The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1904-02-29
FIGHTERS ARE GREAT
AS BIG FOUR-FLUSHERS
Talk More and Do Less than Any
Other Professional Class
of Athletes.
BIG LINE OF "CON TALK"
Failure to Deliver Such Goods Is
Worse than Getting a Beat
ing in the Ring.
BIG LINE OF "CON TALK"

NEW YORK. Feb. 2S-FOur-fushing as
an art has been carried to its highest de-
velopment By the mitt-slingers who claim
10 be champions or who are near cham
pions." Failure to put up brand of ICON
talk" that will make the fans pause and
gasp is considered worse than going into
the ring and taking a beating. When in
his prime Kid Mccoy was the goods with
the spangles. but since public opinion has
made him a high private in the rear ranks
of the jah artists he has been holding his
peace and giving the other fellows
chance. Tommy Ryan and Jack O Brien
always did give Mccoy a hard for first
money. and now this entire bunch is be-
coming involved in a gabfest which breaks
all records before it is even half over. That
WALTON which Ryan landed on O'Brien in
Philadelphia seems to have made Jack a
candidate for the queer house. He sits
around the ''con" joints in the sleepy city
and tells how he is going to take on
Mccoy. Ryan and Bob FtZsimmons, just
fast he can drag those gentlemen
into ring. OF course, this kind OF talk
gives Mccoy and Ryan chance TO get
back. and they are not passing up the op-
pOrtunity. Even old Bob FitZsimmons has
developed into quite ICON" peddler since
Jeffries hammered him to death.
Before OIL rien finishes with that bunch,
If he really Intends to take them on. he
will have a bad case OF lOckjaw. The Eng
lish champion can probably trim Kid Nc
Coy, as the Hoosier is one of the soft spots
in the game now, but Tommy Ryan will
drive him TO the woods long before TWEEN
ty-round fight is ended, and II he ever gets
TO old "Speckled Bob he will get a trim
ming that will induce him to retire from
active business and live his income. In
spite of all his talking, o Brien is a top
notch fighter, and should be able TO make
.s.~k.r
well talk about whipping Jeffries as
FftZsimmons Gardner proved to be one
of the best of the light heavy weights, and
Fitz made him look like a sucker. That
fight proved almost beyond doubt that,
with the single exception of Jeffries, there
is not man in the business who can beat
''Lanky Bob
While talking of four-f1ushers, Jim Cor
bett must not be overlooked. He breaks
into the game every now and then just to
show the people he is not dead. His latest
effort came recently, when he announced
that he had retired from the ring for two
years on account of his theatrical engage
ments. There is more money in being a
footlight artist than there is In swinging
the mitts, and he gives this as his reason
for quitting the game. In order that the
public will not believe he is in earnest IN
this talk, he puts in an If to the effect
that he will be willing to fight IL somebody
will hang up a $4,000 purse. In another
two years Corbett will be so old that his
teeth will commence TO fall out and he will
have 10 walk with a cane.
The bout which Corbett had with JEFF
fries in California shows that the former
champion has played his string, and when
the two years he Is now talking about are
up he will do well TO put off the date of
his grand reappearance another two years,
and In this way make his retirement per-
manent. He has not got another good fight
left in him, and there is no need Of waking
the people up to this fact by letting Bob
FitZsimmons beat him to death Out in
California Young Corbett is doing his best
to give the impression that he is going
the pace that kills" 1t was reported a
short time ago that he won $4,000 on the
races. He probably pulled down pretty
good chunk, and he takes a man along with
him now to carry his money, and is buying
automobiles and horses wherever they are
offered for sale. He is having a royal time
getting rid of his surplus cash. and at the
same time Davie Sullivan is digging into
the hard work and getting ready to make
the fight of his life when he runs up against
Young Corbett toward the last of this
month.