The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1910-07-03
New Worlds Record for Gate
Money at Prize Fight Is
Established.
ARMY OF NEWSPAPER
MEN ON THE GROUND
Entire Country Seems to Have
Gone Fight-Mad Over the
Coming Battle.
BY RANDOLPH HAYES.
Special to The Tribune.

Special to The Tribune.
RENO, July 2.-Thc big fight is
less than fortyeeight hours away. In
less than two days three important
questions Will be answered, as follows:
First. can Jim Jeffries come backg
Second, has Jack Johnson yellow
strcak7 Third, how quickly can brute
strength beat down boxing scionce7
Tim Sullivan has arrived and Tex
Rickard has paid him the final $51,
600. He new holds the entire purse,
sl0l, 900. Both fighters are ready, and
Reno is swamped with raw-necked, stern
stomached, strong headed followers of
the primal game.
New Records Established.
Seven special trains, besides all the
regulars. have come in today. From
twelve to fifteen will arrive tomorrow
and about dozen Monday morning. 1t
is quite possible that the record for
prize ring attendance made at Coney
Island for the Sharkey-J effries fight,
$4,000 people, will be broken. All rec
shattered. The largest amount Of gate
money ever taken in for fight in this
country was $4,000 at the Coney
Island fight; the largest in the world
was at the Johns0n-Burns fight IN
Sydney last year, when $l2S,000 was
taken in Rickard and Gleason this
evening announced that $4,000 worth
of tickets had been sold. So already
new worlds record for gate money
is established. II is quite likely that
the gate receipts here will amount TO
quarter of a million dollars.
Hard Working Newspapermen.
Up to date ia newspapermen have
registered at the fight headquarters,
Quite a number will come in tomorrow
and next day. Every San Francisco
paper has from five to twenty men at
work; every Chicago paper from one
TO three, and every other important
newspaper in the country at least one.
Each press ASSOCIATION has from three
to half dozen. There are more news
papermen here for this prize fight than
were employed throughout the Jap
anese- Russian war by the combined
press of Christendom. There are three
times as many newspapermen here as
were at the Indian Durbar; twice as
MANY as went to the peace conference
at The Hague; three and four times as
many as ever accompanied president
of the United States on any tour; as
many as attended the exposltlons at
Buffalo, Charleston and Seattle
throughout the entire six months OF
their separate existences. There are
twice as many writing men to report
this contest for physical supremacy be"
tween two lone unarmed men rs were
employed to report the earthquake ana
fire at San Francisco. For it is the bat
tie of century,
Mass of Matter by Wire.
One telegraph company has here now
sixty operators, the other eleven.
These seventy one operators sent our
last night 100000 wor!s reaching 10
every town in the civilized world, Ihat
is enough to make five ordinary novels.
The day of the fight million words
will be telegraphed from Reno--a whole
library. This is great literary event.
Novelists, playwrights, magazine wnt-
ers. special correspondents. reporters,
editors and countless scribbling anna
teurs are on this Job. Each ono Is luSS
about as excited as every other one,
Web of Nervous Expectancy.
The town tonight is suspended in
web Of nervous expectancy. |
Every rumor spreads through the crowd |
like q sedative through man sick with
apue. Groups pause and chew the In
news minute ana theh
rush on in nervous wonder. Another
Bit Of news strikes them and they |
pause Then they break up and scat
/ fer AGAIN, chattering, fists clenched,
taut ut-mouthed, wildeved There is
great difficulty TO be found in walking
on the sidewalks of the principal
streets. The crowds have overflowed
into the streets, and automobiles wind
n careful way through the eager fight
fans.
Gambling Halls Filled.
In the gambling halls you have to
force your way by main strength, 1or
every place at every table there are a
,iblc to get into the corridors of the
principal hotels Those who hold rooms
20 in by the back entrance and sneak
I'D the back stairs. They no longer en-
rust their keys to the desk. but guard
hem carefully in their pockets,
Yet, there is no rough work; no
no shooting and no street
orawls. The spirit Of the fighters them
selves seems to have settled on TO the
followers of the fight, Everyone is
waiting auxiousIy, pent-up, wishing it
we're tomorrow instead of the day after.
The promoters have Just gwen out
he press seats. Mine is, in the first
'ow, next to the ring-third seat from
he northeast post My back VIII be
o the picture machines and so to the
un. Like myself, every other man ie
own is studying Just where he Will sit ,
% watch the meeting of the two great |
st heavyweights that ever net in dead
~ .ci ion