Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1910-07-02
THE WAYCROSS WAR RECALLED

GeOrgjia may never have another
Waycross war. No future governor
will probably ever be able to COM
memorate his administration by call
ing out the 'melish" to quell a prize
fight and no gallant colonel will be
able to cover himself with glory and
his men with dust by a brilliant pur-
suit of two defenders of the champion
ship title who want to take a few
cracks at each other ON the sacred soil
of this commonwealth
Everybody recalls the Waycross
war. Wasn't that the time when two
leaders of the ftstic arena, anxious to
swell their bank accounts by many
thousands and fill untold columns of
newspaper space with the tale of their
prowess in the ring, sought an oppor-
tunity to meet each other in the south
eastern section of the state Were they
Sullivan and Mitchell, Jeffries and
Mitchell Or who were they? Memory
is awfully treacherous about this
sort of thing.
But memory recalls quite wildly
that they did not meet Pursued by a
regiment or two of Georgias gallant
soldiers, forced from one prospective
battle ground to another, steadily re-
treating before the overpowering force
of the enemy, they at last shook Geor
gias dust from their feet and vanish
ed to Florida, mississippi or some
other state, there to settle their little
dispute in the good old fashioned way
that has conc d1Nn through ali the
ages.
There was no cinematograph ma
chine in those days. More the pity.
What a beautiful lot of moving pie
lures it would have made. The gal
liant Savannah colonel, in all the pomp
and panoply of war, galivanting over
a dozen south Georgia counties, the
pugilists and their retinue, doggedly
forced further and further toward the
boundary line, and then for a side
picture the governor anXiously pacing
his Office in Atlanta, awaiting advices
from the scene of the struggle.
There will be no repetition of this.
Georgia did not have any law against
pugilism in those days The best that
could be done, if we remember, was
to arrest the participants for assault
and battery or a breach of the peace.
The sheriffs and their deputies were
all crazy for reserved seats at the ring
side and nine tenths of the men
throughout the state had a visible
yearning to be there too Just as, on
next Monday, the main topic of con-
versatiOn, from one end of the coun-
try to the other will be the great fight
on at Reno, so at that particular time
the eyes Of the nation were conferred
on Georgia. We can never again ex>
pect TO occupy so peculiarly prom
inent position on the stage of public
events. The legislature is about 10
pass law that makes not only prize
fighting but even sparring matches,
where admission is charged, unlawful
This will be a solar plexus blow 10 the
noble art of self defence, except in
Savannah. There, where the soldiers
OF a decade or more ago still discuss
the "Waycross War" over their foam
ing ni-beer, some way will surely be
found to circumvent a law that threat
ems to annihiliate the every Friday
night bouts that are now one of the
educational features of the town.
The legislature can kill off the box
ing bout and the prize fight but it can
never rob some of the warriors Of
Georgia of the immortal honors they
won in the Waycross war. For the
halo of glory than hangs over them we
must thank the prize ring and the
champions who so long held the belt
against all comers