The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-12-16
William Inglis in Harper's Weekly.

William 1nglis In Harpers Weekly.
 THE Irish bard knows how to tell about a fight. When Cuchullin
 \ and another hero whose name has smashed through my memory were bat ting for the mastery of all Ireland, the bard-I think 1t was Jeremiah Curtin says: And where they tore up the earth in their struggles they made hills where there had been holows, and hollows where there had been hills. and one of
 the clods of turf from their heels flew off
 a million miles and blinded one eye of the hag who sits spinning in the eastern sky" And that's the sort of fight they
 had when Jim Corbett beat John L. Sul- livan for the championship of the world. The ten thousand men packed in the
 amphitheatre around the square platform
 on which the fight was to take place were SO keyed up with expectation that they could not sit still. They talked inces- sanity, smoked or chewed gum incessant- ly and drank many gallons of ginger ale. sarsaparilla and soda water from the peddlers' trays-all in the vain hope of assuaging the eagerness that stretched
 every nerve to the utmost.
 There was a little clapping of hands
 when Corbett entered the ring, for there
 were a few spectators who had bet on
 him. besides some others who felt sym
 pathy for the gallant lad in what they
 believed was a hopeless encounter and
 were trying to cheer him in his last mo-
 ments of consciousness. He smiled as he
 bowed to the hand-clappers and then
 pranced about the ring, charging for
 ward or sidestepping on tiptoe so as to
 judge the elasticity and stability of it's
 floor, which was of reddish-brown earth
 from the Mississippi river bottom, packed
 and rolled so as to give hard, smooth,
 resilient surface with no danger of slip
 ping. Corbett had hardly seated himself
 when Sullivan plunged through the ropes
 and bounded across the ring, while all the
 house arose as if on one pair of legs and
 cheered and howled and shrieked and
 stamped for joy. John L. hobbed a short little bow and sat down In his corner. He
 glared over at Corbett-for two reasons:
 First, he felt himself so immeasurably the
 best man in the world that he hated any ono who dared to dispute his kingship and, second, he knew that the glare gen. orally took the last atom of fight energy out of his antagonist. But the glare had no terror for the pale young Californian. He met Sullvan's eye
 calmly and smiled in rather patronizing way. Inasmuch as Mike Donovan had long ago warned me about this duel of eyes, I was watching intently everything that passed, and when I saw Corbett's supercilious smile was struck breathless with surprise. Could it be possible that any human being would dare to treat John L. like that and hope to live? Im- possible. Something of the same sort, much intensified, must have passed through the great mans mind, for his glare now became scowl of fierce mal- ignity before which the strongest must quail. But Corbett did not know how to quail. when, in conformity with GUS | tom. he advanced to shake hands in the | middle of the ring. he still regarded Sulli- van with his supercilious smile.
 John L. was raging. That huge bulk of his seemed to throw off hate in vi- brations, and the corners of his mouth snarled downward as he came face to face with his adversary. Corbett. 20 pounds lighter and three inches taller than his enemy smiled down upon him patronixingly. This was too much. When they clasped hands Corbett quickly grabbed Sullivan's fingers. squeezed and
 wrenched them as hard as he could, and
 then disdainfully threw the hand aside. That is the way John usually crushed the spirit of his antagonist, but this bold young upstart had actually beaten him
 at his own game. Not only that. but he erimaced exultingly in Johns face. and tben. as he walked off. turned and srinned mockingly while he uttered some sneering phrase which. of course, none of us outsiders could hear. That moment, if seemed to me, witnessed the most dar- ,ng act of Corbetts life. Surely 1t would have been safer to have put his hand in
 lions mouth and twisted the lions
 tongue than to take such liberties with sullivan. the destroyer of men. No other l human being had ever dared to think of such a thing. much less try it. More over. when he returned to his corner he
 nointed at Sullivan and made jokes about
 him that caused Bill Brady and Delaney