The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-03-26
HARVEST FOR sPECULATORs

| Speculators reaped a golden harvest 1 None of them appeared on the streets l but almost every store in the neighbor- i hood held it's quota of men who seemed 1 to have plenty of tickets to sell at two or three times their face value. Even at the higher prices they found eager purchasers.
 Gusts of applause far back from the Garden heralded the arrival of Willard, | the champion. The cheers became a sustained roar as the police cleared a k path for his automobile through the densely packed streets. His great height
 made him conspicuous figure and iden- 1 tified him to those who never had seen i him before.
 1 A few moments later Morans car ap- ] peared, and he, too, was given generous applause.
 | Police officers declared the crowd the best behaved they ever had seen Up to the time the fighters entered the build- ] ing not single arrest had been made. 1 The doors of Madison Square Garden opened late. jostling crowd, impa- i tient at the delay, poured through the
 runways in single file, tickets in hand. The big hall filled slowly. The gal leries were packed long before the bare spots on the floor began to disappear The faces in galleries, balconies, boxes and the ends of the big oval floor | blurred into indstinct blotches of white in the glare of the big mercury lamps
 above the ring. From frail looking ] perches swung from the rail of the 1 second balcony, the moving picture men 1 focused their cameras.
 l The preliminaries began. but for all 1 the crowd cared the boxers might as well have been pummeling each other in their own back yards The spectators
 were interested only in the big bout John L. Sullivan. Bob Fitzsimmons, Jim Corbett-an one time holders of the heavyweight championship-ha seats close to the ring.
 SEATED IN BOXES Among those holding box seat tickets were J. P. Morgan, Reginald c. Van derbilt, Diamond Jim" Brady, David
 Belasco. Enrico Caruso, Lindley M. Garrison, Gen. w. Coleman Du Pont and Mayor Curley of Boston. There were scores of women in the great throng.
 Some sat in the arena boxes but most ly they were in the balconies. The garden never held d larger crowd. Every one of the 13,000 seats was fined. A few s25 tickets were in the box of flee when the doors opened, but they were soon sold. Speculators found 1t easy to get four times the original price of tickets.
 | The smoke cloud that usually set
 ties over a fight crowd was missing | and the few who lighted cigars and
 cigarettes promptly stamped them out | by emphatic orders of fremen scattered
 throughout the building.
 | Neither Willard nor Moran had ap- l peared when the preliminaries which the law requires that the public may get it's moneys worth, had reached the semi finals. i Tom Jones, Willard's manager. tugged Ia he yXh a demanded that they be frightened. An at l tendant granted his wish.
 | WILLARD FIRST IN RING
 Jess Willard was the first to enter the ring climbing through the ropes at 9:3l- He was accompanied by his manager and chief second, Tom Jones' Monahan, Jack Temple.
 l Willard appeared to be exceptionally cool and at ease and stepped across the l ring to shake hands with Frank Moran, who arrived three minutes later. Moran was seconded by Willie Lewis. Frank l Kendall, Bill Mckinnon and Joe Really. 1 The timekeepers were: For Moran, John Considine; for Willard, Harry Weiss. and for the club Dr. Muth, Willard wore soft banda ges, which were wrapped tightly around his knuc4les. Morans bandages in sharp contrast, ex- tended well above his wrists Willard
 
 | worsted tights while Moran wore dark green trunks of similar texture. While the two heavyweghts sat in their corners Bob Fitzsimmons. J.. J. CoI0ett. Kid Me- Coy and John l.. Sullivan were introduced in turn, the last of the quartet being given a tremendous ovation.
 All the former ring stars shook hands with the principals of the big bout. During 1 these ceremonies Moran appeared annoyed and uervCuS over the delay, while Willard leaned back on the ropes and smiled a noncommittal smile. He frequently looked across the ring to Moran's corner. but the challenger appeared to avoid the champions eye. At 9:49 Referee Charley White entered the ring and called the two heavy weights to the center of the ring i to pick their five-ounce gloves. The of ficial weights were announced as follows: Moran 201is pounds. willard 25912 pounds. In the Semi-final bout. Battling Le-