The Washington times., 1905-08-27

In this. the preliminary bout L am
taking on with the pen. 1 want to say
at once that / am not out to butter
nice hot slice OF good advice. and then
pry open the teeth OF youth and shove
it down the Juvenile throat.
I'm not going to take up physical cul-
ture and hold it up as the thing of all
things. either. for what 1 don't know
about 1t would fill book too big to car
ry around in the waistcoat pocket. Ply
steal culture is all right in its place.
and good advice is. also. but 1 don't
think I'm strong enough on either sub
ject to make II read true / have writ
ten about the care of the body. and /
meant 1t. but then my idea OF 1t is quite
a lot different from the so-called pro-
fessors'. and there are enough OF them
IN the business to take care of 1t.
The Corbett Fight.
I've been asked a good many times
about my feelings when 1 step in the
ring. and perhaps I'd better clean up
that first OF all. Looking back over the
years I've been using the gloves, i
think / may say that the most impor-
tant fight I've had was the one with
Jim Corbett in Carson City. Anyway
you look at Il. 1t meant about as much
to me as anything could mean. II 1
jump in and tell the real tale of that
little business, II ought to give pret-
~ fair notion of what ''the old man"
feels like when he climbs through the
ropes and looks the outfit over.
III start off right here by saying 1
never had a nerve in my life / don't
know anything about such things and 1
don't want to. When / was putting in
good hard Iicks on the anvil back in New
Zealand the only thing I knew about
nerves was when / collided with a bit
OF hot iron, and that didn't last long. 1
didn't know what 1t meant much, except
that 1t was a good thing to keep away
from.
I've walked into the ring something
over 800 times in my life. and / can't re-
member that I ever had a tremor or a
shake, except what 1 got from the 9TH
er fellow when / got careless. Nerves
may be all right for some folks. but I've
managed to get along without them, and
I'd like to bet that some of the doctor
boys would lose a bunch of good hard
money IL the rest of humanity was like
me. No healthy man ought to know
whether he has nerves or not anyway,
and II he has them he isn't healthy, and
you can't go back of that. But what
L wanted to talk about was that fight
at Carson City.
Trained Hard.
When that match was made / think
1 was about as well satisfied as IL I'd
been left a million. for I'd been wait
ing for n chance at Corbett a good long
while, I. you remember. Jim didn't Z
think much OF me those days, for some
reason or other. and he never took any
particular pains to hide Ii. either; but
then he was young fellow and he's
learned lot Of things since then.
I've trained for many a fight, but
never as / trained for that one and II
was good hard work all the time. Be
cause 1 didn't fettle myself up the way
the others had been doing a lot of fool
ish stuff found its way into the papers,
and then the report got out that 1 was
only bluffing. and had II fixed I'D with a
gang back East to lay down. That made
me sore, for I'll say honestly that I'd
have gone into the ring with Corbett II
there hadn't been a dollar in II for me
anywhere in sight, and think he knew
1t just as well as L did. However, 1 lust
kept on working and saying nothing
much, and l went through a pretty stiff
grind all around before the day came
aiDSg. 1t was pretty hard work. wait
ing. too. but 1 put the time in. for 1
knew that IL l was going 10 whip him
I'd have TO be there when the last gong
tapped.
Determined to Win.
It's not swelling things a little bit to
a haxr
asked me how I felt just then when L
climbed through the ropes I've never
really talked much about II. because IT
never seemed worth while. but I'm GO
ing to tell the facts now. 1 didn't feel
much Of anything except that I'd made
up my mind that l was going to whip
my man II / had to stick there for
twenty-four hours. / walked around
that ring in my bathrobe and I looked
the crowd over pretty well. / remem-
Der there was one man in a soft gray
felt hat who sat in my corner. and when
looked over at him he leaned over to
a chap next to him and said:
'Corbett II knock his BANKED head
off. Look at what he calls legs
That made me sore for a minute. and
leaned over the ropes and said to
him:
You billy-soaked kangaroo. I'll give
you a hundred if you'll say that again
at my camp after the fight" And then
L felt foolish and went over to the
other side of the ring. i was thinking
most of the time about Corbett's feet.
They'd always said he won most OF his
fights with them. and / was figuring
out way to put II on him with mine
II you ever saw the pictures they
took of that fight you'll remember |
was walking about with my head down
most of the time before Corbett showed
Up In the ring. and 1 was just figuring
out how / was going 10 work TO make
Jim forget his feet l don't think 7
was sore at him just then. for II would
have been the same if II had been any
other man, for / wanted to win thar
fight If / dropped dead the next min
Ute. Well, / kept working on il and 7
decided that / would let him chase me
a little, and that I'd try TO work him
into a corner and then work hira some
Lots OF people will tell you that I
threw away chances when I might
f-ave landed him, but don't believe
them. for / didn't had IN uaala,,