The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-04-12
INCONSISTENT IS
 JAMES ]. JEFFR|ES Writer Says He Is Certainly
 After the Money SOME SEVERE BOASTS. Seeks To Goad Big Fellow To Battle the Negro-comments On
 His Massive, Fleshy
 Pouch.
By BERT coLLYER.

Los Angeles, April 11.-"The inconsist- eney of Jeffi' Sporting rendezvous and hotel rotunda, where the events of the sporting world are threshed out daily or nightly. have teemed with this one theme of late, Will he fight JohnsonYp is the question in all minds. But to hark back to the theme It will be remem- bered that Jeffries, through the medium of his press agent, unbuttoned the long est and loudest wall of all when the ar arrangements for the recent Burns-John- son go were made public I mean, of course, the division of the purse.
 Like the Biblical question, Jeff claimed Burns sold the championship, bartered 1t for dollars and cents''; in other words, gave over the crown that so long had been the property of the white race to negro and the price of it all was s30, 900.
 The mighty hulk of human flesh went further. He repeated the oft-quoted def, which he Is credited with making to Johnson, that he would be willing to fight him for nothing in order to re- turn to the white man the meaningless nothing, the heavyweight pugilistic crown.
  was flashed to this country, Jeff was be- sieged with offers and queries. 'Wil you fight. Jeffries?" To one and all he came back loquaciously, Never again." That same never again" has reverberated and reverberated back and forth through tho country until to Jeffries, the man, might say the one man, looked upon as being qualified to take the giant negro into camp, fell the lot of being the best-ad- vertised man in the country. Then the huge offers-whether mythical or not came rolling in so fast that 1t took the entire Jeffries corps of staff and foreign press agents to keep the tangle straight. Even the enormous sums failed to budse the closely clenched lips; l might say sealed.
 T am not after the money" said Jeff. The only reason that l might have to light Jack Johnson would be my ambi- ton to return the championship to the White race. l would only consent to fight again. in the event that l was fully de- termined and thoroughly convinced that l could get into shape.'
 The latter was the first tangible ad- mission that the big fellow made. As the contracts rolled in, (theatricaD Jeff. under the tutelage of his shrewd man.
 
 I'll fight Johnson providing I can get In shape" That was the press agent Jeff that was talking, but gather closer"
 Fifty thousand dollars. Why, that's not nearly enough money" The latter statement came from the inmost depths of James J. Jeffries, and was his curt and determined retort to Hugh Mcintosh, when the latter arrived in this country.
 Mcintosh met Jeffries about on the same footing as the employer does the menial. The tones, arguments and what-not of the man who successfully engineered the Burns-Johnson go gritted nightly on the American idol, and 1t was then the true pent-up feelings of the man came forth.
 When Jeffries refused to entertain a bona fide offer of ,50,000, because it was not enough he left himself open to crit icism. He demonstrated that, like all other men, he was human; he wanted as much of this worlds goods as 1t was possible to get; he demonstrated the in- consistency of his statement relative to Burns.
 Laying aside all racial prejudices, ask ing for nothing, 1t is pertinent to remark here that Jeffriss has held the limelight of publicity; has been indulged to that point where it is now tolerance
 The public, who has been paying the fiddler, is entitled to know whether or not he intends to measure brawn with the negro giant.
 Personally I don't believe Jeffries has the rem0test idea of ever meeting John son in the roped arena This conclusion is drawn from facts. In the first place, no person in the world knows how ut- terly impossible it would be for him to regain his former physical perfection bet ter than does Jeff That he has slipped long and freely of the bibulous cup, and has touched all the high spots of high living the enormous pouch the boiler maker now carries only too eloqdenty testifes.
 Jeff grew indignant when in his re- cent interview with Mcintosh the latter hinted at the probable impossibility of Jeffrfes being able to condition himself. Although stranger in these lands, Me Intosh has been identified with sports all his life. particularly with pugilism. His keen eye soon detected the corpulency of Jeffries and stimulated his queries.
 Drawing a cold-blooded critical opin- ion, I would say that in the heyday of his career Jeffries would have his work cut out for him whipping Johnson. How ever. as Kipling would say, That's an- other story"
 In conclusion. might say the Amer joan sporting world may or may not feel justly cut up over the fact that black man wears the heavyweight pugilistic crown, they may even churn themselves LID into believing that they have se- were attack of nausea over the circum- stances But how much worse would tbe sting be for this same black chang, nion 10 meet and defeat the once-mightyD Jeff Have made myself clear?
 S5.2O to Atlanta and return