Omaha daily bee., 1917-11-18
TEXAS PROMOTER
SLIPS Ed SMITH
NEAT TRIMMIN NG
Ed Is Offered Five Hundred and
Expenses to Referee Go in
Houston, But Never
Collects a Sou.
By RINGSIDER.


than Ed w. Smith. the veteran Chi
cago sports writer and referee. And
that is what makes it all the harder
to understand how this came to hap
pen to Smith.
Smiths fame as referee is by
no means local, so when promoter
at Houston, Tex, lined up wrestling
match between Stranger Lewis and
Vladek Zbyszko he sent for Ed to
6Jme and officiate. He promised
kSmith his transportation and $500.
= That looks good to me, sol1lo-
quized Ed. "I'll just take Mrs. Smith
along, visit New Orleans and blow
part of that $500 having nice little
outing"
Accordingly Ed arranged to take
week off, packed his grip and. with
MRS. Smith, boarded southbound
rather
Thus far all this looks regular, but
here is where the sad part comes i'll.
Smith neglected to get his transpor-
tation in advance and did not exact
.any guarantee from the promoter that
This fee as referee would be paid. He
fjust assumed that everything would
sbe on the level and that he would get
his money when the match was over.
For some reason Zbyszko declined
to wrestle and Charley Cutler was
substituted. The substitution appar-
emily killed the show, for when the
seager fans were all in and the money
counted it was found that the gross
receipts were about $780, Lewis was
iguaranteed $1,000 and demanded his
money before he would go on the
mat. The promoter would not come
Nacross and there was no wrestling
bout,
Nary a Sou.
The wrestlers, of course, were left
Mat. but not nearly as fiat as Smith,
Efor they got little expense money.
ED did not get nickel, not even his
transportation. =,
Ed proved he can absorb punish
ment, however, for he went through
with his original program and
treated himself and Mrs. Smith to a
fine little tour of the sunny south. 1t
will be some time, however, before he
goes refereeing without seeing the
color of the promoters coin before he
starts.
/ And it all goes to demonstrate that
even the wisest of them fall some
time, and sometimes the wiser they
are the harder they fall.
West to Be Treated.
Now that boxing has been inferred
in New York through the repeal of
the Frawley law, fans who inhabit the
region lying west of Harlem are ex-
pecting an opportunity to glimpse
Benny Leonard and some more of the |
shining lights of pugilism in action.
With the game pulled from under
them in Gotham, Western fans rea-
son that the boxers will have nothing
more profitable to do than to follow
Horace Greeley's advice and come
west.
Fans of the western states do not
criticise Leonard and the rest Of the
topnotchers for staying in New York
and the extreme east while the easy
money was available. Leonard un-
doubtedly has made more since he
attained the crown by staying in or
near New York than he could have
made by transforming about the
country, and the same is true of others
of lesser note. Now that the game is
deceased in Gotham, however, the
fans toward the sunset side of the
continent expect the champions and
near champions to come their way.
With New York closed Wisconsin
looks like the best bet for the boxers,
and some high-class bouts should be
staged in Milwaukee. Racine and
other Wisconsin boxing centers. The
game there is conducted under sane
ton of law and is supervised by
very smooth working boxing commits
!sicn.
Chicago is Lucky.
The fight centers of Wisconsin are
near enough to Chicago to draw con-
siderable patronage from sthe Windy
City. Chicago contributes its share
TO bouts held in Wisconsin as they are
now, and with better class of scraps
would send more fans to the boxing
shows of the Badger state.
There are also several cities in Ohio
where boxing thrives and when the
middle west is farmed out the Pa
cihc coast invites those who care to
dabble in the four-round game for
the very liberal purses offered.
Several months ago Billy Gibson
opened, negotiations with Pacific coast
promoters and said he intended bring
ing Leonard west. At that time the
money was coming in too fast in New
York to make it advisable for Leon
ard to travel, however, and the trip
never was started. Gibson is expected
to revive his transforming tour now
that boxing in New York is dead
issue. There is lot of easy money
in the west waiting for Leonard to
come and get it. And what Leonard
does not take will be waiting for
other less notable scrappers.
Besides the desire to see the east
ern cracks in action, western fans
also have several scrappers out here
who they would like to see in action
against topnotchers. There are light
weights bantamS, middleweights, well
terweights and even heavyweights in
the middle west and on the Pacific
coast that are judged competent to
give the boys from the Atlantic sea-
board battle.
Jones on Job.
Tom Jones is starting to build up
a formidable stable of boxers and
expects to again be plotting worlds
champion before long. II
Tom has taken Bryan Downey, the
Columbus welterweight, as the latest
addition to his string, and picks Dow
ney to relieve Ted Lewis of the well
terweight crown the first time these
two come together. Jones also has