Waterbury Democrat., 1903-01-30
WITH TIE VRESTLERS.
The Kelly and Luttbeg Match
 Ends in a FiZzle.

Both Principals Had Agreed to a Fake.
 -Luttbeg at the Last Minute Re
 fused the Fake Agreement and I Wanted the Original Articles-Kelly | Cornered Admits the Attempt to l Fake the Public-Prosecuting At 1 torney Durant Demands Both
 Agreements and Explains the Facts
 to the People.
 l When Max Luttbeg came to this city some weeks ago to wrestle John Kelly q handicap match he did not get him. self in the condition he should have done. He proved in that match, how ever, that he was a very clever man, and got all kinds of holds on Kelly, which the latter broke very easily. When this last match was made Lutt- beg trained faithfully and presumably so did Kelly. It was advertised for l the worlds championship. A few days ago a suspicion arose that every thing did not look right on the sur- l face, but nothing could be learned de- fnitely, and Luttbeg requested that Miss Connerton, who sold the tickets at the door be seen and asked to hold 1 the money taken in and not turn 1t over to anyone until it was divided as the articles of agreement called for. l This was done and last night why it was done was very apparent. The preliminary had been over some time and as the principals in the main go were not forthcoming the people be- gan to get uneasy.
 At this time Prosecuting Attorney Durant was called into action and he found out that Kelly refused to go on unless the money in the box office was placed in one of his friends hands. l He blurted out that there was some I other agreement besides the original one and Prosecutor Durant demanded that agreement It was found in the possession of M A. Myers, an insur ance canvasser It was in Myers hands, too, that Kelly wanted the box office money placed. After securing the agreement Prosecutor Durant read it and then showed it to the newspaper men present. It is given below. AS soon as Prosecutor Du- rant secured the fake agreement, he was told by the newspaper men that he should also demand the original articles of agreement. He did make the demand and they were foun6 in l the possession of B. L. Cowles, the manager and referee of the exhibition. The substance of the original articles is given below also.
 As soon as he had the two agree mentS Prosecutor Durant ascended the platform and stated the case exactly as it was to the public. To say that the people were surprised was putting it mildly. Luttbeg went on to the i platform and tried to explain his side of the case. He said he never signed that fake agreement and that his name was forged to it. He was there ready and willing to wrestle Kelly by the terms of the articles of agreement. He was given fair treatment by the majority of the spectators present. Several of his friends also defended his action, saying that he had trained 1 faithfully for the match and wanted to wrestle as the articles of agreement 1 called for. Kelly all this time had l been standing near the platform with a bevy of his friends around him and he was asked to get up and explain his 1 side of the case. He finally was in- l duced to get up. He owned up to the attempt to fake the public and said ] that he found himself caught in trap and his friends had bet a lot of money on him and he did not want to see l them lose it. He would wrestle if all bets were declared off
 Here was the astonishing part of it all. John E. Kelly once had the con- ffdence of the sporting public. He had whole lot of admirers who liked him and who were willing to patronize his exhibitions, but who believed that Luttbeg was the better man. Yet Kel- ly before all those people owned up to a deliberate attempt to fake the pub l lie Luttbeg at first refused to call all bets off, but finally consented in order to give the public a run for their money Then when everything look 1 ed bright for 8 match Kelly fiunked again and showed another trait in his makeup that many people did not be, lieve he possessed. He said he was too nervous and f1atly refused to face Luttbeg. It looked like a direct crawl and the streak of yellow showed l very plainly. He followed up this course by standing at the platform and advised E. l.. Cowles to tell the people to go to the box office and get l their money back. One of his remarks showed plainly just what Kelly was trying to do. ''We'Il kill this whole wrestling game right here,'' said MT Kelly, and evidently he would like to think he had done so. To se@
 to the box office and get their money back would have occasioned more con- fusion and the reason he advocated that course was because Ia1ttbeg had agreed to meet Farmer Burns, who was present in the house, and Kelly did not want this to happen. He eyi- dently wanted the show busted LID right there but he found he had lost his pull, for when Burns name was mentioned the people almost, to a man called for Burns to go on and told Kelly to get out of sight
 Burns and Luttbeg did go on and they gave a very clever exhibition. Luttbeg was in great form and he had his more weighty opponent puffing l like a steam engine before the match