The Lake County times. [volume] (Hammond, Ind.) 1906-1933, 1910-07-05
! WAS TOO OLD"
means JEFFR|ES
Texas Negro, Son Of An
American Slave, Breaks
Pugilistic Idol.
23RO. FIGHT HIS WATERLOO
Great Crowd at Reno Glum and Slow
to Cheer Johnson as the
Champion.

Reno. New. July-John Arthur John
son, Texas negro, the son of an Am
erican slave: tonight is the first ana
undisputed heavyweight champion Of
the world.
James ]. Jeffries of California. win
ner of twenty-five championships, the
man who never was brought to his
knees before by a blow. has passed into
history as broken idol He met utter
defeat at the hands of the black cham
pion.
While Jeffries was not actually
counted out. he was saved only from
| this crowning shame by his friends
pleading with johnson not to hit his
fallen man again, and the towel was
brought into the ring from his corner.
| At the end of the fifteenth round
Referee Tex Rickard raised the black
arm, and the fight was decided.
| Jeffries was dragged to his corner
bleeding from nose and mouth and a
| dozen cuts on the face. He had a black,
| closed eye, and swollen features and he
| held his head IN his hands, dazed and
| incoherent.
johnson walked out of the ring with
| out a mark on his body except q slight
| cut on his lip, which was the opening OF
a wound received in training.
JeT Couldn't Come Back.
/ Ring experts agree that it was not
| even championship fight Jeffries had
a chance in the second round, perhaps
| but after the sixth 1t was plain that be
| was weakened and outelassed in every
! point. and after the eleventh round Il
i was hopeless
i 1t was the greatest demonstration
4 the ring has ever seen of the failure o.
/ a fighter to come back after years OF
i retirement The youth and science Of
the black man made Jeffries look like
a green man. The great Jeffries was
Il like a log. The reviled Johnson wa!
like a black panther. beautiful in hi!
alertness and defensive tactics.
Jeffries fought by instinct, It seem
ed. showing his gameness and grea
Il fighting heart in every round, but h,
was only the she'll of his old self. TIL
old power to take a terrible beating
and bore until he landed the knockou
blow was gone.
After the third round Johnson treat
ed his opponent almost a joke. H
smiled and blocked playfully, wardins
off the bearlike rushes of Jeffries witt
a marvellous science, now tucking
blow under his arm. again plucking i
out of the air as a man stops a baseball
Fight Was On the Square.
Out of the sea of opinions and argu
ments that bolstered up this fight an
made it the talk of the world. thre
pinnacles of fact have been cast up:
The fight was on the square. OF tina
there was no doubt after the first roun
. There was no evidence or hint of tn
famous yellow streak on the part 0
|, Johnson.
/ Johnson proved himself so absolutel
/ Jeffries master that experts such as "
/ Corbett, the Australian sporting write
and ring expert. declared that Tomm
Burns had put up a better fight agains
Johnson and that the black man wa
only playing with the other man.
The end was swift and terrible
| looked as though Johnson had bee
holding himself under cover all the res
of the time, and now that he had meas
ured Jeffries in all his weakness he ha
determined to stop Il quickly.
Jeffries had lost the power of Sc
defense. series of right and Ie