The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1915-08-18
Championship Matches Were Easily
 Made in Old Days

To arrange a championship match in these days is a matter for much de1iberation and ostentation. The managers and press agents of cham pion and challenger are busy for months before the great event. Fin ally, when the publicity promoters decide that the newspapers have been worked to the limit, and the promot- CT has been held up for the last pos Sible cent, there is a meeting of prin- cipaIs and a, swarm of hangers-on and the articles are signed, the checks posted and duly photographed, nov ing pictures are taken of the scene of she crime, and the match is c1inch- ed. Then follows another lengthy period of training camp gossip, and eventually, perhaps, the men actually meeting in the ring.
 It is refreshing to compare old time methods with those now in vogue, and to do so let us go back just 113 years to August 19, 1802.~ Jem Be1cher is the heavyweight champion of Great Britain, and, although only twenty-one years old, he has already demonstrat- ed that he is one of the greatest fight ing men the world has ever seen. The Napoleon of the ring has whipped Jack Britton, Paddington Jones, Jack Bartholomew, and Andrew Gamble, and has twice licked Joe Berks. He has no other matches in sight, so he is taking things easy, and on the day
 
 CamberwelI Fair.
 Young Belcher, still a boy at heart, is having much innocent fun, and is enjoying to the full the worship of the popuIace. While stroIling about the fair he comes upon a, little crowd of men listening to the harangUe of a man whom Jem recognized as Joe Berks, the big butcher pugiIist he had twice fought and defeated Berks had been drinking, and he was loudly IL. L. f7 thrash Belcher at the first oppor- tunity.
 Jem pushes his way through the crowd, and facing Berks, asks him what he means. I'm a man as says what he means" shouts the half tipsy Berks, land to prove that I'm not bragging for nowt I'll fight you here and now"
 Now, although Jem Belcher is champion, he is not inclined to let such a challenge pass, and the men and their followers adjourn irnmedi- ately to the bowling green back of the Cook Tavern and prepare to have it out The news spread quickly and big crowd rushes to the tavern. lem and Joe peel off their coats and rush at each other. lem lands a blow to the face and follows it with another to the ear, and Berks goes down. There is a great hub-bub, and Joe's friends insist that he is too drunk to fight and demand a postponement to the following day. Belcher consents, and on the next day Joe Berks, now quite sober, faces Be1cher in the ring to fight for the championship. lem has everything to lose and nothing to gain, but he is a fighting man and not a financier, and he is perfectly willing to fight t'for love-" although a few sporting men voluntarily raise small purse.
 Joe Berks adopts his usual rushing tactics, and several times the cham, pfon goes down, but by the tenth round Joe is so badly battered that he is ready to cry. enough, except that his second stuffs a handkerchief in his mouth to stop his utterance. In the fourteenth chapter Berks is un- able to get up, and Jenn BeIcher is still champion, of England, and the richer by a, purse of the magnificent sum of $50!