The Alaska citizen., 1915-08-30
WAR PREVENTED FIGHT.
tBy Jess Willard in Los Angeles
 ENaminer)

T-AdUIlutl-J
 If il hadn's been for tho war I don't think there is any doubt that my fight with Jack Johnson would have teen held in Paris in, stead of Havana.
 The French people were crazy over boxing, and the law let them pull oil finish fights right in Paris. For four or five years English and American second raters had been picking up easy money over there. and championship battle would have set the Frenchie5 wild.
 When Tom Jones started off to England to see Jack Johnson about match, he said to me: Jack will want the bout for Paris as sure as you're born"
 I'd like it in America" l said, but if he wants it in Paris. let him have it"
 Even before this We had talked about a trip to Paris When Jones was managing Billy Papke, the two of them had gone over and Billy cleaned up a big wad by whipping Georges Carpenter in eighteen rounds.
 They're sure nutty over the game Tom told me. "The swells pack the place, and the women flock in as well as the men. On the night that Billy whipped Car penter. the first two rows were filled by women in evening gowns and the way they howled for blood was something fierce"
 When We got there Sam McVey was the idol of Paris He had been fighting there for four years, and outside of d defeat by Joe Jean nette. Sam was a steady winner Joe knocked him out in the forty ninth round of finish fight
 Say but it was soft money. The fellows he met were third-raters like Jerry Smith. Harry Shearing Sergeant Sunshine, Peter Rice and even poor old Joe Grimm; fighters that couldn't get in on preliminary over here. but Paris pays big money to see them
 WANT THE BLOOD.
 They don't want science,' Tom said, they want blood, especially the women And it's the knockout they like best. When McVey knocked out Shearins, a big English dub they dragged Shearing to his feet to be photographed with McVey. The pictures sold like hot cakes
 "Carpentier is the best fighter they've got. And let me tell you, the boy is some scrapper. Papke whipped him by infighting. The Frenchman didn't seem to know any thing about protecting himself when he got in close, and Billy tore him to pieces.
 This Carpenter" Tom said, lis a heavyweight now. If We can get a match with him our fortunes made The French people think he's the best man in the world"
 In way I'm glad my fight with Johnson didn't take place in Paris. IL made me sick to hear about wo- men filling the front rows at a prize fight I don't like it, and don't think it ought to be allowed
 It doesn't hurt man to see a good rousine battle. It keeps his own fighting instinct alive, and it also teaches him the value of health and strength. A fast bon. makes mans blood run quicker, and keeps the color of 1t red.
 But it's different with a woman. Fighting isn't an instinct with her like it is with man. It doesn't come natural to her And so she gets nothing out of it by the sight of half naked men smeared over with blood.
 It is bound to coarsen her. And at that, I don't say it's any worse for a woman to see prize fight than to bet on a horse race. The awfulest sights I've ever seen have been at race tracks, where half crazy women were betting money they couldn't afford to lose.
 Tom Jones keeps a scrapbook, in which he's got an account of about every prize fight that ever occurred l looked through it to read about the fight between Papke and Carpen- tier. Just as he said, the papers all gave accounts of the women at the ringside.
 And I saw a clipping there that told about the fight in Paris be tween Sam Langford and Jeannette It was held in an open-air park, and hundreds of women in low-cut dress es saw the fight. Langford knocked Jeanette down three times in the thirteenth round, and the women iumned m in their chairs and yelled