the wretch l ed exhibition. But there is a shrew1 suspicion that the law was used to give a semblance of Justification for the | fake.
 It Is pointed out that Sharkey with fight with Jeffries on his hands, prob- ably would not agree to take q chance with Maher unless 1t was guaranteed that his bout with the latter fighrer would be no more than a love match. If this is the case the action in the police court yesterday afternoon lent l itself to his scheme, if not to the; scheme of the club, who could not dream of permitting the receipts to es-- cape them.
 It was early in the afternoon when the legal attempt to stop the fight was made. Sharkey and Maher and James H. Mcfarland, an official of the Indus- trial Athletic club, were arrested on a warrant sworn out by J. D. Barnitz, who, 1t was said, represented the Law and Order society. The charge was q l conspiracy to commit a breach of the peace. The men were arraigned before Magistrate Eisenbrown, who, after hearing half dozen witnesses. held | the three men in bonds of $5,O0O each 1 to keep the peace and, appear before | him this morning. Bail was furnished and the fighters and Mcfarland walked out of court prepared for the entertair- ment of the evening. There will be no trouble in showing that the pugilists kept the peace.
 Although the alleged contest was witnessed by large crowd of specta- tors, the crowd would have been stronger numerically but for the inter- vention of the law in the afternoon. When it became known that the men were placed under arrest telegrams were sent to sporting men in New York and other cities informing them of the state of affairs and advising them that l there was not much chance of the fight taking place. This undoubtedly was fortunate for many of the sports who otherwise would have been present. Had the legal action been taken Thurs day instead of yesterday it would have saved all the out-of-town sports from q tremendous disappointment, but q majority of them did not learn of the interference until they arrived here. and then they could do nothing but make the best of the situation. winch they did in that happy-go-lucky way characteristic of sporting crwods. l A bunch of preliminary bouts wara put on to whet the appetite of the spec- tators. Kid Fitzgerald, coIored. of Baltimore, and the Kentucky Rose bud, also colored, of Philadelphia. were the first pair to enter the ring. They fought six rounds to a draw. Jack Hagerty of Trenton outpointed Kid Fisher of Brooklyn; Kid Stein had a slight advantage over Billy Fairburn in their bout and Lew Ryall and Young Kelly fought six tame rounds to draw. With these bouts decided. the way was clear for the big fellows. but the big fellows did not materialize until long after every man in the house had lost patience. There was q wait of nearly an hour, and it was close to midnight when the men consented to enter the ring. According to the arti- cles of agreement they were to receive 70 percent of the gate receipts, and if was said that they wanted their money before entering the ring There is req. son to believe, however that all hands simply were postponing the disappoint- ment which was in store for the crowd. The betting on the contest was ex- tremely light. The cause of this orIg- inally was the fact that the authorities prohibit the referee from giving de- cision in any contest decided in this city, so that when the bout goes the limit of six rounds there is nothing to do but draw the stakes. Then. when | nQ al