The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1910-07-03
FIGHT FAN TRIES
TO BEAT JEFFRIES
200-pOunder Lasts but One
and a Half Minutes.
jim KEEPS HANDS BEHIND HIM
Friendship for BoiIermRker Holds
Davenport Back at Rirst-Did Not
Want TO Make Champions Nose
BIeed-CartOOnist soon Gives Out,
Sinking Into Chair Exhausted.
By HOMER DAVENPORT.

One day as Jeffries was being stripped
of his perspiration-soaked clothes on
his return from a Chamber out OF g
canyon, ne said to me: You are a
pretty healthy looking specimen Of the
outdoors: how long DO you think you
could fight right now at top speed?'
"Oh. I don't know I replied. Pos
sibly some out of condition. Maybe
not over three or four rounds.
All this time trainers were pulling
sticky hot clothes off from the man
Of the mountains. as you would strip
fly paper from a chair And as they
pulled and hauled at the clothes near
est his skin, he called to his brother
Jack to bring the boxing gloves with
the heavy padding on the wrist, and
asked me to strip. TO clear my decks;
in other words. to get ''rossum' on
my feet. He said he wanted me to
put on the gloves and fight him as
hard as I could from the word time;
that he would hold his hands behind
his back, so I could not hurt myself
on his elbows. and make absolutely
no offensive movement except to rush
me with his features and shoulders from
the call Of time.
Friendship Holds HIM Back.
Well. now. I felt a pretty able prop
osition myself while I stood waiting
for Billy Delaney to call time" !
was six feet one and a half inches,
and weighed 200 pounds. but l will
confess that the idea Of hauling off
and smashing into the face Of a
friend with his arms behind him was
distasteful, so at the call of time, al
though I slammed in, friendship held
me back, until Jeffries yelled to me 70
cut loose Using all my strength and
every muscle available to land. it seemed
to me I was a living hurricane for a
while, and / remember l wondered how
Jim was going to stand 1t. I shuddered
at the thought Of the blood that would
flow from his unguarded nose. but al
ways Jim's big dark face was croWding
me off almost into the canyon below
Soon was jabbing with both hands
then I used one hand, resting the other
and there seemed fully a minute be-
tween my blows.
Finally there were no blows. I was
exhausted and the watch showed that
I had fought just one minute and one
second.
Jeffries laughingly wiped the bruise:
on his face with a towel and as HI
went galloping into the gymnasium
where three OF the huskiest men waited
for him, he yelled back as they wer,
lowering me gently onto seat that wha
I needed was to follow him on his mex
trip over the mountains through the
fresh air.
Jeffries looks as If he were created
to be the gardener OF Yellowstone parl
or the ferTyman of the Grand Canyon
OF the Colorado. He is the man created
to associate with the bears, the one bull
to slap a grizzly on the side of the chop:
and make him get out of the honey
Some one, realizing his great physica
strength, got hold Of Jeffries and taught
him to box, though after he learned ant
became the most scientific of all tn,
big fighters the world has known, still
he was simply the bear and deer hunter
Of the mountains of California. fitting
in every particular, the scenery and th,
climate.