El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1912-02-12

I'm CORBETT, who hands the sting
cree TO Jack Johnson at every
street corner and alleyway. and in
cidentaIly gets a good bit of publicity
thereby. always. Of course, rem ember-
Ing that Jim is earning his daily bread
as a vaudeville star mOnOlOgist, arises
70 conserVatively remark that Jack
Johnson is a bigger joke than the orig
mai copy Of Joe Miller, that he never
beat anybody but q lot of cripples, that
ne is as flat-fOotec and slow as a mud
turtle and lastly, that he IS nowhere
near as good a fighter as Peter Jack
son was in his worst days and that it IS
an insult 20 the last mentioned TO speak
OF MIN and Johnson in the same breath
II Is pleasure to start by admiring
CorDett for the fact that he always has
an opinion But In making these radi-
cal statements Corbett brings up
point which / think ought to be
pounded home. There is always q
brigade running around telling US Of
now great the stars were Of yester-
year. OF course as we were all as
Gimilatlng the vast posi- bilit1es Of the
A. b Is In yester-year we have to
take IT, It's like your grandfather who
used 10 tell you in all seriousness that
he could jump backward a distance
some few feet further than you could
jump frontwards on your best jump
Your grandfather could also have
made Arthur Duffey look as though he
were tied TO a stake IN the matter Of
running.
II isn't that you- grandfather is
purposely working Off n yaie that would
nave done credit TO fisherman, bUt
rather that he IS Viewing she past
through the rose cOl0red glasses Of oge
and things are Ilicros ;opea many times
So believe il is with Corbett. Cor
bett discounts the present because
there is sweet remembrance in the
vague past don't believe that Jack
son was a greater fighter than john
son any more that believe that Billy
Sunday was a better ball player than
Iy Cobb. but there are always with US
a bunch OF old time authorities who
viii try TO tell you that the stars Of
old were considerably better than
those Of the present day, whereas a Pc
susal Of the records Of old viii show
you that the baseball men Of today are
almost SO percent more proficient than
those Of the Brotherhood days
So it is in matters Of the ring. There
IS a good deal Of truth IN what COrbett
says regarding the fact that johnson
has never beaten anyone really good
but # must be remem bered that no one
would fight the smoke for a long time
and that he was running around on his
'uppers" and was III trained when ne
did occasionally fight
Men who are every bit as good
judges as COrbett say that Johnson is
the greatest piece OF fighting machin-
cry that has been seen in many years.
il he has q streak no one has found
Il and he surely has always shown
when IL was TO his interest to get
across.
VIII pass rapidly over the fact that
Corbett has picked more losers than
any authority on ring matters Of the
present day and that it was his opin-
ion which Influenced a lot OF money
Jeffriesward. when Jeff was palpably
In such punk shape that Mike Murphy,
q novice by comparison in ring mat
tiers. came out the week before the
fight and said that Jeffries couldn't
possibly win unless they blindfOlded
Johnson and gave Jeff an ak.
The stars OF the years gone by in
most any line OF sport would be in
sorry contrast to those Of today for