The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1906-01-14
FITz HAS BEEN
AN EASY MARK
Famous Fighter Always a Victim of
Grafters and Brace-Game
Workers.

! Bob Fitzsimmons, although he has en-
gagged in over 800 battles in the Queens
bury arena and has earned a fortune
with the stuffed mitts, has very little of
this worlds goods to show for his long
/ labOrs as a wielder of the gloves. Fitz
is not broke by any means, but the
/ bulk Of what he now has he earned be-
hind the fOotlishts in recent years, it
being asserted he has practically nothing
to show as a direct result of his long
career in the ring.
The main reason for his not accumuIat-
/ ing competency out of the big sums OF
money he has received from time to time
/ as MS snare OF ring encounters is credit
/ ed TO the fact that the old red top has
/ been an easy mark for buncO men of high
ana low degree ever since he first drew
on q glove. The Cornishman, it is assert
/ ed, has been flimflammed out of enough
money to put half a dozen fighters and
/ their families ''On Easy street. for the
rest Of their lives.
Easy Victim for Smooth Brigade.
/ The befreckIed battIer has been an easy
victim for the smooth talking members
/ OF the buncO brigade ever since he quit
! the bIacksmlth,s forge for the squared
CIRCLE says one writer, and it is. only in
the last five or six years that he has be-
come wise" to the ways of the world
/ and has received anything but what was
J NCAAAAL5 " NM AS Ills snare OF the SDOilS
which go to the victor In his training
/ quarters over in Alameda. before his
/ fight with O'Brien the battle-scarred old
veteran RECALLED q few friends viii, q
/ long string OF. tales wherein he PLAYED the
/ part or the tieeced lamb in all sorts of
IInflam propositions. Fitz is not bit
/ backward in admitting his trusting and
/ uhsophlSucated nature in DAYS gone bV
and among other things not generaIiv
/ known In spOrtsdom he unfolded q story
OF now ne was separated from every
/ encounter Of his career-his victory over
Corbett at Carson City-before- twenty
four hours had passed after the solar
PIeXus T unch went home which made him
/ champion Of the world
lie does not include this story as one
referring at AL to bunco men, bat merely
to indicate his run Of luck rs ri r
Was Fieeced at. Carson, City.
Fitz declared that before the fight his
manager, Martin Julian, came to him
with proposition from Dan Stuart, the
promoter Of the fight, to declare him
! (Fitz) in as an equal partner in the ven
ture. Says says it was represented to
him that Stuart expected to clear an inn
n1ense sum in the three days fight car
niYaI at Carson, Of which the Fitz-Cor-
bett championship battle on st. Patricks
day, 1897, was the stellar feature, and that
the big Texan would take Fitz in as an
equal partner on the profits provided he
would stand his share Of the losses, If
there were any. Fitz agreed, and saws
that after the fight he received the sum
/ of 81, 900 in all as his share of the purse
side bet and for expenses for himself and
wife and for special reports of the bat
/ tie by himself for various newspapers.
As soon as he was paid the money how
ever, Fitz says, he was Informed by Ju-
liam and Stuart that the fight carnival
had been a big losing venture and that
J the $4,000 would no more than even his
share Of the losses. Fitz says he turned
over the money without word and that
! he did not even ask for an account
I had won the championship and had
! licked COrbett, and that was all l want
ed,' said the Cornishman.