The San Francisco call., 1908-10-04
Langford Holds Himself
in High Esteem
Boston Negro Demands $500
Expense Money to Come
to This City

Now that Stanley Ketchel has kindly
consented to come out into the open
and take a chance against Sam Lang
ford, regardless of his former deter
minatton to sidetrack everything OF
ebony hue, the promoters have pricked
up their ears. They see signs of live
matches stirring after long recess.
Charles Lecari, who runs the Pacific
club and who holds the permit for the
present month. is making overtures
with view to putting on Ketchel and
Langford without loss of time
This proposition, however, seems
rather untimely, for Ketchel specified
when he made his declaration that he
would not take a chance against Lang
ford unless he succeeded in disposing
of Billy Papke next month. These few
words leave a boulder in the path of
the promoters and 1t is liable to grow
like SNOWFALL rolling down hill
Ketchels speech was brave enough,
but he must yet reckon with the enemy.
Papke slowed him away right handily
last month, and those who saw the
fight say that the Illinois cyclone is
going to repeat the next time he gets
Ketchel in the ring with him. Taking
this into consideration, 1t would really
have been better for Ketche1 had he
waited till after the Papke match be-
fore hurting defiance at the Boston
black man.
IIOlHOtcI i<cCdIt Is very dHAlOuS 10
bring the middle weights together. but
In the event of his going too strong
he Is likely to stir up hornets nest
in the. local fight trust. His brother
and Papke signed for Thanksgiving
evening, with the understanding that
neither shall engage. in pugilistic
show in this city previous to that date.
If Ketchel keeps his word with Glea-
SON and he has a contract with the
latter-it does not appear likely that
he will take chance against Lang
ford before the Papke match has been
decided. If he can not land Ketchel,
Lecari will find himself hard pressed
for a suitable opponent to pit against
the Boston whirlwind.
Langford evidently is a good busi-
nessman and looks twice before he
leaps. When he heard that Lecari was
on his trail he wired that he needed
$4,000 for expenses before making the
trip to this city. This is rather a stiff
rate and 1T may serve to keep the big
black right in Boston town. Few cham
pions ever got anything like that for
Langford is a great fighter who has
never yet fought for a big purse. Most
of his fighting has been done around
the east in limited round bouts and he
moters saw fit to slip him. 1t may be
that he does not care about going UP
against the hard western game and his
demand for such a juicy travelling ex-
pense bill may be a stall to beat it.
Frank Mcdonald, the we'll known
trainer, is anxious to pit Jim Flynn,
the Pueblo fireman, against Langford.
and stands ready to have his man
on the ground for meeting this
month. Mcdonald says that this bout
would give the local fight fans a good
line on the colored wonder from Bos-
ton before he starts in a championship
Flynn surely is a tough one He has
never been beaten by anybody save
such big fellows as Jack Johnson and
All Kaufman, and he gave a good ac-
count of himself against these giants.
IT is not likely that Lecari will take a
chance with Flynn He Is looking for
big game for Langford, and If he does
not get it, he will match a few local
boys in limited bouts.
Sam Berger was all but forced to re-
turn to the fighting game while en-
gagged in settling UP with Moran and
Hanlon for their last fight. Sam was
the recipient of a couple of challenges
10 show his speed, but cleverly side
tracked these invitations by turning
on a strong line of talk. Now he is
threa tened with civil suit
The trouble arose over 81 tickets, and
Dan HanIon, brother of Eddie, was the
instigator. When settling up time
rolled around Hanlon discovered that
Berger had given out 497 compliment
ary tickets instead of the 400 originally
agreed upon. Hanlon could not see
why Berger should not pay $40 apiece