Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-09-16
By Clarence l.. Cullen.


around some place where the fight by
rounds of some big mill is coming in that
don't think of Ranmaker Jim Reynolds of
our town" said a Kansas City man on the
night of the Gans-Nelson scrap. I saw
Jim getting crazy action on his money when
the returns of the Fitzsmmons-C orbett go
in Carson City were coming in. and nothing
around a bulletin-receiving plant has ever
looked lively sporty to Inc since
Jim REYNOLDS was a sure-enough rain
maker. That is. rainmaking was his pro-
fession. m not saying how much rain ne
actually made, II he ever made any, but
he pretended TO make X. and II they were
only pretenSons he certainly got the money,
anyhow l think he had lot of luck He'd
brisk into a section where rain was long
overdue and where the crops were suffering
for moisture, and he hypnotic the farm
ers. and they'd all chip In for Jim's rain.
and he'd fool around setting up his gear
and getting his explosives ready, with
keen eye out all the time for signs of
break in the drought. getting weather re-
ports from the surrounding country all the
time, and by one dodge or another he'd sort
OF delay busting things in the empyreah UNI
til he felt that it was a cinch the rain was
coming anyhow. and then he'd shoot off his
raiumakng fireworks. and, more generally
than not the clouds 'ud show uD and then
split themselves wide open. just in the nick
of time for Jim. The elements rarely went
back on Jim. He had a sort OF genius or
intuition or what-you-may-cali- for peat
that sorely needed it by about twenty-four
hours. sometimes less. and t"en, when the
wet came and the crops were washed ana
soaked. Jim got the credit and the com Ior
it, He worked mostly in Kansas. There
was long drought throughout Kansas the
year of the Fitzsimmons-Corbett mill, ana
Jim had cleaned up something close 10
So 900 that season by beating the rain to the
spots he picked out.
'Jim was a communicating, little runt
but like whole lot of small men. he was
crazy over prize fights-just you take peek
around at the audience. next scrap you take
in and observe how the little sawed-on
chaps in the crowd predominant ever the Big
fellows Jim took in every big fight in the
country. no matter where it took place, and
he'd bet his last nickel on the man he d
picked to win. 1t matter of record in
Kansas City that he'd walked most of the
way home to Kansas City, when he couldn't
swing onto freights. from the Corbett-Suli-
van mill Jim kud tapped himself betting
OF John L.. and his railroad ticket from
Kansas City didn't read both ways and So
after the fight. Jim. ne just picked up his
feet and hiked back to Kansas City best
he could
He became a tremendous Fitzsmmons
bug after seeing the Cornishman trim Jack
Dempsey at New Orleans. and he did
lot of shouting. when he got back to Kan
sas City that Lanky Bob the greatest
prize fighter that ever stood in shoe leath-
er. He mayn't have been wrong, at that
I've heard some firSt-rate judges say the
same thing of FitZsimmons But Jim Rey-
holds really made himself nuisance with
his claims for Fitz. Jim's Kansas City
friends couldn't see Fitz in the greatest
ever light at all. for the freckled pug
hadn't then gone up against the big fell
lows and the real dope on him wasn't gen.
orally known. Jim hated Corbett with
baleful hatred for having licked John L.
and probably for having made him (Jim)
trudge back to Kansas City after that fight
and from the minute the match between
FTtz and the Pompadour made Jim gave
1t out to everybody he met. with gleeful
eyes, that Fitz was going to make Cor
bett look like a nickePs worth of dog
meat Most all of the sports in Kansas
City, and Jim knew them ALL gave him the
boot when he said this. Corbett was looked
upon pipe in Kansas City. as he was
practically everywhere else in the country,
and from the outset the price against Fitz
IN Kansas City was two and a half to one.
frightening to three to one and even more
a week before the mill
"Ranmaker Jim was willing to back his
opinion with his kale. and he got down
5000 of the wad he picked up in droughty
Kansas by being lucky at the opening odds,
$1,000 to $1,000. When the price against
Fitz spread out to three to he got
down another $1,000 at that figure. The
remaining $1,000 Of his bank wad he kept
In his nankeens up to the time of the fight.
1t was Impossible for him to go out to Car
son City to the fight account of sew
eral of his children being sick. and this is
the place to say that Jim never got over
his piteous grief because he wasn't at the
ringSide to see F'itz put away the man who
had put away John l..
Most of the hot sports of Kansas City
who hadn't gone out to Carson City were
assembled in a well-known Kansas City
cafe to get the returns. The proprietor of
the saloon had put in a special wire and
arranged for bulletin service of the fight
by rounds. and there was a man with a
megaphone stationed N a SeCOnd-St win
dow to call off the returns to the immense
crowd punched out on the street Admis-
sion to the room where the returns were
coming hot over the wire was by card and,
OF course. Jim. being one of the insiders in
the dead-game line in Kansas City, had
card. Jim Joined the gang in the room
about half an hour before the returns were
due to begin There wasn't much u
dime of Fitz coin in the room till Jim got
there. They all had it doped that Corbett
would put the lanky one away in a poke,
and none of EN- could see anything else
but the Pompadour end with naval o.
servatory lens.
Jim took a chair way in the rear and
leaned back. clasped his hands behind his
head. pulled his hat over his eyes, and said:
Now We'll watch a sure-enough prize
fighter slap a lot o buttonholes into
tCnpin-jack Willie-boy.'
Whoa. there" laughed bunch of the
BIN. Pun up! You're going over the bankr
" Sail right about goin' over the bank,
calmly replied Jim. You jes watch
punchin' man put away a waltzer-thats
Ill l got to say
Give you three n "a half Jim for a
souple O. hundred of that put in one of
HE dead games in the of chairs in
'front.' % Jim.
Don't want it now" replied Rainmaker
Jim. I'm goin' to walt
Wait for what?' some of the bunch
guyed him. Wait for your long-shanked
knock-kneed dub to get chased over the
ropes-goin' I go to him then?
Plenty o time. plenty o. time Jim
stalled This here limelight boy with tn
purity movements and tn graceful foot
work. les about shoot his wad in a few
rounds, and that's what tn OF manu he
waitin' fr. Wen Corbett gifts good an,
tired punchin at him, you jes' watch that
red-headed son-of-a-sea cock trairse in an
finish him. You dubsll be givin' Inc all tn
price I want then. an that's what I'm a.
waitin' f'r.'
IT'S worth while calling attention right
now to the prophetic way Jim Cafied the
turn on that fight. 1t came pretty nlyn ha D.