The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1914-07-25
James J. corbett. Former Heavy
 weight Champion of the World.

I weight Champion of the World.
 New York. July 25-In the maze of contradictory dispatches from Eng
 land retailing, according to the views and prejudices of the senderss the story of the Carpentier-Srnith battle, one who did not see it can not very well form any sort of intelligent opin- ion of just what did happen in that 1 unsatisfactory cont est. One account had the Gunner sending the French man to the floor in the sixth round ] with a right swing to the jaw; an-
 other said it was body punch ana still others that Georges fell to the. floor when he missed a vicious slunge 1 at the Gunboat's jaw, losing his bal , ance from the force of tho blow However, every one now seems to l be agreed that the Gunboat did fit ! the French champion a blow on the ! head while the latter was on the l lfloor-whether from the force, of a 1 unch or his own cIumsiness-a 1t l is also the unanimous opinion cf the 1 scribes, since they have had time to think 1t over, that the blow while I technically a foul one did no dam- age to Carpenter, and that the ref cree in justice to principals. their packers, and the crowd could have ordered the men to continue without I totally ignoring the code of rules. l Americans are just beginning to
 realize, in the depth of their despop-
 dency caused by thS Welsh and Car pentier victories, that boxing bouts elsewhere are really governed by the rules. In this country it has become l the custom during the past decade or so for the average referee to make the rules to suit himself and his em- 1 ployers. The referee of the old days l who made the boxers live up to the letter of the law as laid down in the | book has disappeared entirely
 George Siler was one. of the last.
 Charley White, another who had
 nerve enough to enforce the rules, is for, some reason (best known to the gehtlemen) passed up by present day
 Nowadays the referees are hardly,
 more than figureheasdsl Foul after
 foul is committed in the average con- i test, and the offending boxer gets
 away with it, usually without conn ment by referee, preaa or public. ! When the Marquis of Queensbury'
 rules were created they were accept 1 ed by the authorities Of the ring at Ithat time asy a welcome and agree l able substitute for the London prize
 ring rules and the attendant brutality, and it was agreed that their enforce 1 boxing to scale higher than ever
 before in it's history-and that science
 would predominates as it should. in all matches Of the future
 ! 1 this country the crowds want deci-
 sive results, and by that mean they want to see g. boxer stop his opponent and are not over particular as to the
 means and methods Employed. And inc crowds are catered to. If referees obliged boxers to reAlly box accord ingly to the Marquis of sQueensbury l rules at least ninety per cent of the present day crop would have toN begin
 alf over again. There is not a score I of boys in this country who actually knows the first rudiments Of the
 game as 1t should be played.
 Therefore Americans are A i'll pre- pared for, and do not relish, decisions such as Referee Eugene Corr rend- cred in the Welsh 2Ritchie and Smith boxing matches are not often decided on trifling technicaIities as in the case ! in England, France and Australia Had Smith and Carpenter fought in
 San Francisco, for instance, and the same Identical thing had happened. probably no attention would have 1 been paid to the Gunner's infraction of the rules.
 Eugene Corri is a thorough sports
 man. And in England a sporting mans reputation means more than9ft | does here There is not the slightest doubt in my mind that MT Corri did
 exactly what he judged to be the right thing and that no other infI1-s ence had anything to do with the de- cisfon in the Smith Carpenter bloom- 1 CT, as some insinuated However, it is
 my opinion that in justice to every body concerne ghters, public promo oters, and all interested-he could have stretched a point and or dered the men to continue when he found that Carpenter was not irljur-
 ed by the blow. It would have been the popular and sensible thing to do
 even though it meant ignoring a
 breach of the rules.
 However rules is rules'' and a ref l cree is justified in enforcing them and 1 in making offenders pay the penalties And, as all accounts agree, MT. sCorri had several times warned Smith to refrain from certain foul tactics, therefore too much sympathy should nat be wasted on the American. The Gunboat made dis reputation strictly as a 'wa1IoperV and not as a heady l fighter. On the contrary he has of-
 ten shown that he is not the coolest 1 era1 occasions right here in New York got away with some pretty rough work. He beat Andy Morris and Harry Wuest by hitting on the breakaway after it had been agreed I that the men should break clean.
 What chance would he have to pull
 that sort of thing in England or any
 where else, where the rules are en-
 forced?
 The question of whether Carpen- tier or Smith is the better man is
 still a matter of doubt The Gun
 boat was given count of thirteen in the fourth round say certain experts, and Carpenter was practically
 knocked out in the sixth before he
 was fouled, according toa others. The
 public doesn't know which is the
 master, and won't until the battle is
 renewed to a. satisfactory conclusion.
 But one thing is certain. .Carpen-
 tier is not the "slob'' we have been led to believe him. If the battle with Smith was on the tsup and up,'' and there is no reason for believing other