The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1910-10-28
WINGED DOLLARS.

WINGED DOLLARS.
Jack johnson, who recently sent one Mr.. James
!. JefFries back to the farm, this week raced
Barney Oldfeld in an automobile for purse
stated to consist of S., 900 a side. The result,
which everybody except johnson had foreseen,
was that champion pugilist was easily defeated
by the champion" speed deviP' of the automo-
bile There was no opportunity for the exercise
OF panther quiekness combined with gorilla
strength. Running an automobile at more than a
mile minute calls for that sort of super-courage
and GOODNESS i'll which the blood really counts.
0ldfeld hattered himself that he had upheld the
white mans cause. He simply lowered the
white man standing by contestlng on nominally
even terms with stupid brute whom he had at a
hopeless disadvantage.
Insofar as Oldhed has lightened the johnson
purse, however he has done well. Champions Of
this sort, long they are provided with a
bundle constitute unmitigated nuisance.
With them money not only talks, but it is their
only method of expression. So long as the pro-
fits of the fight, of the motion pictures, OF the
theatrical engagements continue to pile up, the
cheerfnlly hypocritica world makes way for the
fighter. All manner of schemers, parasites,
tradeslnen work him for the rich mine that he
Is. With accord they lend helping hand
in the dissipation of easily gotten gains. When at
length the fighter, stripped completely Of his
wealth as in the ring he is denuded of his clothes
comes TO the moment when he must fight again or
starve there is mixed with the sporting interest
in the event very real financial problem to those
who fatten on the money that the prize tighter SO
lavishly spends When. finally. the final fight is
L. II L L
for the losers end' the mug who was formerly
ii gold mine becomes gold miner hunting fol
nuggets in the paths of his lavish successors Will
the spectacle of old John Sullivan-p ossessol
first and last of half dozen fortunes actual y
taking TO literature for livelihood; with the
warming of Bob Fitzsimmons, grey headed anc
muscle bound. hunting fights for ten dollar
bonus for being knocked out with the example OF
all the scores OF tramps who have IN their time
drunk the wine of successful thuggery, there i.
a suggestion full of meat in the sight of johnson
letting slip between his thick fingers the COLDER
gains of Reno.
Within a fortnight Stanley Ketchel mos
prolific fighter, murdered on Missouri
farm where he had gone in the hope of repairing
the ravages of the Great White Way upon the
health and nerves of the ambitious young pug
During the five years in which he had been active
y engaged in the ring he had received in purses
and perquisites over 100000. Yet an examina
ton Of his estate showed that there remained
bare SIG, 900, itself subject to numerous debts
ketchel evidently went all the PAGES. HI
got out of it ill-heath, violent death he escaped
bankruptcy merely by the suddenness of his de-
mise.
On the other hand, Mark Twain was a man
who 'buckcd'' life as steadily and persistently as
ever Bob Fitzsimmons or John L. Sullivan broke
heads or salivated pleui He fought his way into
rare atmospheres, coming from the bottom. He
created an aristocracy of his own, out of his own
labor. He, too, was spender, and failure as a
business man. But he had the fortune to live
in time when the emoluments of real appeal to
the higher things of life are even more profitable
than the appeal to the lower appctites. He knew
bankruptcy and beat it. When, after long life,
he died honored of the world it developed that his
entirely casual savings amounted to near mil
lion dollars.
We are somewhatc at loss for the moral to
this contrast, since gentlemanly pug would be
as decidedly out of drawing financial hum
oris 1t is comforting to know that there as few
eminent humorists as invincible pugs. But all in
all it were perhaps better for the muscular young
man to- engage fame through the medium of a
typewriter, than TO tempt it by reach for the
point of its jaw. These be days of peace and
there is qualification in the reflection that peace,
too, hath its victories-eyen in finance as well
war.