El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1915-02-27

, The anpouncer will drOne out the
words; In this corner, ladies and gem
tlemen, John Arthur Johnson, other
wise Jack Johnson, heavyweight cham
pion of the world; in this corner, Jess
/ Willard, the Kansas cowboy, challen-
GER A few moments after that spiel
! under the Mexican sun, message will
come flying over the 5000 miles or
! thereabouts of telegraph wires:
'Flash-Fight is on
How Far VIII IT Coz
At the precise moment that the lit
tie ticker slowly spells out the news,
the thought uppermost in the minds OF
Z the little knot of men gathered around
viii be: How far will it go?' The
particular ticker referred to is pitched
I in the billiard room of John T Doyle
in West 42nd street, the principal gath
ering place Of sporting men in the
metropolis
Some Money is Up.
There will be present at least half
a dozen fellows who stand to win or
lose all the way from q hundred dol
lars up to several thousand, some OF
I them pulling for the darby, others for
I the tall white man. These are the
| boys who have taken the most direct
( interest in the bout, outside Of the
i men actually engaged in the promotion
Of it. To them every big sporting
event is something on which to make
or lose money. They seem to lose
about as often as they win. vet, some
how they make a living doing nothing
else but this. Is it that they are sim
ply keen students Of chances and odds
and that therefore they ALWAYS have
"a little the better of the odds" which
enables them to stay ahead on the
average. However, that may be-
there is generally a majority opinion
among them. and their opinion gener-
ally is In line with what eventually
develops into fact. A good deal Of the
time, some Of them can be found who
viii take their friends aside and
whisper: Il know something" This
time there is none Of the know some
thing business. Not one hints at a
fake or frame. They all have their
own ideas, but each admits freely that
it is only opinion on the point OF who
is going to win. On one thing they
are agreed, thOugh-Willard will win
if the bout lasts long. Johnson only il
he IS able to settle the Kansas giant
quickly.
Willard Has Youth.
Without going into great detail as
to the reasons therefor, It can be said
that the increasing age Of Johnson is
the cause for this shift in conditions
over what used to be three, four and
five years ago Johnson is now nearer
TO 38 years old than to 81. while Will
lard has just rounded the 9th mile
stone-he is ten years younger than
the black. He and johnson ALWAYS
have boxed in about the same general
style, defensively wasting little ef-
fort. 1t, therefore would seem to fol-
low that both could last a goodIy num-
Der of rounds. Willard. being younger
than johnson and not having tasted
the fast life that the latter has eXper-
fenced should be able TO last longer.
Now that is said. Along. therefore,
to the next steD in the chain Of argu-
ment' which is this; Johnson is a pretty
cagey and clever darby. He knows IS
well as anybody else that Willard has
the better chance if the fight goes a |
very long distance; that being the case,
VIII he change his style and rush In at
Willard with the idea of landing a
haymal1er as soon as possible? About
half of those in this town who have
studied the thing closely believe that J
this is exactly what Johnson viii do. ]
Willard Has the Punch.
Willard is expected to play his usual I
waiting game, knowing that in this !
case particularly his style is adapted /
to the occasion. His handlers have !
planned for him to stall along as safe !
y as he can in the early rounds and |
then, later on, to step in and land such /
a punch as killed poor Bull Young and !
on another day drove Soldier Kearns, !
the Hercules OF two years ago, clear I
across the Madison Square Garden. ring !
here. We didn't sec the Bull Young !
fatality. hut we did see Kearns re- /
ceive as solid a blow as ever a FitZ- /
punch if he ever gets Johnson tired !
enough TO leave an opening for it.
Now, to pronounce sentence. With !
all argument and expressions Of rea- )
son aside who will VIM That ques- /
tion is being asked Of everybody who /
gets involved in a discussion Of the
fight. Opinion in such cases as this /
isn't worth a tinker's darn. However,
we submit and hereby cast our vote /
for the man we think will win. Here /
is goes-Jess Willard