The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1917-12-12
Great Crowd Gathers at Carson City ~
FOR Corbett-F itzsimmons Fight
by JAMES j. CORBETT.
sCopyr ght, 1stT by King Features Syndicate, 1nc1

Editors Note, This is the thirty
arst chapter OF Il sbries of articles by
Jim Corbett which deal with the
career OF Bob Fftxsimmons. Few
men knew Fitz as Corhett knew him
and 70 these articles reveal some in
cidents In the life Fitxsimmons that
never before have been printed. The
next chapter will appear tomorrow
The fight between Fob FitZsimno
and myself on March II, 1895 WAS
the. magnet ff-st- drew tnAo tina ,iifx 70
mining town OF Carson city. Nevada,
one OF she most cosmopolitan crowds
ever gathered together. M4llonafres
mingled with paupers; aristGcrats with
low brows'' Immediately dressed
Eastern yportsmen rubbed elbows
with Pfuts Indians and Cinnamon.
Cowboys, wearing br6ad sombrsros.
and with blue hardware sticking out
from their cartridge belts filtered
through the crowd which packed
practically every public place and
every street in the littla frontier town.
Carson City had only limited &C
commodations for guests. Thousands
of boxing fans, coming from the PACT
nc coast. from the Middle West. the
East. from Europe. Canada, Cuba and
Australia, apparently did not realize
this. They rushed into the town a
day or two before the battle was to
ne put on. AS the result many Of
them had no place 70 sleep. Many
had TO go hungry because there was
only limited food supply. But 1t was
n good natursd crowd that was Will
ing TO sacrifice much for the privilege
OF seeing what raany have termed
the fight OF q century"
The battle was staged In open air
and for many days all the principals
and the sporting fans were appresen-
sive concerning the weather. Fight
day dawned clear but cold AT A.
NJ. the Thermometer registered thirty
one degrees above zero. However. the
sun came out a short time later. dis
PEELED the chill the wind died down
ana the tenn perature shot up TO COM
Portable point. BY noon the weather
had become absolutely perfect. There
wasn't cloud in the sky. The sun
hlazed down. The arena located just
outside OF the town itself. was in "A
little valley surrounded by the lofty
snow-capped terraces of the Sierra
Nevada mountains
The night originally was scheduled
to take place at II o'clock and the
gates were thrown open at 10. But
The train, carrying big delegation
of fans. due in Carson CITY at o'clock
wa. nearly three hours late and Dan
stuart, the promoter delayed the start
or the battle until noon. However.
i,Ist as soon as the gates were opened
The crowd began to file in. The crowd
was estimated nj between FIVE and six
thousand and the gate" totalled s22,-
600, which was very good considering
that Carson City was remote from the
center OF population and most of the
spectators were forced to journey
thousands OF miles 10 see the con-
est.
Dan stuart. the promoter, In an eff
fort to prove, that boxing was not
S,,rh a brutal and revolving sport as
many folks tried to. picture 1t, had eS-
tended an invitation to women to NJ
and as his guests About twenty
Ava or more accepted 1t was the
arst time women ever had seen a
big boxing battle.
Soon after II o'clock when the
rrowd began to yell for the principals
70 appear In the ring. announcer Billy
Iordan stilled the tumult by declaring
thrt John l.. sullivan had little
snesch TO make The veteran climb
"a through the ropes, amid ire
mendous cheers and, among other
things, said:
.Gentlemen, there is one more nght
left In me yet and I want to nsnt the
winner OF this battle.
Hf1ly Madden. who then was hand-
3inT Joe GoddArd and had an fnteress
IL. The ~.ifAxN Of Tom Shavkesy also