The San Francisco call., 1910-06-17
Fight TO BE HELD
IF IN AN AIRSHIP
Attitude of the Promoters i'm
Standing Pat Meets the Ap-
provaI of Fight Fans
By R. L. GOLDBERG

Theres many slip tWixt the gmnna-
sium and the arena, or, in other words,
never count your chips before you cash
in. Everything -ia.47m up in the air,
and the principals in the big fight don't
know whether to pack their trunks or
gobble down few pills and await de-
velopments.
Governor Gillett's action in ordering
the big fight stopped has stunned the
whole sporting community, and every
body is trying to- figure out what ute
rior motive prompted the governor to
take such tardy and violent action.
The one man who has pulled some
thing tangiblesout of the chaos is Tex
Rickard. His most recent statement is
that If he does not receive any definite
word from Attorney General Webb be-
fore Saturday night he will take the
fight to Reno, New. He fully intends to
pull off the big mill on July A. The peo-
pie of Reno have promised him all the
necessary aid.
great deal depends upon the result
of the action taken in the Langford-
Kaufman fight, that is booked for Sat
urday afternoon in Louis Blot's arena.
If the authorities are successful in stop
ping this fight then the outlook for the
big fourth of July affair is very gloomy
And Webb says he is determined to go
the limit to prevent this smaller con-
test.
San Francisco people are inclined to
connect the governors act with the
Panama Pacific International exposition,
which this town hopes to get for the
year 1915. 1t is thought that congress
does not care to award the exposition to
any town that tolerates the Jeffries-
Johnson fight. This necessarily puts the
highbrows in very bad odor with the
western sports.
The redeeming feature of the whole
mixup is that the promoters and fight
ers are willing to go on with the affair
If it has to-be held In an airship. The
drawing powers of the contest have
been hurt to a great extent by the legal
upheavaL But, no matter how much
the attendance is lessened, the fight will
be worth while holding for the moving
pictures alone.
Both johnson and Jeffries will con-
tinue their training in their present
camps until notified positively that the
scene of the battle has been shifted
They refuse to believe that all hone of
pulling off the affair in San Francisco
is lost
Ieffries still keeps his unruff1ed
spirits. He shows lacking in the
human tIHOtiOHS -tikhl are supposed to
exhibit themselves at a crisis of this
kind. He punched the bag earnestly
this morning and played several stren-
uous games of handball with Jim Cor
bett. He announced that he would
positively box in the open air this aft
ernoon All the curiously Inclined
summer boarders in the neighborhood
draped themselves about the ring and
awaited the coming of the manbear
in vain. He donned his high rubber
boots, sneaked around in back of the
little log cabin, in which the tempo
rary telegraph Office is located. and
jumped into his automobile, in which
brother Jack and several friends were
waiting with rod and bait.
The big fellow refuses to bother his
head about any of the unpleasant de-
tails connected with the legal tanrie
Corbett is still waiting for him to don
the gloves and do some preliminary
boxing
johnson is working as hard as ever.
In his boxing today with Cotton. he
showed himself to be in excellent
shape. Neither fighter will consent to
postponement IL he can help it. They
have timed their training so thev viii
be right on the fourth, and any de-
lay would have a tendency toward
staleness They could not AFFORD to
ease up in their work at this stare of
the game Nor could they continue
their strenuous work much beyond tba
,7,+a Set For tte f7x,fa* ~~