The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1910-07-10
JEFF LOSES NERVE
AND ALSO THE FIGHT
Three Days Before the Battle He Is Restless and
Could Not Pin His Attention to Anything
for a Long Period.

y
epigrammatic adage Of the fighting ring
won and lost half the battle at Reno
For q year Jeffries had trained 20 recover
his old form. and week before the nght
he was pronounced fit, absolutely his ola
self-lithe, sleek, with muscles OF steel
and whipcord, the perfect development
OF physical nan; but no man ever came
back" Could he make II? Could ne
break the old tradition? For year the
compact little phrase that assured him
of defeat had stood clearly In his mind,
and the subtle mental attitude it produced
began 20 assert itself AS the time grew
shorter It wore upon him. Here he was
with enormous odds set upon him by
hackers and friends, with hackers and
friends looking to him from half the
quarters OF the globe. With that peculiar
dilation to which ideas Of our self-im-
pOrtance are always prone, 1t began to
seem that the white race was looking TO
him to vindieate its superiority. And here
was he with his two fists to help him, out
of the ring for six years and mo man
ever came back"
Three days before the big fight the
mental landslide appears TO have set In.
It was noticed first that Jeffries could not
play cards. could not pin his attention to
one thing long enough. He's restless, -
said his trainers. Acute indigestion
soon followed. "A touch Of stage fright"
was the verdict He must wear 1t out"
He grew steadily worse instead OF better.
Believing he would shake it OF, Farmer
Burns is reported TO have kept him keyed
to the top tension. Let him think of the
money staked upon him, of the 100000.O00
Of his countrymen watching" And be-
sides. he was the champion of the white
Face-by this time he believed that
Yet the new man had challenged him. and
here was he trying TO break the long line
OF precedent and pick up what he had
laid down: here was he trying to come
back
The day OF the fight came When the
hour struck Jim Jeffries, three days be-
fore the perfection OF human strength,
was led into the ring. the muscles OF his
arms and legs twitching. spasmodica1iy,
tottering. uncertain in his gait, standing
braced Ike a drunken man, his extremi-
ties Ice cold. his heart beating far be-
low the normal count Jehries was
afraid. Afraid of the great negro in the
ring before him? Not at all Afraid OF
actual physical harm? Never. not for
moment. He was afraid OF the idea,
mortally afraid Of defeat
symptoms of Neurasthenia.
Here are the principal symptoms OF
traumatic neurasthenia, nervous collapse
from a blow or a shock, as set down In
DR.. T. Clifford Adults work on dis
eases of the nervous system Note how
exactly they tally with the reported con
dition of Jefries directly before the
fight:
l. The patient is incapable OF ooncen-
trating his attention on any subject re-
quiring careful thought
?. The emotions OF fear and apprehen-
sion are exaggerated
g. Acute dyspepsia is frequently not
able
The patient is capable Of performing
all movements, but they are executed
in an implusive way with ineoordination
and little force,
3. The heart action is often irregular.
The pulse IS often very small. which is
accounted for by the vaso-motor con-
striction and leads to feebleness of cir
culation in the extremities.
Yet physicians and nerve specialists
insist that no such nervous breakdown
could come TO man IN the prime of
physical health in the short time in which
Jeffries seems to have gone down before
an idea as before a physical blow
DR.. c. L. Dana. the eminent neurologist,
expressed himself forcibly when he re-
covered from the nervous shock of being
asked to express himself on the subject
at all The man could not have been in
the physical shape claimed for him." he
insisted. NO amount Of nervous strain
could have done for man like that in
three days time. The idea is absurd.
This neurasthenia Is largely poppycock.
any way"
The doctor was asked if the study Of
neurasthenia was not his special study.
1T is" he answered, and you can't
insist for me too strongly that there IS
no such thing"
Difficult TO Diagnose Case.
DR. G. D. Hamlen agreed with DR.
Dana. 1T is difficult" he said, to
diagnose the case OF man from across
continent But neurasthenia is not
what is to be expected In the case of a
man in otherwise perfect physical con-
dition"
Call it neurasthenia or by some other
name. the condition of nervous collapse,
blue funk or cold feetus. Is a well recog-
nized one in fighting circles. In a lesser
degree II has turned the issue OF many
fight before this. Get the brain drop on
him and he's half licked" is the phrase
into which Kid Mccoy has welded the
general notion. In prize lighting. as in
all fighting bodily or spiritual il is the
ego behind the body. the man himself
that puts up the fight. If that man be-
hind the muscles is unnerved the fight Is
lost unless the matching of sinew and
Drawn has been more unequal than
modern rules of the ring allow.
There are a hundred stories current
of the fights that have been lost and
won by telling taunt or a timely sheer.
It is for this reason that the line Of con-
versation that champion lets flow in the
course Of his rounds is as highly valued
as any Of his tactics. crouch OF swing
or parry
When Jim Corbett defeated Holm