Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1909-05-11

meet the negro second time, but
that he has grown corpulent and no
| longer possesses the physique of a
pugilist.
| Capt, Barclay, gentleman sports
man, promises Crib to get him i'll
proper condition, and $1,000 is posted
by each side to assure the second
championship battle between the
Briton and the American. Crib is
hustled to Barclays magnificent
estate in Scotland, and there goes
through the most elaborate course of
training ever planned for pugilist
up to this time. Two weeks are
spent in hunting. Then Crib adopts
regular system, among other things
walking thirty miles daily. In eleven
weeks his weight is reduced from
225 pounds to 17S, his muscles are
settled, his eyes frightened, his con-
stitution generally rejuvenated.
Meanwhile Molineaux without
patron, wanders from town to town,
supporting himself by given sparriny
exhibitions and in his leisure giving
himself up to excuses. No wonder,
J then, that when the rivals appear
stripped in the ring at Thistleton
Gap, in the county of Leicester, on
September 2S, 1911, the experts, sizing
up their physical condition, make
Cribb the favorite at three to one.
The men meet in the center of a
sea Of faces numbering 10000, accord
ing to the most conservative esti-
mates. Molineaux starts out to make
it runaway fight. He sets a ire
mendous pace. Cribs right eye is
nearly closed, his lip is battered fiat,
and, at the close of round three, he
is thrown hard to his back.
Molineaux adds to his rivals dis
tress in the fourth session by shutting
his good eye so that now the cham
pion sees only with the greatest DIFF
fculty. Round five is desperately
contested, with the negro having the
advantage Molineaux now begins to
tire, and as he feels his wind break
ing lie bores in like wild man, hop
ing against hope to achieve the vic
tory before he collapses with the
! fatigue
At the end of nineteen minutes, ten
second, eleven rounds having been
fought, the negro surrenders. He is u
victim of his own ill-condition, as dur
ing the time his strength held he
was more than match for the cham
pion. Nor will the rumor be silenced
/ that on the morning of the fight
Molineaux bolted boiled fowl, an ap-
pie pie and stein of beer for his
breakfast-a meal which his handlers
might have recommended had they
been interested in his defeat.
MolineauX's course from now on is
downward He continues to earn
much money by fighting second-raters
and by giving sparring exhibitions
but he spends it all in loud clothing
and gay living. He sours on his
friends and breaks with them. In 1917
he tours Ireland, and the following
year he is dependent for bare ex
istence on the generosity of two negro
compatriots serving in the Seventy
seventh regiment stationed at Galway
A wasted skeleton, he dies In the
bandroom Of that regiment on August
4, 1918, aged thirtyfour.
Meanwhile Crib retains the title
of champion. After his second de
feat of Molineaux he Is presented
with championship cup valued al
s4OO and purchased with the contribu
} lions of many admirers. He fails tc
J succeed as a coaldealer, and becomes
the proprietor of public house.
Although his days of competitor are
. over. Cribb jealousy retains his title
until May IS, 1922, when, at benz
: At attended by hundreds Of men o
wealth and position, he formally an
: nounces his retirement from the rims
and names Tom Spring as his sue
. cessor.
| In his latter years Crib is pinchct
, for money with which to keep body
: and soul together, and he seeks refug:
at the home of his son, where on Ma.
| II, 1S4S, he dies, aged sixty-six years
The body is buried in Woolwicl
I churchyard and the spot marked by /
beautiful monument.
(Note.-Next week Tom Spring, tht
: twenty-fourth champion Of the prize
5 ring. a man who never made Al
enemy.)