Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-12-08
FOLLOWERS OF THE PRIZE RING
NOT ENTHUSED OVER THE RECENT
CHAMPIONSHIP AFFAIR IN LONDON

ing Jim Corbett a good deal nowadays pc
| cause he's canned all that business of
spending his leisure hours with prize
fighters. But only the pluguglies. Cor
bett is well thought of these days. behaves
up 10 the handle studies constantly to i'm
| prove himself. and mixes habitually with
a class of men in this town such as no
other fighter in American rings history
ever mixed with. Even an ex-prizefighter
has the right to progress along the lines
he blocks out and to lead the sort Of a
life he elects one takes ii.
Why, even Sharkey, whom l saw fight
a bum in a loft in Vallejo, Cal, across
from the Mare Island navy yard, twelve
years ago. when Sharkey was joke of a
| third-rate master-at-arms on an Ameri-
can man-owar, and came perilously close
to getting himself trounced by the bum,
| too-eVen Sharkey evirceS a decided dis
! position to pass up the mitt crew when he
has time on his hands. Didn't | see him
at the grand opera the other night? That's
| what l did! There were about hundred
| and nineteen smoky shows that Sharkey
! could have attended that night just as
we'll as not-but, no. grand opera for him,
| ana there he was. Yes, and he was
there with the spike-geared tunic. too.
| and he Ike tove busted his cute white
| gloves (sze about 'leven and a half wide
| open over some of the strains that made
particular appeal to his musical ear.
! Well. why not?
sharkey is rich man. His place is nat
uraily one of the biggest money-makers,
| from its location, in town. Then, too
Sharkey is the main noise of the leading
| boxing Club in New York and his draw
| down from that isn't anything that you'd
! feel like laughing over if you were ac-
quainted with the figures. All in all,
there's something of considerable
greater consistency than catsup in the
rear works of that Sharkey top-piece, and
| nobodys begrudging him what he gets.
Bob Fitzsimmons made a funny and
wholly unexpected appearance at the
alter right off Broadway the other night
Monday night, to be exact. He wasn't ex-
pected. and it wasn't any press agent fix
up, either. 1t was just caprice of the
| Cornishman'S, and he got away with II
in highly entertaining shape.
The afterpiece of a vaudeville perform
ance at this high-grade vaudeville theater
| right off Broadway was il thing called
The Star Bout a piece done by Ned
! Wayburn. in which a regular ringside
scene is introduced. together with four
| round scrap between a couple of little
| fellows. Pretty good medicine, this skit,
at that. if you care to take it from some
body who isn't crazy about vaudeville
skits, either.
| Wayburn wanted to have the thing go
with CHATTER on its first production, and
so he more than busted up and down
Broadway that night, grabbing hold of
| male friends and impressing them into
| service ITO go on, as people grouped
| around the ring in the ringside scene. A
| lot of chaps we'll known along the main
white alley fell for Wayburn's pleadings
| and went on for the big scene.
Wayburn had engaged as one of the
| characters of the piece-the manager of
the boxing club of the sketch-a man who
| is a strangely dead7alike ringer for Jim
| Corbett. In the ringside scene this chap
with the Corbett figure and phiz was go
! ing through his part. introducing lot of
| pugs in the piece who wanted to chal-
! lenge the winner and all like that, when
| tall, gaunt, freckled, all-but-bald indi-
vidual strolled out from the wings, passed
| through the thick crowd of BroadWayites
grouped around the ring. and stepped
through the ropes with the practiced
| agility of a fellow who knew all of that
rope stuff by heart.
| Well. it was Fitz. 1t had to be bin. 1t
| looked like Corbett gazed at the appari-
| ton with a blank face. and he was all
| balled upgin his part. The crowd In front
| recognized the Cornishman, but yet they
| thought 1t couldn't be on the level-they
| figured that it must be some chap with
t1tz makeup to the life. But it was too
miraculously clever makeup, if that
and the bunch in front broke into a storm
of cheers. The people in the ring includ-
ing the Corbett-like fellow were stunned
and didn't know what to do. The Corbett-
like one walked over to the Cornishman
however, and whispered something to him
Fftz, erinning like youngster, told him
that of course it was on the level that
| he'd just heard about the sketch out on the
street. and that he'd popped in just to give
| Wayburn, friend, a nudge along So
there he was. asking the Corbett-l looking
| chap to introduced him. He was intro
duced all right. but still there were many
out in front who took the thing as a sort
of gag, and couldn't believe that the man
really was the great old FOUNDER of the
old time.
! But as soon as the freckled one in the
brown cutaway suit opened his face they
knew he was on the level. He dropped a
| bunch of his around the stage that Uttered
up the place like a phony snow storm.
| and he made his old speech about 'oW
hin is youth ed haspired to be the
| 'eavy-wight champeen, hand 'ow," etc.
etc. and the gang rose to him and gave it
| to him. all mitts working for five good
minutes. 1t struck me that there was a
certain significance in that tribute It
| happened just about the time the details
of the Burns-Moir joke in England were
| sitting over the cables, and I think the
| men present at the show were keen to
| give the big hand to F.tzsimmons as a
| sort of expression of how they esteemed
| a really great fighter who'd conducted
himself modest'y and decently during
some thirty years of delivering the goods
| That's what the immense ovation to FHtz-
| simmons seemed to symbolic to me. any-
how. and I can't see how I could have
| been mistaken about the cordiality of the
spirit evinced toward the old man when
| he made his unexpected appearance.