The Washington herald., 1907-03-12


sporting public 20 solve the status of
Battling Nelson and his manager, Billy
Nolan. but a clear understanding Of the
monumental game Of bluff the two have
been playing seems at last to have per
colatad through the intelligence OF the
trusting Britishers. To Americans, VINO
are familiar with Nolan's facility for dis
guising a bad situation, the credence that
was placed in the vaporings Of the de-
feated Dane and his manager has been
viewed with amazement, and there was
much speculation as TO the length Of time
that would elapse before the bluff would
be called.
II seems incredible that Nelson and
Nolan expected TO find the way so smooth,
but when. on their arrival in London, they
found nearly every sporting man there
ready TO believe anything they cared 70
say. il can hardly be wondered at that
they made the most OF the opportunity.
They toyed with figures as a boy would
play with marbles and as carelessly. The
Briushers gasped. but accepted as the
truth Nolan's statement that in his last
three fights i'm America Nelson had bat
tied for an aggregate Of $4,000; that ne
had whipped Cans, but had been robbed
Of the decision; that he was again
matched 90 fight, the negro for purse Of
S69G0, and that ten times that amount
or $4,000. would DE waged On the out
come Of the fight
These are only "a few of the things that
the trusty typewriter said over Nolan or
Nelson's signature. and. in addition, the
Dane. who can hardly write his own name,
was credited with a dissertation on prize
hghting that ran in serial form in a very
prominent London sporting publication
Having thus as they thought. bluffed
every one in England, they journeyed to
Paris. where Nelson threw out his chest
and asked an interviewer, rs there man
Of any weight in Europe who viii fight
me?"
Called the Bluff.
The bubble was pricked when Johnny
Summers, who is in the class Of Spike
Robson, who last week fought Tommy
Murphy, I'm this city. posted $5.0o9 for a
bout with Nelson.
The subsequent developments may be
judged from the following, which ap-
peared in the London Sportsman:
1t IS a pity that Americans when they
come 60 England cannot bear in mind
that they are not in America. Battling
Nelson and his manager, Mr. Nolan, were
very well received In the old country, but
they had not been long with us before
both began 10 tell us that We knew very
little about boxing or how TO manage IL,
how our men should fight, &c. and why
fsn rrsan a
bad way here. Then the Danes manager
fairly staggered us all by the way in
which ne talked not only OF thousands.
but tens of thousands of pounds.
eve stand good deal in old England
PLAYED out old England, as our Yankee
friends consider it-bUt we must, like the
worm. turn eventually. I had an hour of
Battling Nelson the day after he arrived,
and subsequently almost as l0ng with his
manager. Billy Nolan. and though there
was much OF the American about both, ]
thought them very decent fellows Per
haps they are i'm America. but they go all
too fast for some of us on this side.
THE manager of the Dane. who must
have forgotten that he has brought a
beaten man and not a champion. assured
us that Nelson was robbed of his fight
with Cans. and he produced pictures "a
prove il. / have seen those pictures, and
after doing so remarked that nothing
was shown from the thirty-fourth round
until the last. the forty-secOnd. when Mel
son was disqualified for hitting Cans be
low the belt His friends asserted that
the white man had all the best of tho
! fight. but reports from the other side put
/ a different complexion en- the affair.
Gans-NeIsOn Fight.
"As / write I have before me an ac
count of the Gans-Nelson match as pub
IHshed by one Of the first papers, not il
England or America, but the world over
and this is a little of what its specia
/ correspondent says: After the tenti
round the fight became little more thar
a holding. pushing match. Finally in th'
/ forty-second round Nelson. TO his ever
lasting discredit, deliberately struck tn
negro in the groin
/ And again: Before the end Of thu
third round Cans had Nelson in distress
/ Nelson used his head against Cans chin
in spite of the repeated warnings of th'
referee. In the eighteenth, twenty-fOurth
and thirty-second rounds Nelson delivered
blows palpably below the belt, but as n'
damage seemed to result the referee
/ ignored them II was soon seen tha
Gems WIS the better man and. but fol