Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1910-02-07
GLEASON MEETS
TEX RICHARD HERE
Former Wants Fight on Coast;
Latter Says Salt Lake
Is the Place.
BOTH CLAIM IS NO QUARREL
And Neither Seems to be Worrying
About Governor Spry's Attitude Kc-
garvling Championship Battle.

John ], Gleason-"Thcre has been
no serious dispute between Tex RICK
ard and myself In regard TO where the
great athletic contest OF the Fourth
of July is to take place. or course,
with my business interests, and being
q Californian. and being convinced that
the neighborhood OF San Francisco
would draw the biggest crowd. am
in favor OF the coast,
'The possibility of legal complica-
tions In Salt Lake have much to do
with the settling of the place of the
contest. / don't know just what the
law Is here but 1t seems as IL 1t Is
the same as in California, There Is
no doubt but there would be tre-
mendous crowd here. But can you
1nd n place to handle them? That is
ono of the questions. / am going out
with Richard this afternoon OF tomor-
row to look over the proposed Saltair
site and from what they say II ought
to be able to accommodate the crowd.
Il will be here for several days and
before l leave / think that the place
OF contest will be settled. Then we
will know where we are at. want
to say one thing. and that is. that at
not time have Tex and / been on
the outs. There has been a lot of press
talk But that is all there is to IL.
1 have just left JEFF at Butte, and he
seems to be In fine shape this far ahead
OF the scheduled time. He goes east
from Butte and he seems to be In
fine shape this far ahead of ths
Butte. closing the trip at Duluth.
From there he will go home and go
into the mountains for hunt and for
wind. When that Is acquired he Will
come to some place In the same cli-
mate as the place where the contest
is scheduled and finish his training"
Tex Rickard-''The contest Is coming
to Salt Lake. 1 have maintained this
right along and still stand in my
tracks. 1t can be pulled off hero and
half of the preparations have been
made. Saltair Is the place and as soon
as | can get Gleason out there he will
see that it is an ideal place for the
the event Already we are preparing
for prcliminaries and 1 viii put Salt
Lake on the pugilistic map even as l
did Goldfeld
1T means whole lot for tho game,
at that. This matter of centering these
glove contests Is bad California has
had an option on them for q long time
and II has come to a point whom
something ought to be done TO further
the scope of the sport New York
can pull Off almost anything except
the top notch events and PHILADELPHIA
Will stand for anything up 10 six
rounds, whether the men have world
regulations or whether they are scrubs,
But these big fellows are coming TO
Salt Lake"
Tex Rickard. the Nevada man
who went TO New York and Sc
cured the option by dcposIting $40 900
In gold. has all along declared that
Salt Lake was his choice for the JEFF
fries johnson fight July 4, and main
tanned that there were no legal OBJ
stacles. Through the press stories
came to the effect that Jack Gleason.
the partner of Rickard, said that the
contest could come of at no place
other than San Francisco or the yicin-
ity-
John j. Gleason arrived In Salt Lake
this morning for a consultation with
Rickard. He had journeyed from San
Francisco to Butte. where Jcffries was
playing, and an attempt was made to
induce Rickard to go there But the
Nevada man gave his ultimatum to
the effect that IL Gleason wanted to
see him he must come to Salt Lake.
Gleason came, and his coming bears
out the oft-repeated statement OF
Rickard that II was up to him (Rick-
ard) and nobody else At all events.
the whole matter will be determined
within a fow days,
The two promoters were together for
a short time this morning, exchang-
ing salutations and asking the condi-
tions of the weather Beyond that
nothing was done other than to talk
glittering generalitIes and to make a
date for o'clock this afternoon when
the two skirmish lines will be thrown
out. Gleason has an abiding conyic
tion that California Is the logical
place for the contest. and Rickard is
on record for Salt Lake. Both Jefr-
ries and johnson say that they have
no choice. that IT is up to the man
ayers. And that Is the substance OF
the whole matter.
Governor Spry's repeated statements
that the law will be upheld and that
there VIII be no prize fight In Utah Is
apparently not worrying the promot
ers.