The National tribune., 1910-07-14
THE FAm PRIZE FIGHT.

So much feeling has been stirred up
by the Jefries-J Johnson fake fight that
it threatens to ruin the immense profits
the sharpers expected TO win from the
exhibition Of moving pictures. In sew
eraI cities these have been prohibited,
and it is not unlikely that they will be
everywhere. The reason given is the
development Of the race question, but Il
still stronger reason is that it was prob
ably the most dishonest sporting event
ever foisted upon the gullible public.
There never was fair prize fight, but It
looks as If the Jeffries-Johnson fight
was fraud Of more colossal dimensions
than any of its predecessors. Jeffries
had burnt himself out by seven years
of inordinate debauchery. and he was
so rotten that it was feared that tho
sores on him could not be patched up
in order to make a decent appearances
in the ring. He was not fit to stand
against any third or fourth-class fighter,
much less an athletic young negro like
Johnson. This fact can be quickly de-
veloped by any one who cares to read
through the columns of mush and gush
written by the sporting reporters of this
various papers and eagerly devoured bP
the wouldbe sporting class. In spite OF
their wild welter of words to make the
matter appear as a sporting event, 1t
cannot help being seen that instead of
being the all-around athletic fighter
that he was seven years ago. Jeffries
was physical and nervous wreck. All
that he really expected to do. all that
the sharpers who got up the fight
hoped for from him, was to stand up to
be pounded long enough to give them Q
good pretense for the money which they
had skinned out of their dupes. There
was scarcely more fight in him than ia
an old wether sheep, and his opponent
came out of the affair with hardly %
scratch to show that he had been ser"
iously engaged.
Jeffries has simply gone the way that
every one of his predecessors in tbs
championship has trod. The gang sf
sharpers who have been managing them
have helped them secure the champion.
ship, then the champion has taken his
share of the money to lubricate his swift
passage down the road to moral ana
physical destruction. BY the time tho
has been gone, the champion
has burnt out his whole internal ma.
chinery. Then the gang gets hold os
him again and puts him up against
some new boxer and fills the country
with lying stuff as to how he has TO.
gained his form and is the man he was
when he won the belt. As the country
is filled with fools who. are anxious to
lose their money, there is no lack oil
betters on this side of the proposition.
and the sharpers gather in stupendous
harvest of dollars when the champion
is defeated. 1t will only be short tins
until the e-game is again played with
being brought into the ring TO
be easily knocked out by some new.
Having learned nothing by ex,
perience the wouldbe sports will bite
again just as lavishly as they did at the
Jeffries- bait, and will possibly .se
skinned ever more thoroughly because
will have more money. If one could
have any sympathy for the idiots who
bet on these transparent schemes, thers
would be demand for a law to prohibit
prize fighting for their protection. The
are class, however, like those who bite
at the green goods games, for whom oEe
can have no sympathy.