Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1910-07-02

| oU years ago April 10 ldSL, d
first-class fighting man was
created. He was endowed with every
thing that goes to make up a fighter,
right from the start. He did not need
to train and school himself to any great
extent. He mad both the brain and the
Drawn, and all he lacked was the ambi-
ton to win fame as a fighter. When
that ambition did come to him it
required but two years to van
quish every fighter worthy of consider
alton, and make the championship title
one of his personal assets. Once he Sc
cured it, the only way he could find of
Kidding himself of the burdens 1t i'm
posed was to give 1t away. That is
what jeff did with it. He looked over
the field of worthy heavyweights with
a view to adopting one of them as his
heir. Eight years after his first fight
he decided that Marvin Hart was the
heir-apparent, and abdicated in Harris
favor.
One of the striking things about JEFF
fries is the fact that it took a great
deal of argument to convince him that
he was a fighting man at ALI Despite
Natures generosity to him in the mat
ter of size and strength, he had a
strong suspicion all the time that he
was intended to be a farmer. Through
his early life he displayed great fond
ness for getting close to nature via a
fishing rod or a gun, and spent quite
a bit of time among the mountains.
He developed a decided fondness for
country life, and when he resigned his
high state as champion. having an
nexed enough money through purses,
moving pictures and stag appear
ances to DO what he pleased, he has
tened to a farm In Southern California
with the intention of ending his days
as a sort of country squire. Had John
Arthur Johnson and the color ques-
ton not interfered with his plans, he
would, in all probability, fhave carried
out h a determination.
JEFF WAS BORN in 1878.
Jeffries was born in Carroll. Ohio.
In 1875, but his parents went to Cali
fornia so soon after his arrival that
he Is looked upon almost as a native
of tina State. Little is recorded of his
doings prior to 1897 beyond h fact
that he was a mighty hunter, a good
/ ~ lL1oACA dll4 n
fighter with whom few cared to mix.
He never was an amateur fighter. The
first time he entered the ring he did
so on the spur of he moment, accept
ing the challenge of a negro fighter
named Hank" Griffin because of the
money he would get by defeating the
challenger. The fight occurred in Los
Angeles, Cal, in 1893, and jeff accom-
plished the defeat of the negro in four
teen rounds. winding up with an art
istic knockout.
While this victory did not seem to
arouse JEFF to In ambition as a fighter,
1t attracted the attention of fighters to
him as a valuable training partner.
He seconded a m~iddleweight named
Billy Gallagher in San Francisco two
years later, and Gallagher got him a
match in 1896 with Dan Long, of Den
yer. There was a $1,000 purse up and
Long went to sleep in the second round
when Jeffs left encountered his nose.
1t was shortly after this that Jim
Corbett began to prepare for his fight
with Bob Fitzsimmons, which gave the
latter the championship. Harry Cor
bett, Jim's brother, who was on the
lookout for sparring partners, sent JEFF
up to Carson City, New, to join Jim's
training staff. Corbett hammered the
big fellow numerically, but JEFF wa;
absorbing knowledge of the fighting
game through every pore. Thes were
his first real boxing lessons, and ht
took them from a master of the craft
Within three weeks after Corbett's de.
feat, jeff was in the ring again on hi.
own hook, doing away with the aspira'
lions of W promising heavyweights IL
quick succession in 1897.
BENEFITED BY CORBETTS SKILL.
SO much had jeff benefited by Cor
baffsa TRAINING that he uro -orlxad a,