Los Angeles herald., 1906-08-04


ATLANTIC CITY, N. J. - James
]. Corbett, the polite vaudeville
actor. who played an enga cement here
last week, narrated privately some ex-
periences he had in meeting up with
noted folks when he was just 'Pompa-
dour jim" the prize fighter.
Il got crushed good and hard the only
time 1 ever met the late Col. Robert G..
Ingersoll," said Corbett to his group.
This was in 1892, not long after I'd
been matched to meet John l.. was IN
Chicago, staying at the old Grand Pa
cific hotel. Col 1ngersoll, on his way to
Montana to take part in the big Davis
will case, was stopping at the same ho-
tel. I had never met Ingersoll though
I'd been wanting to meet him, for like
a good many young fellows of that day,
1 looked upon him as the greatest man
of the time-and at that, though he gave
me a pretty good stinging, I've never
left off considering him remarkable
man.
"There was a freak game Of ball for
charity between the 'Sinbad' extrava-
ganza company and the Soudan' melo-
drama company, both outfits then in
the middle of long Chicago runs and
they roped me in to pitch for the Sin
bad bunch. l came mighty near mailn-
ing for life, II not killing, Louis James
and lot of the other members of the
'Soudan' company and 1t was only q
miracle that they ducked all of my
crazy tosses. Col. Ingersoll had been
taken out to see the game by Paul Gore,
the manager of the Grand Pacific.
THAT evening after dinner l was
leaning on the Grand Pacific counter
chatting with Paul Gore when Col. In
gersoll swung along.
Colonel said Gore, introducing us,
this Is that Corbett lad that's been
matched to go against John l.. You
saw him throw the ball over the top of
the stand few times at that game this
afternoon
"a slow, quizzical smile crept over
Col. Ingersolls rosy, chubby face and
he sized me Up shrewdly out of his big
blue eyes as he staked me to hearty
grip.
"'Oh, yes, the coming baboon-I re-
member, said Col. Ingersoll in the
pleasantest way imaginable and going
right ahead shaking my hand. The
things he said, somehow or another,
didn't sound a bit raw at the time lie
was saying them, and didn't feel that
I'd been stung till later when fell to
thinking his remarks over. 'Er-young
man. he went on, was there ever a
prize fight in which both sluggers killed
each other in the ring?
"I told him that 1 couldn't recall any
fights of that kind.
Too bad, too bad he said, still eye
ing me pleasantly. Too bad that all
prize fights don't result that way. Do
you expect to thrash Sullivan?
II replied that 1 was going to make a
hard stab at 1t.
"'Stab at it, said the colonel, picking
up my words. 'Um-that's the way it
ought to be. Prizefighters ought to be
armed with bowie knives when they
meet in the ring. That would be the
right thing for the quick decimation OF
the prizefghting species. Gnarled war;
clubs wouldn't be so bad for the pur-
pose either. Then prizefighting would
be plain out and out savagery, and
therefore possess a certain primitive
merit, instead of thinly veiled, hideous
baboonishness, existing in a period of
comparative civilization, at it is
Pretty deep for me, all that. At the
moment l wasn't UP to it exactly
whether it was all meant for a knock or
boost, particularly as Col. Ingersoli
fairly beamed upon me while he said
those things. He went away presently
with kindly nod. Gore grinned.
"'Just wanted to hear what he'd say
said Gore. You needn't take 1t to heart.
The colonels been dead ag'in prizefght-
ing all his life-it'S his pet aversion.
When he comes to Chicago and the
newspaper men can't get him to talk
politics or agnosticism or anything like
that, they start something by mention-
ing prizefighting. But he's a fine old
boy and he treated you bully. Don't
mind what he said y
along about that time met another
man of note in his day, the preacher
Talmage-they tell me that he was all
there with the acrobatics, but never
heard him preach-who sawed off some
thing on me when we were introduced