The Morris County chronicle. [volume] (Morristown, N.J.) 1877-1915, 1909-02-02
BIG JIM JEFFRIES,
Most Talked of Man In PugilistiC
Circles Today.
GLIMPSE AT HIS PRIVATE LIFE

Why He viii Still Be "8ie Fat Boy"
to His Friends Even if He Does Re-
turn to the Ring-Some of His
Strange Franks.
Big fat boys have no place in the
prize ring of today, where leads,
counters, shifts and feints make the
amateur see an atmosphere filed with
fists that hit him in every spot above
the waist line, but some big fat
boys are exceptions, and the most IA
nous one is big Jim Jeffries, the re-
tired heavyweight champion, now the
most talked of man in the game today.
BE may seek a public dispensation
and climb back into the ring again,
but even If he does he will still be the
big fat boy.
Jim Jeffries, who recently left his
home near Los Angeles on a sparring
tour with Sam Berger as his boxing
partner, is boy because he is big and
good natured and because life has
come very easily for him in the last
six or seven years. He has money
enough to make him Independent,
strength enough to hold his own with
any one in life's battles and the idol
airy of the sporting class-and who
wouldn't be a boy with these things?
Why, at recent barbecue at Los
Angeles park Jim passed the greater
part of the day chasing every man up
and down the hills and after catching
them dragged them to an empty gar
bage can and, sticking them in, slap
ped their faces and cuffed them as IL
they had been babies. After having
his picture taken the other day in the
gym of the Los Angeles Athletic club
he threw his boxing glove at the cam
era and knocked it over and then de-
clared that he would not have cared
If he had smashed it. He later chased
one of his friends into the corner of
the gym, tried to kick another one in
the head and sat crosslegged on
bench with still another as a boy
would, all the time vigorously chewing
gum with all the abandonment of boy
hood.
These are but few illustrations of
the belief that, no matter what else
Jim Jeffries has been or may be, he
will always be boy. Fame sits
heavily on the shoulders of the ma
jority Of men, but here is one more ia
nous than all of them rolled together
who seems to take life as a thing to
be played with. He seems to care as
much of what people think of him as
any boy does. He is about as poor
mixer with the ordinary run of peo-
pie as he Is in the role Of referee of
a prize fight, for continued praise has
sickened him on half the world.
To look at Jim one would think he
might be. brutal, and the majority of
people who read of his exploits imag-
inc that he devotes the greater part
of his time in knocking down people
on the streets and in beating his wife,
A glance into his beautiful home out
GarvanZa (Cal) way shows that his
wife does about as she pleases and
that the champion of all champions
passes the greater part of his time
while at home rolling about on the
lawn and playing with a puppy about
as big as his fist. He thinks his pup
by dogs are among the finest things
In the world, and If Jack johnson
should accidentally step on the tail Of
one of them the world would probably
get quick ragtime exhibition of what
a pale pink thing a color line is any
way.
1t is rather difficult to think Of
boy going into fight for which he
Is offered $4,000, win, lose or Draw,
but this is what will happen IL JEFF
fries ever fights the black Johnson or
any one. He is a great fighter, has
beaten the best in the world at their
own game and can gather thousands
OF dollars additional if he wants them;
but, no matter whether he wins or
loses or what he goes into, his real
friends will never think of him as
anything but big kid" He acts
like one and talks like one and will
probably be one long after the tickle
public starts to worship some new
fighting deity.-Grey Oliver in Los An
geles Times.