The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1905-09-10
HAVE always wanted to talk a ntne

To begin with We've got TO admit there
/ Is a cOnoi line. and as long as there is
/ one Why? Simply because there viii
/ always be colOred Fighters. for the col
ored man Is peculiarly fitted to be q
I pugiiist In some ways and just as unfit
/ Tor II III other ways. but there will al
ways be 4 few OF them with both quail
/ tiles combined.
Yon'H hear lot of men tell you that
drawing the color line won't affect q
record That's all foOlishness. II win anC
II must. because for d man to be cham
/ piOn ~ any class he must meet all the
men who think they have a chance to
get the championship away from him,
and If one or two of these chaps are ne
SroeS, there VIII always exist = doubt
as long - he refuses to meet them
claim the middleweight championship,
ana the Only reason hold j. is because
. beat the best at that weight No col
ored man has yet come running up 10 tell
me he thought he could waIlOD my head
OH ana take il away from me, but If lac
I aid I'm inclined to think I'd have To give
aim battle for il.
Now others are different. When q fight
eT IS working along trying to get a
Whack al everything that stands be-
tween him and the top notch, you don't
hear much about any color line. and # s
only when ne gets TO sitting On the top
step and tanning himself with 4 800 Pa
mama nat that he begins to see anything
mummy looking about q black hide.
/ guess it's Just human nature. A fel-
low feels he can get finicky with his likes
and his dishkes when he gets near the
top, and perhaps it won't do to blame
him over much for that, for hes worked
pretty hard Tor his job and can af-
Lord 10 take . chance now and then.
Not that it's right, however. for it ism t..
The laws of the United States say that a
black man IS as good as 4 white man.
mats as II may be. but the fact remains
mat If there is an extra good cOlored man
III line for the perch on the top bOugh,
and the champion looks at him through j
smoked telescope and says he's not meet
ing colored parties right then. there's a
whole lot OF men who'll sheer In q nasty
way and say:
"Of course. it's all right. but it looks as
If he's a little bit leary of that black and
tan proposition, and maVbe he is From
the way the chocolate man talks he's got
good StuTf IL him and SO-and-SO ought
10 give him a chance, anyway"
That's the talk.
on the question or saying what any man
ought or ought not to do I'm the boy
IN the lookout taking a peek over the
situation. ana I know that's the way a
lot Of the sporting element talk. If there's
anything an American likes, it's a fair
shake for everybody all around. Mind
you, I'm not talking about crooks short
card nen and tin horns. but the Amer
lean people as a class. or perhaps I'd bet
ter say the Anglo-SaXon people. If a chap
behaves himself and is decent in his ask
fngs and gets turned down by the big
going around for the doWntrOdden col
ored brother. and that's no message from
dream book, either. That's why l say
drawing the color line can affect man
record. because you see il is rot proved
that the colOred man can't knock his day
lights out, and while there is no saying
that he cam. still there's always the
chance that he might. It's not q bit or
good for Bob FftZsimmons, Wen say. 10
stand up and howl through a megaphOne
that he's the champion if he can't prove
Hasg IN
step down off the pedestal, pull on the
gloves and go out after that climbing
darlIy and either give or take one good
licking.
I've met negroes and I've always found
them so and so. / don't mean that they're
easy, for they're not; but l never saw one
yet that could get away with me any
way. and maybe that's why I'm not re-
fusing any of them that have a legiti-
mate claim, chance TO get what's COM
ing TO them.
Jeffries drew the color line and I think
he made q mistake. don't want 10 seem
to be criticiZing Jeff in any way. because
a man has a right to run his own game
TO suit himself, but do think he made
a mistake, because it always leaves that
opening ia a mans record. a man can
be champion forever because there's al
ways some young fellow coming along
who has a look in, and he has the chance
To hand you the punch that will send you
off TO the shadows It's always been SO,
and while a Rot Of them have stayed
long time they always get theirs in the
end. Some of them try to retire and hand
the cham pionship over TO some other Tel
lew, but you'll find there's a string tied
to the gift and they suddenly drag IL
back again.
Corbett gave the belt over TO Peter
Maher, but he took it back in hurry
when he found Peter hadn't the class to
hold it. Anything that goes TO throw q
shade on a fighters record ought TO be
ripped off and the color line does as much I
to harm a mans popularity as anything.
think. unless it's q direct charge OF
cToOl1edness. and that doesn come OFTEN.
There are Il lot of men in TINS world
who think the negro is good fighting
proposition and they have some reason
for IT, too, for there was Peter Jackson
there was George Dixon. there was Joe
Walcott and there is Joe Cans THOSE
men made names for themselves and they
did il legitimately. AS 7 said a while
back some Of these cOlOred men nave a
reason for being fighters. They nearly all
have a long reach, and that counts Tor a
good deal. They generally nave nard
head. and can take d punch there th6L
would drop a white man. Then most OF
them are short necked like Walcott The
hardest thing in the world would be 10
ran that fellow on the jaw, for he has no +
neck at all that / could ever see. When /
the whole thing SINNERS down TO cases /.
it's easy 70 see that Jeff has hurt NM
self Just a little bit by scratching that /
chalk line across his front doorstep.
Popularity is q funny thing here in /
this country You're q hero one minute /
and then you're-well. something, else /
Who had a harder time than poor old Adj
l1jy3l DeKey2 He came back mere ana .
he whole nation was rolling over TO get
chance to put its neck under MS Io9t
rhen George made a bad pIay-led tne
wrong card or something-and ne got hlS
rom every hole and corner or the c0Ult-
nv That's why [ say it's foolish for tue
nan at the top to get too funny, ioF. tle
frst thing he knows, some lad Will come
long with an ax and cut off the limo ne
itting on and he gets bad ran
We're tickle over here, very tickle.
av we because Tn an american citizen,
ven if ] was born in Cornwall ana
Ike the country and its ways, ana the
,av 1t treated me. You get along spien-
idly here until you get little bit proud
nd the minute you stick your chin up IN
be air and try to look over housetop,
ONE fellow, without any particular mai
&c Just shoyes a scantiing between your
eet, and when YOU re waoDling on the
lint. the bystanders kick you gently u
emind you that it won't do 10 get too
ay
/ don't know but it's good idea, for il
cops "a man IN reasonable shape ana
revents him from wearing nat that's
hree sizes larger than Is good for him
tut to get back to that color line bust
ess Maybe I'm bit freer in my view
han I would be if I'd been born Ia the
outh instead Of England. but then you
ee over there there are mlshty Few ne
roes and they'r re not lOOkeu on so much !
ith the same eye we look at them over
ere, and if a man is going TO be cham
ion of the world, and popular cham :
ion he's got to take care what the :
rorld thinks of him mes got TO sac :
flee some of his feelings # he's going :
D do that popular idol business, for he | :
ant forget that he's a public figure in a I
-ay. and he's got TO do what the public
ant him to do or get off the top step.
Just as long as there are men of good
81 blood in the world there viii be fight
rs. and the fellow who does all he can
} keep his end OF the game up will be the
Oy who's going to get the small change !
mats going around. 1 believe in meeting /
Ie colOred brother If he's got a look IN,
1r If there's any public sympathy going
} be spilled around, / want 10 get il for !