Evening star., 1912-06-16

between Johnny Dundee ard Young Wag-
ner. boys with strong followings In this
city. Quite an attractive show and one
that Will help to assuage the grief OF the
fans at the loss of opportunity to witness
the featherweight CHAMPION in action.
This stunt of putting ON 'all-star" bills
at local clubs is becoming very fashiona-
BILE. In fact every body's doing 1t; every
body who is anybody Billy Gibson, Tim
Hurst's successor as manager and match
maker of Madison Square Garden. has
fallen for the idea and will serve every
week big bill calling for the services OF
stars of the ring from far and near. Glib
sons first show is down for next Monday
and will no doubt attract big crowd at
the historic arena. 4 joust between
Hopes Tom Kennedy and Jim Stewart
will wind up bill of more than forty
rounds of boxing.
Nothing came of all the talk about Ad
Wolgast meeting Packey Mcfarland, Matt
Wells and several other more or less
promising lightweights. New Workers
felt confident Ad would exhibit hlmSeif
before them before starting westward to
tackle Joe Rivers. but the champion failed
to sign the documents that would assure
his appearance in a Gotham ring.
Wolgast's failure to box here, to hear
his friends tell 1t. was due to the neglect
of matchmakers to come forward with
sufficiently alluring terms. If the truth
were made known, it would be dis
covered that Ads disappointing exhibi-
tions against Willie Ritchie and later in
the six-round bout with Philadelphia
Jack OBriens kid brother, were the real
reasons local offers were passed up. The
demand was for Wolgast to meet Nc
Farland. and Tom Jones very sensibly re-
fused to risk the champions reputation
In short bout with The classy Chicago
boy. Wolgast would have to be at MS
very best to make any kind of decent
showing opposed to Packey in contest
of only ten rounds.
/ note where Mcfarland has decided
to take a vacation in the shape of trip
to Europe. While on the other side he
hopes to witness the Olympic games and
otherwise enjoy the holiday earned in a
long and strenuous campaign in the ring.
MY best wishes for pleasant voyage and
all-round good time will go with Packey,
who is one of the incest little gentlemen
in the profession.
Willie Ritchie and Jack Britton have
been in these parts for several weeks
trying to induce local boys 70 meet
them, but without success attending
their efforts. Leach Cross, who boasts
of his marvellous ability. was invited to
sign articles, but would have none of
eithers game. Cross still fourflushes
about boxing Wolgast; he passes up
these boys. probably for the very good
reason he is afraid he would be beaten.
II is said that Cross also ran out on
an agreement to box Joe Mandot at
one of the local clubs.
While Cross has shown Improvement u
his work recently. he has done notl%:
that would warrant his attempt <dic-
tate terms to boys with reputaticE such
as Rritton, Mandot and Ritchie have
earned in the profession. These lads
have gone the long routes against really
classy opponents. and with credit to
themselves Cross has never appeared tC
advantage in any but the short bouts In
the east and then only when permitted to
resort to tactics that should bar him from
the sport Cross single start over "A dis
tance ended in miserable failure. Dick
Hyland, never bear-cat. stopped him on
that occasion.
II is rare indeed, nowadays to hear a
prominent boxer sing n r.val's praises,
and to Willie Ritchie the writer extends
fluctuations on his generous and sports
manlike spirit. In speaking of Ad VOL
CAST although modestly advancing his
own claims as a CONF erN1er for the title
Willie pays the champion number OF
"Wolgast will be in much better shape
when he meets Joe Rivers than when he
boxed me- Ad is a wonderfully rugged
boy and the hardest hitter I've ever met
man can't stand off and beat him on
points He forces you to slug with him.
The champion is a great fighter and II
Will take a corker to beat him"
have been an ardent admfrer OF Wine
Ritchie sirsce he stepped up like a little
major with hardly twentyfour hours no
tice and took the place of the stricken
wolgast in the Thanksgiving day contes
with Fred Welsh. and this generous little
boost os a rival scrapper will win hin
many new friends in the ranks OF the
devotees OF the sport