Omaha daily bee., 1909-05-02
PUGILlSTS ARE MONEY MAD
Demands Of Modern Fighters BecOm.
ing Exorbitant.
PURSES REACH FAR IN THOUSANDS
Champions of Older Times Satisfied
with n Few Dollars,
hut Nowadays sta Boxers
went Thousands.


NEW YORK, May At seems to
me that the fighters Of the present day are
money mad" said the veteran sporting
man the other night. why even the
great Heenan-sayers fight was only for a
1900 a side. Away back in 1856 Tom Pad
dock defeated Harry Broome for 1900 and
the championship OF England. and the next
year Savers whipped Perry. the Upton
slasher, in q severe battle for a similar
amount. In 1858 Tom King. after a hard
fight. defeated Jem Mace for $500 a side
and the English championship. In 1866
Joe Goss and Mace fought a Strengthening
draw for 1900 a side.
Then go back to some Of the bare
knuckle fights decided on American soil.
Harry Lazarus fought Denny Harrigan in
1865 for $500 a side up in Canada. Harry
was a son of the we'll known ley Lazarus,
who ran the Falstsff, a famous old sport
ing hotel on James street, New York. They
battled eighty-six rounds in los minutes
and Harry won. After the fight Lazarus
shook hand with poor Harrigan and then
collected $50 from the spectators for his
antagonist. This was considered a very
important fight at the time and all the
leading New York sports were at the ring
side. Just think how much the victor got
out OF this affair after he paid his train
ing and other expenses! Why, mpstsof the
fighters of today wouldn't accept $500 for
three weeks work to get into condition,
while Harrigan and Lazarus trained hard
and faithfully for three months.
Whist Joe Coburn Got.
IAN that Joe Coburn, afterward cham
pion of America, fought Ed Price for in
1856 for $500 a side. The battle took place
at Still Pond, about nine miles from Bos-
ton, and created great excitement among
eastern sporting men. Price was a hand
SOM fellow of rs years, standing five feet
ten Inches and weighing 1856 pounds when
he entered the ring. He was a native Of
London, England. while Coburn was born
in ireland, being five feet nine and one
half inches tall and Weighing lS pounds.
The battle lasted 100 rounds, in 200 minutes,
and was the longest bare-knuckle fight
ever held in America up to that time. Later
on, however, James O'Neil of New York
and J. Fitzpatrick fought for four hours
and twenty minutes at Berwick, up in
Maine, for 500 a side on December 4, 1860.
Price was a remarkable man., aside from
his ability as a fighter. He studied law
and was admitted to the bar to become a
noted attorney.
4 TN AVhe b6NhAt 80
burn began to pose as the American
heavyweight champion, and the follow
ing year he faced Harry Gibbons. from
Belfast. Ireland, for the title and $500 a
side. The rims was pitched in a large
orchard which an old farmer up in BERTHE
county, Canada, had donated for the &C.
casion. Coburn was seconded by the noted
Orville Gardner and Jimmy White, while
Gibbons handlers were John Pyburn, after
ward a Brooklyn police commissioner, and
Hen Wrinkle. 1t was a good stiff battle,
with honors even, up to the twenty-first
round, when Coburn landed a corking blow
over the heart and the Irtshman went
down and out. So you see that away back
fifty years ago fighters could score knock
outs with blows in the body. Coburn's
blow reminds me OF the famous solar
plexus punch with which F~ftEslmmons
stopped Corbett at Carson City.
Figures Look Ridiculous.
After CobuTn got back to New York
and settled his training bills he had just
$50 left to spend about town. When you
compare this with Tommy Burns $50, OOO
for losing TO Jack Johnson it seems ridicu-
lous, for Coburn was a greater pugilist
than Burns in every way. Why, boys,
Coburn would have whipped Burns, John
son, Ketohel, Kaufman, Langford and the
rest Of the present crop as easy as rolling
off a log.
Some of these modern fighters want
500 for car fare before they will come to
town to talk business with club match
makers. But the oid-timers. you can bet,
had to walk II they didn't have the price
/ forgot to say that the small winnings OF
the old lighters were often GRABBED by un.
scrupulous sheriffs or coppers as the price
for keeping them out Of jail, so that there
wasn't much left when the final count III
was made.
In 1858 the nororious Yankee Sullivan
who was known as Steel Ribs" becaus,
of the terrible BODY punching he could
Withstand, fought Saucy Aleck, an English.
man, twenty rounds in thirty-five minutes
and after a bloody battle he won a purs,
OF just $50. The famous John MorrisseS
fought Prof. Charles F. Ottignon at the
~latter's sym in Crosby street, this city. the
same year for a $40 purse. 1t was a GLOW,
contest for points, but Morrissey made tn,
professor shed much claret before the bou.
was over.
Barney Aaron, who died several year,
ago, and Dan Kerrisan, a noted rough anC
tumble scrapper. split a ten-dollar bill ono,
~ ats
Marley and Con 0rem. two as game fight
ers as ever pulled off a shirt in the ring
fou yht seventy civ rounds in two hours an,
five minutes on the turf in Delaware 70.
$50 in the same ring where Con Fitzgerald
and Ed Wilson had just finished a gres
mill. Al the end OF the seventy rount
a company of soldiers suddenly arrive,
and captured more than 100 OF the spec
tators. This occurred on October q. 1855
and among the prisoners who were escorte,
10 Fort Delaware were Coburn, orem. jim
Saunders. Harry Hill. Ed Wilson, Captaii
Turr,r, Tom the Boatmsn and many 9th
ers. Billy McMullen, however, managed L
bail most OF the crowd out the rext ia.
and when they came before Genera
schoepf, the commander Of the fort, al
but the fighters. who had been pinched
too, were allowed to go.
! BayOnets and Boxers.
Z 1T wasn't such a pleasant trip going Il
{ fights in those days OF the civil war, 10
, there were soldiers everywhere. When
saw the bayonets at the M~arley-orem mil
l never knew l could run so fast through
: swamps, thick woods and across shallow