River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1906-03-22
Copyright. BY Joseph B. Bowlss.,
THE COLOR LINE IN PUG1L1sM.

THE COLOR LINE IN PUGILISM.
/ have always wanted to talk little
about the color line in pugilism, and this
seems about as good time as any. A lot
of tommy rot has been printed in one
way or another about this matter, and
hardly think any OF it has hit the-well,
let's say solar plexus of the subject.
To begin with, we've got to admit there
is a color line and as long as there is
pugilism in this country there will be
one Why? Simply because there will
always be colored fighters, for the
colored man is peculiarly fitted to be
pugilist in some ways and just as unfit
for it in other ways, but there will al
ways be a few of them with both quail
tiles combined.
You'll hear lot of men tell you that
drawing the color line won't affect
record. That's all foolishness. 1t will
and it must, because for a man to be
champion in any class he must meet
ali the men who think they have a
chance to get the championship away
from him, and if one or two of those
chaps are negroes, there will always ex-
list doubt as long as he refuses to meet
them. claim the middleweightc cham
pionship and the only reason hold it
is because /. beat the best men at that
weight No colored man has yet come
running up to tell me he thought he
could wallop my head off and take it
away from me, but if he did I'm inclined
to think I'd have to give him battle
for it.
Now others are different. When
fighter is working along trying to get q
whack at everything that stands, be-
hear much about any color line, and it's
only when he gets to sitting on the top
step and tanning himself with $1OO
panama hat that he begins to see any
thing funny looking about black hide.
guess it's just human nature. A fell
low feels he can get finicky with his likes
and his dislikes when he gets near the
top, and perhaps it won't do to blame
him over much for that, for he's worked
pretty hard for his job and can af-
ford to take chance now and then.
Not that it's right, however, for 1t isn't.
The laws of the United States say that
a black man is as good as a white
man. That's as it may be, but the
fact remains that if there is an extra
good colored man in line for the perch
on the top bough, and the champion
looks at him through smoked tele-
scope and says he's not meeting colored
parties right then, there's whole lot
of men who'll sneer in nasty way and
say:
'.Of course it's all right, but it looks
as if he's little bit ieary of that black
and tan proposition, and maybe he is.
From the way the chocolate man talks
he's got good stuff in him and So-and-So
ought to give him chance anyway"
That's the talk.
Understand me, I'm not taking up
sides on the question or saying what
any man ought or ought not to do. I'm
the boy in the lookout taking peek
over the situation, and l know that's
the way lot of the sporting element
talk. If there's anything an American
likes, it's fair shake for everybody all
around Mind you, I'm not talking
about crooks, Short-card men and tin
horns, but the American people as a
class, or perhaps I'd better say the An
glo-Saxon people. If chap behaves
himself and is decent in his askings, and
gets turned down by the big finger,
there's a whole lot of sympathy going
around for the down-trodden colOred
brother, and that's no message from a
dream book either. That's why / say
drawing the color line can affect mans
record, because you see it Is not proved
that the colOred man can't knock his
daylights out, and while there is no say
ing that he can, still there's always the
chance that he might. It's not a bit of
good for Bob Fitzsimmons, we'll say, to
stand up and howl through a mega
phone that he's the champion if he
can't prove it. The only way he can
prove it is to step down off the pedestal,
pull on the gloves and go out after that
climbing darky 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
never saw one yet that could get away
with me anyway, and maybe that's why
I'm not refusing any Of them that have
a legitimate claim. a chance to get
what's coming to them.
Jeffries drew the color line and
think he made mistake. | don't want
to seem to be criticising JEFF in any
way. because a man has right to run
his own game to suit himself, but do
think he made mistake, because it al
ways leaves that opening in mans
record. A man can't be champion for
ever. because there's always some young
fellow coming along who has 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 lot of them have stayed long
while, they always get theirs in the
end. Some of them try to retire and
hand the championship over to some
other fellow, but you'll find there's a
string tied to the gift and they sudden
ly drag it 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 a
shade on a lighters record ought to be