Waterbury evening Democrat., 1907-11-05
JIM CORBETT TELLS A STORY
Always Had Sympathy For a Man When He Was About to Knock
 Him Out.

asked him if he had ever been able tt experience any genuine feeling o1 sympathy for the man he had sen weltering to the floor of the ring al in and counted out.
 ITO ask me if l ever felt sorry fol a fellow l licked," said Corbett in re ply to that, lis like asking me II ever ate an egg for breakfast. neV' CT hit a fellow hard blow, sending him dazed and limping down the dis nal path toward Outville, that my heart didn't ache for him.
 That's the square truth. l knew that I was there to do just that thing to him if I could. I knew that if didn't do it to him he'd for a sure thing do it to me. l knew that the prize awaiting me for doing it was big and more than worth while. l knew that the sting of being licked, if had to experience it myself would be intolerable. And yet with all of this in mind, repeat that never, starte, one of my opponents down toward that gloomy world of shadows tc which the beaten prize fighter goes that I didn't feel sorry, mortally sorry, for him always deep down un- der the pelt of me.
 T always caught in the eye of the man 1 was trouncing the expression of the man who knows he is being licked; a hunted, desperate eXpres- sion; a wounded, hurt expression and when I caught that bafIled and pathetic expression in the eye of a man whom 1 was beating and stab ping and binding with his own blood want to go on record as saying now, after it's all long over and done with that I felt like miserable brute, a bully unfit to live, and the whole thing sicknened and raked me be- yond measure. That's how l always felt about it. felt ashamed of myself ashamed of being where I was, of doing what l was doing, ashamed ot the mad shouts of the men around the ring to go in and kill the poor devil already rocking toward his finish ashamed of the whole internal bab- boonish situation from beginning tt end.
 Often, too, at that stage of the fight when right in the flush of vic tory-if such thing could be called victory-I found myself swearing in my heart that I'd never get myself into that position again; that I'd cut 1t out forever after that fight and try to forget all about the blamed busi- ness.
 'I am bound to admit that the acuteness of this sort of shame would wear off to a certain extent in the course of time, but I never quite lost the memory of it in my fighting days, nor did I ever become so calloused to it that all that is decent in me didn' f cry out nightly against it.
 One of the things that was often said at the time was that l hated poor old John L. and that I 'gloated in my victory over him. There was not much of a foundation of truth in any of this stuff. I was a very young man at the time l got the championship by thrashing Sullivan and there isn't the least doubt in the world that I was affected sorely with the big head both before and after that fight. l was young and vealy enough before the fight, at any rate to feel considerably wrought up over the slurs that was told John L. put upon me-it was my boy vanity that was touched, you sec. John L. has often told me since that he never gave utterance to those scoffs before the fight, and he told it to me in such a way that I thoroughly be- | lieved him. and believe him now But. even suppOsing that he did make those remarks, as l of course believed he did at the time. 1t was the fashion of that day for prize fighters to scold their opponents furiously and vicious ly before they fought. Being pretty young and having more than my share of the youthful big head. sure was some sore against Sullivan when I got into the ring with him.
 But I'd no sooner got into the ring and seen Sullivan than felt sorry for him. I knew that I was going to lick him. There wasn't any vanity in that. but pure confidence. combined with hunch. l was as strong as 2 young bull moose. better in that early day than ever was affeTward and could see plainly with half an eye that John l.. wasn't right. not up to himself. and I felt absolutely certain that I was going 10 beat him.
 And the minute that certainty flashed upon me on entering the ring and seeing the big fellow felt keen ly sorry for him. knew what the championship meant to him and what its loss would mean to him. The old boy loved the iiOlatTy Of the crowds he reveled in the acclaim of the null titudes and he'd held the champion ship so long that he'd naturally come to believe that 1t belonged to him for the term Of his natural life. and he never. ] believe, even figured on los ing fl by hook or crook or accident.
 Well. when the fight began and started in to hit the big felIow at will while he couldn't reach me even with his famous Tushes that he'd aI- ways depended upon go much, the ex- preston on his fzee was something that I've never forgotten
 During the first fsE rounds il was an expression Of acute surprise. of rerfect wonder. in which there was scarcely any E1ingling of rage. all the stories to that eEect to the contrary notwithstanding John L. didn't ap- pear to be in the least angry He was just aUaBed. practically stunned with ssfczishusut- His facial exprss- s51z ehzuEsi- thOaEh- as the fight prozresssd aw the EIeau uf dsfsas in his eres- He knew he was beat rr- EH--mr #-rH r-- EM~s ~-- @E---