Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-09-16
RAINMAKER JIM BACKED
FITZSIMMONS TO THE FINISH

letin reader sung out in the seventh o,
eighth round, and Corbett Is landing ON
him at will
I'm there with little piece O. to 1,
Jim, SEEM it's you.' one of the hot sports
slapped at Jim right then.
You're on-IH take two hundred worth
O. that was Jim's placid reply-as placid
as he could make 1t. that is. with lot Oh
the Indians mauling him around ana rip
ping open the buttons of his vest and
stamping on his hat and all that kind OF
fool work. That tin biffer out OF a Noah
Arkn be gettin' tired o slammin at tn
steer man he's up ag'in in few minnits.
an then you sap-conks'H see somethin
drop.
I'm a hot exchange at close quarters,
read the bulletin man, 'Ftz has his mead
sent back with hard right, and LOOKS
dazed.'
We'll, little soft change f'r mine, put
in one of the sure-thingers at that stage
of it. I'm giving you thousand to nun
bred. Jim, against your greatest hgheer IN
tn world. Want it?'
Sure Jim wanted it. and then three or
four more others brushed up to Jim and
begged him to give them little OF ire
same Jim took them al on as they
came and from then on to the flnlsn TIE
business in that room wasn't much more
than a stampede of all hands 20 pick up
little of that soft Ratnmaker Jim casIl.
The bulletin reader had 20 almost shout
10 make himself heard so big was the dla
around Jim's chair, but the cautious ones
who were buzzing around jim nevertheless
caught the readers words that shoWeo
Cort EFT to be still away out In front, Win
the chances, seemingly. according to the
way the returns were called in that room.
ANYHOW, about 1C0 to l against Fltz
chance to win out, even with lucky
punch. The fellows elbowing each other
cut of the way to give Ralnmaker jim 10
to l eHd eveu IN n couple of cases, II to
I, against Fitz along toward the finish
thought that would be like picking up the.
money in the street and that any price was
pure velvet, and Jim pushed in his entire
81 .OG0 in 500 and $500 LOIS. getting an av-
erage, as he found out afterwards, of about
to /.
x J.
"They were still fighting to stick their
500 notes in Rainmaker Jim's face. when
the suddenest hush that you ever expe
r:enced or heard of in your born days for
a sure thing fell upon that room-you
could have heard a fly on the ceiling
scratching his ears with his legs. For the
bulletin reader, with queer, puzzled look
on his face had just called out:
Corbett is knocked out!''
THE hush lasted full thirty seconds
and the people in the room looked at each
other with drawn and sort of silly ex
pressions. till a bunch of them woke up.
All. it's 4 mistake they yelled at the
bulletin man. Get the thing right. why
knocked out
Corbett is lying in the ring with an
expression of agony on his face the reader
went ON, and the referee has just finished
counting him out The blow that put him
out was terrific solar plexus wallop,
and
The rest of it couldn't be heard for the
uproar. They stood around eating the
blanket about lucky and accidental punches
and fakes and bum referees and hitting
below the belt and all that kind of jabber
until the newspaper extras were on the
street, giving the whole account of the
fight, and describing the punch with which
tftz had smudged Corbett out as the cham
pion. Then Rainmaker Jim Reynolds the
crazest and yet the gamest better l ever
brushed into, got UP from his chair
Strengthened out his clothes where the
sure-thingers had been trying to pull him
apart In their horseplay collected his S1S,-
JCO winnings in that room alone since the
beginning of the bulletin reading and then
walked down the street to where an
other stakeholder had 5000 more winnings
to hand him. representing his early bets
They called him Stay-With-It Jim in Kan
sas City after that. and he was one of
EN- that had earned his nickname"