Waterbury evening Democrat., 1907-01-02
WRESTLING ITS THE SAME
 OLD STORY OConnell and Bothner Dispute Over Money and the Public
 Eat Grow.

" people of this city were handed last night in City hall. It isn't the first time that lemonade producers have been apportioned to the sports and 1t probably will not be the last, for it
 has been generally conceded that any ! bunch of alleged sporting people can
 come to Waterbury and take their dollars and the poor Waterburians will pat them on the back and tell
 them to come back again, when they have accumulated a few more pen
 nies and they can get them just as
 easy as they did before. Both Eddie O'Connell and George Bothner are to
 blame for that f1asco of last night.
 There can be no gainsaying that
 statement. The one point really in IO'Connell's favor is that he was will
 ing to wrestle and was stripped
 ready for the fray.
 When the preliminary was at an
 end, and by the way. there was some-
 thing done in that preliminary that
 was dead wrong. Izzy Winters had
 been seeking for some one to go in
 preliminary with for several days, so the report goes. Yesterday afternoon
 Dan Buckley secured as an opponent for Winters young Murphy, as they
 called him. It was the agreement
 that Murphy was to get 35 for half
 hours work and that Winters would
 take things easy with the boy and
 would not try for fall. Winters failed to keep up to his agreement.
 for he gave the young chap opposing
 him terrible grueling. So bad was it that Dan Buckley jumped on to the mat, stopping the match and helped young Murphy to his corner.
 For his work Winters was roundly
 hissed by the spectators, of whom there were about 600 present.
 As soon as this preliminary was over an air of suspicion began to cir- culate throughout the hall that the main bout between Bothner and OConnell would not materialize. And such enough it did not. Winters and side partner went on in another preliminary while the parties inter- ested in the big match were trying to settle matters. Bothner and his manager demanded guarantee be- fore Bothner went on the mat. This was refused by the O'Connell people who were really handling the finan- cial end of the affair. The rest of this story can be told in Bothner's state- ment to the writer and O'Connell's statement to the public.
 pOfhnor co{d <hat tu,o vyaoI~. oc, he was called up over the phone by some one who gave the name of Ber- gen who asked him to meet O'Con- nell and he would guarantee a $1, 1000 house, $500 of which could be di- vided up among the wrestlers. Both ner agreed to this and signed three sets of articles, one of which he re- tained and the others he sent on to 1 to J. s. Carroll. When he arrived last night at the hall and i saw the small crowd he made up his mind to find out just where he was going to get off. He asked Gianelli, | who seemed to be handling the | finances for the OConnells' to give him guarantee of $100. This was SAuSNu. iic thCu dchCu lOI $5V WulCH | was also refused. He then asked to have the tickets counted and sec just | what the gate receipts were. This | was also refused. He thereupon made | up his mind that ne could not afford | to wrestle when there was no money | in sight. He said he wanted the money placed in some responsible | mans hands and then he would jump on to the mat with O'Connell and beat him. He issued challenge at the close of his story to meet O'Connell at 145 pounds mat side for any part of $500.
 OConnell's statement to the public was that Bothner had signed articles to meet him and agreed to take 50 per cent of the gross receipts of the house and divide it between them. If Bothner would not agree to that 1e would not get any other guaran- zee. Later after Bothner had left the nall messenger went after him to get him to return and wrestle for $9O put he refused. Gianelli, who seem- d to be managing the match, said his morning that he had lost money, ut he wanted to be fair with the public and all who who had coupons Or the 50. 75 or $1 seats he would -eturn half the amount they paid. That was as good as he could do lnder the circumstances.
 When all fha ohovo facts hoc, v.. l