The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1909-10-26
JEFFRlES IN JOY OVER DECISION OF
 NEGRO TO FIGHT
Big Match Looks Now Like a Sure Thing = Johnson hurrying to
 New York.

Chicago, Oct. 26.-Jack Johnson, champion of the world, and his man ager, George Little, arrived in this city yesterday on their way to New York to talk business with Jim Jeffries regarding terms for the proposed match for the worlds title. They dropped off the Overland Limited yes- terday noon and went at once to the Chicago American office to tell of their plans for seeking out Jeffries.
 We will be in New York Thursday at the latest,'' said Johnson. ''We do this for a purpose of our own. We are not going to have it said at any time that Jeffries was given chance to crawl out, or that I lodged in any way.
 naming of them to Jeffries. We will listen patiently to what MT. Jeffries has to offer, and if his ideas are not unreasonable it will not take us ten minutes to fix up the battle We do not ask anything unrea sonable at all- just a fair fight for both sides.
 There is one thing that I will frown down, however. I will not consider in any way bids from Australia. I will never fight over there again after if it takes place. must be in either this country or, England. The bidding here will be stronger than anything England can offer. I feel sure.
 READY TO FIGHT IN SPRING.
 ''As for the time of the battle, that matters little to me. Jeffries can have his own way about that. I see he is reported to have said that he would be ready in March or April. That ready then or sooner. Of course, I would not stand for nfm putting the date off much longer than that. There would be no sense in that at all.
 Do think he will fight? Stranger things have happened Oh,s yes, know who will be the winner, all right" and the golden smile made fa- nous by the champion was very much in evidence as he considered that phase Of it. for this scrap I'm sure. see MT. Hester has come in with an offer of s75, 600. That's good and is just what I want to see. MT. Little and have received no direct notification of the bid, bu. that is not necessary, as this enough for us.
 ''So far there have been three bids that were transmitted to us direct. One is from Goldheld. Nav, from the people who handled the Nelson-Gans fight there. That was a. $5O,0O0 purse, and we were told that the money had been deposited in a benk.-there. Fl
 'The same amount, $50, 900, is bid in Cuba, where the people who run ths baseball club there want to hold the battle.
 ''The $s5.O00 bid from the Miller brothers of r101' Ranch always looked good to me- and I never said that | would not box in Oklahoma. I will box anywhere I am assured of fair treatment, and think they would give me that in Oklahoma.
 HAs ' said before, anywhere but Aus- tralia, and I guess Jeffries would not want to go that far, either. with so much money in sight in this coun- try.
 My weight? Why should there be any question about that when I glad ly stepped on the scales for Bill Naughton, Eddie Smith and other fight writers out on the coast, and showed them I was down to 195 pounds. As 8 matter of fact, I would scale now, if necessary, and show that am inside of 200 pounds. Don't I look it?
 s'I weighed 222 pounds for Jack OBrien, PIP for Kaufman and 195 for Ketchel. These figures are absolutely correct, and they show that I worked hard for Ketchel.''