The Ogden standard. [volume] (Ogden City, Utah) 1902-1910, 1910-07-16
SP()R IS
PUBLIC FOOLED
BY THE FIGHTERS
(By E. D. Burrows.)


San Francisco July 16.-One by ono
the inside" stories OF the big fight
the stories which always follow In
the wake OF q championship contest
arc coming to light, just as Sun
shine Jim" Coffroth declared they
would do Immediately after July
Fourth. One by one the public is
Being let In" on the moro or less
startling facts of the big match
facts which only so 10 show that the
d. o. z. Is, after all, the softest kind
OF clay in the hands OF the fighter.
the fighter. Ia turn, Is the easiest
Ramc for the clever promoter; and
the clever promoter resembles babe
in arms when stacked up against the
willy politician. In the great human
drama recently eliminated In Reno,
Nevada, each OF these dupes and
"dubies" had his part-and, were Il
not for the serious aspect of some
OF the denouements, il would be lough-
able to read a full and complete his
tory OF the Johnson-Jeffries fight, aB
written from the private notebooks
OF Tex Rickard. Jack Gleason. Jim
JeffrIes, Jack Johnson, Sam Berger
and George Little. These men. who
were in" on practically all OF the
star chamber sessions" held In con-
nection with the big match, are daily
passing out 10 the newspaper men
hints of what they were forced TO do
IN tho way OF diplomatic intrigue. Be
fore the year is out We will probably
finow the whole story-and until then
at Is not the wiseSt policy In the world
Eto laud the apparent saint or con-
demn the apparent winner.
I Perhaps the first exposure of any
consequence was that made by Tex
,Rickard, one of the promoters OF the
Heavyweight go, a few days ago, when
he admitted that he had the two fight
/ crs-Jobnson and Jcffries-signed up
1.-TWO days before the opening of bids
I'm New York, and that no other pre-
gmoter had n chance. In other words,
Sthe opening OF bids was simply
ygrandstand play, calculated to slim
fIulate public interest Furthermore,
Richard admitted that he had ''bulled"
the fighters into thinking that each
, had the better of the other in the mat
ter OF bonuses-whereas IN reality.
, they received precisely the same
amounts for signing With him
The next denouement came from
Rogers Cornell one OF Jeffries' chief
seconds. who declared that the wise
oLes" who were hanging around the
big fellows camp al Moana Springs
knew several days In advance or the
fight that Jeffries was not In proper
condition for a contest. physically
he was as near perfect as any one OF
his age and former habits could be-"
declared Cornell yesterday morning,
"but psychologically he was q mile
to the bad. Do what We would. il
was impossible To bring him out OF
his mclancholia and preoccupation.
Whether 1t was sense of the enor-
nous responsibility resting upon him,
or the hunch that he was In for o
beating, / don't know-but something
took bold of him a week before the
fight and totally destroyed his use
fulness as an opponent of Jack John
sen. He should never have gone into
the ring the way be feltr'
If this be true-and Cornell seems
10 know whereof he speaks-it Is liza
bic TO put Jeffries In extremely bad
odor with the hundreds of prominent
sporting men who wagered their mon
cy upon him. If Jefiries knew, In
bis own heart, that he was not fit,
how much better IT would have been
fer him to make flat declaration to
the world. stating that he had tried
TO condition himself and failed-rath-
er than wilfully TO enter the ring
put up 4 rotten exhibition aud lose
the hundreds of thousands of dollars
which his friends and admirers had
put up on him. Big Jim has In the
neighborhood of 100000 to use as 4
balm for those wounded feelings
whereas his friends have nothing but
an empty pocketbook and the mem
ory of miserable showing on the
part OF the once.great white boxer
Following closely upon the heels