The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-03-01
CHANGES
 ID WHIP JOHNSON Jim Corbett Favors Jeffries on His Old Fighting Form JOHNSON'S FLAT FEET Negro's Feet Are Like All of His Race Flat And a Disadvantage in Fight
 Against a Well-Trained
 Pugilist
JoHNsoN's FLAT FEET
By c, E, VAN LAoN

New 1ofk, February 2S.-(Speclal. )-l ne l question of the chief second has been set tied. Jim Corbett admits that he will be 1 the man behind the human bearskin rug when Jeff and Johnson meet in the ring. | Jim has been talking about the fight,
 but with an amount of restraint and cau- tion foreign to his enthusiastic nature. Jim Corbett always was an enthusiast.
 There has never been any middle ground l for him. In his vaudeville addresses Jim has been touching ever so lightly upon the
 subject of the coming battle with few
 words of the praise for Jeffries and a brief appreciation of Jack Johnson. After | 1t is all over when the casual spectator unwraps himself from the whirl of words which Jim J. has furnished, said specta- tor goes away with an impression something like this:
 Jim Corpett says that the men will fight. He will help Jeffries to get into shape. Jim thinks that Jeffries is a great fighter but he also thinks that Johnson is a great fighter, and a very tough proposition for Jeffries. Jim thinks that Jeff will win If he gets into shape, but in I case"
 And then old John L., who has been showing over the New England circuit comes along and says that the whole thing looks to him like "a barney" It is tho difference in opinion, says MT. Twain, which makes horse races. And fights. Speaking of that difference in opinion, somebody started fat argument when he came out with the stuff about Johnson being a fat-footed fighter. It wasn't a new argument to bring against Jack John- son, but 1t attracted attention because when the argument was made the first time the big negro was nine spot in the deck pugilistic. and nobody cared how flat-footed he was, or whether he had any feet at all, and the next time they said it about him he was a champion of the world
 Therefore, when somebody peddled that scandal about Jack having fiat feet there was an immediate roar from many quar- ters. It is a significant fact that as yet nobody has risen to deny that Johnson has flat feet There are two reasons for this. They are mates and they are the
 largest, widest, fiattest reasons man ever looked at, and Jack Johnson wears them around on the ends of his shin bones. All the patent leather and all the artificial leather covered insteps in the world will not hide the fact that Jack Johnsons feet are flat They are worse than that.
 The first time l remember seeing a criticism of Johnson's ''skids'' was in a Melbourne paper. Jack had gone to the Antipodes in the hope of getting crack at Bill Souires before Bill sailed for this country. The match missed fire and the Australian boxing critics, who know the theory of the game, even though they have few great fighters nowadays, looked over Johnson very carefully. and one of them alighted at once upon his big, fiat feet. This Melbourne savant said that Johnson was great defensive fighter, but had ba-a-ad feet, and he went on to ad- vance the very same argument against fiat feet which has recently been poured forth by Jim Corbett and answered by Billy Madden and others.
 Some people really seem to blame Jack Johnson for his fiat-footed style of fight ing. This Is unkind It would be just as fair to walk up to blind apple woman and upbraid her for her blindness. She didn't have anything to do with 1t and neither did Johnson have anything to do with the brace of 14-inch hoofs, which grew on him. man with a pair of feet like those of Jack Johnson is lucky to be fighter at all, and he must fight flat footed because his feet are fiat in the first place, and In the second place they can never be remedied unless he has them trimmed down.
 To hear some of the critics raving about Jacks fiat foot a stranger could not be blamed for carrying away the m- pression that Johnson is anchored wher- ever he plants those feet of his This Is not strictly true. He does like to stand still in one place and pick off punches three feet away from his jaw, but he can move around when he has to- and move fast enough to suit any ordinary man. have seen him. on a few rare occasions, made In the fight, as fast as any man in the world, shifting those big fiat feet of his from side to side with the punches and working like demon from his flat feet up to the top of his shiny head Corbett makes a very good point against Johnsons fiat-footed style In that John- son. If compelled to retreat, will be com pelled to retreat straight backward If Jeffries carries his old-time strength into the ring, he will be able to hustle John son backward, and If he carries him to | the ropes with a single rush, there may be the chance of ripping In that pile-driv- ing left to the body No clever man when rushed of his feet and forced | backward appears at his best
 On the other hand, man with good stance" as they say in golf-in other words, man who sets himself firmly upon his feet, gets more value out of a punch because If his feet are set solidlv | upon the floor he can lift every pound of his perpetul skipping in and out, on his | toes all the time. and he never seemed to set for good healthy round arm wal lop He came in like a fash-on his toes and was going away on his toes almost before his punch had time to land l There will be more later about this flat l footed thing. It Is an interesting study l just at the present time
 In the meantime the best posted man
 in the world cannot form definite opin-
 lon as to the respective values of Jeff s rushing, tearing attack and Johnson S l nat-footed stand until the mon bang to-
 gether in the first round of the fight.
 Then if Johnson goes backward driven off his stance by the sheer bulk of the
 attack 1t will be time to begin to figure. If the black is strong enough to meet Jeff toe to toe. 1t is going to be question of
 cleverness with the head and the fists, not
 cleverness of the feet.
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