The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1915-04-06
HIS WHITE WIFE
johnson Thought of Her to the
Very Last.
stake Her Away" He Whis-
pered Just Before the End.
GLAMOR OF LIFE GONE
Pretty Girl Gave Up Family tG
Marry Champion.
A Woman Writer'S Story of the
Big Fight.
CRv Cecilia Wright Keith.)

| Havana, April 6.-When a woman
witnesses the greatest disaster that
years was a leader in his profession
the thoughts naturally go to the wom-
an most vitality interested.
So, when Jack Johnson entered the
ring at Marianao Monday, confident
and assertive, 1 turned to the ringside
boxes and saw the white girl who had
bound up her life with that of the
black-exiled by her own family, by
her friends and by her country.
She is a pretty girl, perhaps a little
swagger because of the bOulevards of
Paris, the avenues of Buenos Aires,
but nevertheless she is a woman with
the feelings of a woman. And in her
life's crisis her own sex must reach
out the hand of understanding to her.
1 hold no brief for her actions in
the past 1 am only telling of her
looks when her partner in life went
into the conflict that was to change
him from champion of the world to
one of the heroes of the past.
Every turn in the battle was follow
ed by his 22-year-ol girl from the
west. She wore the same smile that
spread over the face of Johnson. Both
took the battle as a jest. To them it
was only another misguided white
man added to the long record of Jack.
The Awakening.
Then as the rounds wore on, every
trick in the amazing category of the
world s champion were tried, but in
vain. From the smile of confidence
to the strained look of worry was the
transition of only moment. At last
the ebony face of johnson began to
show that he realized the battle in
front of him was the acme of his ca
reer.
The face of his white wife reflected
the feelings of the black fighter. In
the early stages when Johnson's con-
fident smile presaged certain victory,
she too smiled with him. Then, when
10 ocf he l,
round and Willard still was battling
the champion, Johnson's smile chang
ed to seriousness and with the look
came the strange reflection of awe
into the now pale face of the girl in
the ringside box.
When she was the wife of Jack
Johnson. champion, she was the CEN
ter of attraction. AS the wife of plain
Jack Johnson, negro fighter, she
would be an outcast and the subject
of ostracism. These thoughts, 1 know,
ran through her mind as round by
round Willard proved johnson was
not the johnson of Reno days.
The End of 1t All. a.u.
Then came the goth round. Into
the eyes of johnson, there crept the
look which shows when a man is, in
the last ditch-before the firing squad
Jack johnson, master of ring craft,
conquerOr of Jeffries, knew his Wa
terloo was approaching. He was bat
Ting against his master and thinking
now only of the misera BILE white girl
who had left her own race to cast her
lot with the glamor of his life. He
sent for Promoter Curley
Curley arrived at the end of the
22d round. Johnson leaned from his
corner and whispered:
Take my wife to the gate, Jackie; I
am going fast and 1 don't want her to
see the finish, if l am going to be
knocked out"
When all that is said against John
son is totaled in the ledger of life, I
want to place to his credit that one
act. In the dizzy avalanche of blows
showered upon him by Willard his
real thoughts were for his wife, and
as Curley led her, downcast and dis
couraged from the arena, she knew
the doom of her pitiful romance and
sodden life had been sealed
The end of time for her had ar
rived