The Alaska citizen., 1916-08-14
SIG JACK JOHNSON
 WOULD COME BACK.
By Damon Runyan


 champion of the world, is planning return to these United States. according to gent who is just back from a trip 10 Europe, and who met John Arthur in Scotland
 This gent informs Us that the black boxer yearns for his home land with such a terrible yearning that he is gradually working up d determination to come back and let the law handle him as 1t will John Arthur stI is a fugitive from Chi cago justice, but our informant states that he will do his little stretch" if necessary to secure the subsequent freedom il would insure
 John Arthur is doing fairly well in vaudeville says the gent who saw him. but he wants to see that dear old America. America is not exactly hoping to see Jack, of course, lege of returning to occupy space in an old fashioned "sneezer" if he so desires.
 There is and always has been an undercurrent of opinion that the best Jack got was a shade the worst of it from certain quarters when he fell afoul of the law, but the world of sport did not repine when it happened Neither was there any great repining when Jack lied It is said he got over into Canada with colored baseball team It is said also by some that his escape cost him quite chunk of money, one way and another though others who claim to have Jacks confidence declare it did not cost him a cent
 In any event, Jack departed and Havana was his nearest approach to America since. There never has been a minute of his exile, how ever, that he did not long to return. VI bt- NIIt ltl't l4it'l iA' 'OttSi4A | V turn made the longing all the keen CT. He asked innumerable Ques- tions of the Americans who saw him in Cuba about old scenes and old acQuaintancos and he displayed an amazing familiarity with current sporting history in America, show ing that he keeps in close touch through the newspapers.
 Johnson's financial condition has always been matter of some spec ulation Our friend who saw him in Scotland says he seems to have plenty of money. He says Jack was apparently living at his old gait and Johnson's regular gait after he acquired the means was fairly rapid. He is not so much given to dissipation, as is generally sup posed, but he loves expensive clothes. and jewels, and motor cars. must have cost him easily S25000 a year. if not more, and while his vaudeville work has been a fairly steady producer for him, it is doubt ful if his income kept pace with his expenditures. He got some thing over S30,OOO out of the Ha- yana fight, and is supposed to re tain an interest in the pictures, but just how profitable this interest has been is not known.
 Some of his close friends eX- pressed the opinion at Havana that Jack was about broke, but Jack himself declared that he had plenty of money. Certainly economy was not part of his routine then any more than it was after Reno, when he had money to burn-and burned it.
 The gent who told us about see his name be omitted, says that Lil Artha mentioned something about trying to get back into the fighting game in America among the big men of his own race, after he got through with the law. Now, it just so happens that several individuals connected with the fist fight in this land have been thinking of Jack lately and debating his possibilities as a drawing card, so We have a case of coincidence on hand.
 These individuals have been argu Ing that feeling against Jack has died out to great extent since he lost the championship, and that with Sam McVey or Harry Wills, or Sam Langford as his opponents, he ought to bring in some money They for get that the law might first snatch year out of Jacks life before he could turn a wheel, and right now Jack cannot spare very many years
 He admitted that he was around 41 years old when he was in Ha vana. His record tabs him at about 39, but Jack said before and after the fight that he had been cheat ing a little on his age. He could not get in condition then, so it is not likely that he could get in con dition after he puts on couple of years more