The Virginia enterprise. [volume] (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??, 1906-03-02
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Copyright. by Joseph e. Bowies)
HOW I WON MY RING BATTLES

Row I WON MY RING BATTLES
In this, the preliminary bout l am
taking on with the pen, l want to say
at once that l am not out to butter a
nice hot slice of good advice, and then
Ply open the teeth of youth and shove
IT down the juvenile throat. I'm. not
going to take up physical culture and
Mold it up as the thing Of all things,
either, for what don't know about it
would fill book too big to carry
around in the waistcoat pocket. Ply
slca1 culture is all right in it's: place,
and good advice is, also, but l don't
| think I'm strong enough on either sub
]ect to make it read true. have
! written about the care of the body, and
! / meant it, but then my idea of it. is
quite lot different from the so-called
professors, and there are enough of
them in the business to take care of it.
I've been asked a good many times
about my feelings when I 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,
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 it, it means about as much
to me as anything could mean. If
Jump in and tell the real tale of that
little business, it ought to give pref
ty fair notion of what "the old man"
feels like when he climbs through the
ropes and looks the outfit over.
I'll start off right here by saying
never had a nerve in my life. l don't
know anything about such things and
l don't want to. When was putting
In good hard licz3 on the anvil back
in New Zealand the only thing knew
about nerves was when l collided with
a bit of hot iron, and that didn't last
long. I didn't know what it meant
much, except that it was a good thing
to keep. away from. I've walked into
the ring something over 300 times in
my life, and l can't remember that
ever had tremor or a shake except
| what got from the other fellow when
l 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
fs-the rest Of humanity was like me.
No healthy man ought. to know
whether he has nerves or not, any
way, and if he has them he ISM
healthy, and you can't go back of that.
But what I wanted to talk about was
that fight at Carson City.
. When that match was made | think |
was about as we'll satisfied as if I'd
been left million. for I'd been wait
ing for chance at Corbett a good
long while, if you remember. Jim
didn't think much Of me those days
for some reason or other, and he never
took any particular pains to hide it.
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 it was good hard work all the time
Because I didn't fettle myself up the
way the others had been doing a lot OF
foolish stuff found it's way into the
papers, and then the report got out
that I was only blGf6ng, and had II
fixed up with 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 if there hadn't been
a dollar in it for me anywhere in sight
and think he knew it just as we'll as
l did. However, just kept on work.
ing and saying nothing much, and ]
went through pretty stiff grind al
around before the day came along II
was pretty hard work waiting. too, but
put the time in, for Itknew that If
was going to whip Jim I'd have to be
there when the last gong tapped.
It's not swelling things little bit tc
say that over thousan ID men have
asked me how felt just then when
climbed through the ropes. I've never
really talked much about it, because
it never seemed worth while, but I'm
going to tell the facts now. I didn't
feel much of anything except that I'D
made up my mind that was going tc
whip my ::,an If had to stick there 70,
"a hours. I walked around that ring
in my bathrobe and l looked The
crowd over pretty well. I remember
there was one man in soft gray fell
hat who sat in my corner, and when
looked over at him he leaned over to e
chap next to hi N and said: -, =
."Corbett IL knock his BANKED head
off,: Look at what he calls iegs.'' >"
That made me sore fora minute. anG
I leaned over the ropes and said tt
him: =,
"You billy soakcd kangaroo, I'll give
you hundred if you'll say that agar
at my camp after the fight" And ther
I felt foolish and went over to tht
other side of the ring. 1 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 it>on him. with mine
If you ever saw the pictures they tool
of that fight you'll: remember L wa.
walking about, with my head . dow
most Of the time before Corbett showed
up in the ring, and was just fgurins