The Washington herald., 1913-03-23
UP TO RITCHIE I
TO GET BUSY
Lightweight Champ Should
Be Considering Offers
rendered Him.
TALKS OF FOREIGN TOUR

Friends and Sporting Public in Gen.
eral Fast Losing Faith in
His Ability.
San Francisco, March Eff Willie
Ritchie is given to thinking at all IL Is
high time for him to hunt his considering
cap. For Willie's friends are drifting
away from him in carload lots and IL the
desertion continues at its present rate il
will not be long before Ritchie will find
himself the most lonesome worlds cham
pion that ever sported the laurel wreath.
II Is Ritchie's treatment Of recent Of,
fers and his attitude generally toward the
boxing game tRat has disguised his we'll
wishers. He is condemned particularly
for the studiously vague way in which
he refers to the probable date OF his
return to the ring. He appears to be
fencing with the question: in fact, there
| isn't slimmer of promise in anything he
| has to say In this connection. He is play
| ing squarely into the hands of his en-
emies who have contended all along that
| he would make the most of an accident
which enabled to grab the title from the
youngster who won IL by dint OF hard
! fighting and who 'risked It and defended
| it as often as an opportunity arose
Ritchie has himself to blame IL a su.-
picion of this kind attaches to him. He
| hasn't accomplished sufficient to warrant
him playing fast and loose with the boys
of his class and with the sporting pub
| lie generally in the way he is doing. HS
| knows that even those who took his side
of the argument when a question arose
| as to whether Referee Jim Griffin was
| justified in depriving Wolgast Of his
| crown on a technicality where unani-
nous in declaring that the circumstances
| called for return match, at the earliest
possible opportunity.
| Thinking of European Tour.
Ritchie pleaded a right to garner q lit,
tie of the footlight harvest as others sim
| ilarly situated had done before him and
i no one said him nay. He took the road
! with the tacit understanding that he
would face Wolgast or some other worthy
lad on the Fourth of July. If not before Z
He Is talking now OF continuing and
crossing the ocean for a world wide thea
trical tour and IL there is anything in
| his treatment of various fight proposals
made to him that a promoter can stick
| pin in, the writer for one. has not
| come across II.
Either Ritchie is timorous about facing
| this issue or he overestina ted his own
standing in the boxing world The pre-
tentious programme he has mapped out
\ would be all right for a man who had
proved beyond chance or argument THAI
he is the best of his weight in the United
States, but II smacks of assurance in
this particular case. The average Brit
| ish music hall patron has a keen sense
OF humor and a sarcastic tongue. and IL
Richie made bid for the six pences,
and shilings of the English vaudeville cir
| cult and II leaked out that it was a
A n, fr1, H. n.
| champion and not a punch delivered BY
himself his nightly receptions might lack
Cordiality
The chances are the British trip Will
not be taken, at least until Ritchie's rec
ord has been enhanced sufficiently 10
| warrant a triumphal tour. This talk OF
| fattering offers Is buncomb of the worst
description for the stage earnings Of
American celebrities on the other side
are always ridiculously small
Corbett Tells q story.
A story told recently by Jim Corbett
| has bearing on this matter. seeing as
| how 1t makes evident that the best ad-
vertised pusilists of this country a@
! sometimes scarcely known in England.
Corbett was billed TO start his British
| stage whiri at Bristol-it may have been
| Birmingham. and when he appeared to
aged by the lack of effervescence in the
crowd and the calm eyed manner in
which he was viewed.
From the look on their faces I think
some of them were wondering whether I
was a ventriloquist or was going TO give
limitations of famous actors. II wasn't
until i told them L was the fellow Fitz-
simmons licked that they took mild in
tereSt in me-" said Jim
Sullivan and Charlie Mitchell, had to 20
to such extreme to make himself known
how will poor little one fight Willie
Richie fare in that strange land,
Reason Ritchie's ..In Rad"
One of the things that is putting Ritchii
in bad with practical sporting men -
the apparently insincere manner in which
Manager Nolan keeps harping on the
prospect of a contest with Packey Me-
Fariand 10 the exclusive of other and
more legitimate matches.
I'VE want Mcfarland and We will siSn
him the moment he agrees to do 1t
pounds few hours before the fight, as
he agrees to do at Milwaukee This IL
Nolan's battle cry
When the veriest ignoramus in sport
ing matters knows that Mcfarland CAM
not make 1S pounds for boxing purposes
at any time of day. II Packey agreed
to any such thing the match would be
one to view with suspicion.
Jimmy Britt once declared that there
are no ethics in pugilim and the chances
are he was right. It is for each boxer
to lay out the course he thinks best
and judge of the correctness of his judg-
ment' by the measure of success met
with.
1t is in Willie Ritchie's power to dodge
a Fourth of July meeting with one OF
our willing American light-weights and
go junketing across the pond il he feels
that way about II. But it would be as
well for him to remember that so far
he has done nothing to perpetuate his
fame as a pugiiist.
When a fighter with a weak record
yanks himself out OF tine limelight he
has a deuce OF a time working back to\
the place where the glare is It pays to
advertise and the best kind of advertis-
ing for a man like Willie Ritchie Is to
be up and doing in his particular field Of
endeavor.
Coffee Meets ROdel.
New York, March Jimmy" Coffee,
tho DubIip beayywei1hf ha.r