The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-12-30
Corbett's Daily Letter
 On Great Sport Topics
By JAMES J. coRBETr

By JAMES J. Editors Note: This is the continuation of q series of articles by Jim Corbett, which deal with the career of Bob Fitz- simmons. Few men knew Fitz as Cor bett knew him. and so these stories re- veal some incidents in the life of F'itz- simmons that never before have been printed The next chapter will appear tomorrow)
 Bob Fitzsimmons was one of the shrewdest, brainiest men that ever stepped into a prize ring. But in busi- ness affairs he was as a child in the lands of alleged friends and crooked promoters of wildcat schemes. Bob made huge fortune through his com necton with pugilism-and lost or gave it all away.
 Just how much Fitz really earned no one can say definitely. The estimates range between s25OO0 and $35o,OOo. It is my opinion that the latter figure is nearer correct. Bob ill his hey-dey drew down enormous sums of money for his fights and also earned big salaries as theatrical performer.
 The largest sum of money that Bob ever got for any fight was when he whipped me in Carson City He won So00J side bet, got about S10,0t0 Of the purse and something close to $5O,0UJ 1of his rights in the moving pictures. Both Bob and 1 sold out our interests in the pictures before they were exhibited. To- gether we got slightly more than $lc0s- GOO The pictures, as I understood later, netted more than S500,000 clear profit
 Bob got 75 per cent of a $25,0O0 purse when he met Jim Jeffries in Coney q I,vr dafc irfr i'm Hall in New Orleans and added about S12,0O0 more through the medium of his second fight with JeffrieS. l don't know exactly what he got for whipping Jack Dempsey, but understand the amount was somewhere between $10,0O0 and Sl5,- GOO.
 That makes something like s125000 which Bob earned in only five of his many fights. Of course, those were the most important of his career and they carried the largest purses Other con tests also bro--&A tig money The two fights with Peter Maher netted him around $25,000; the two clashes with Tom Sharkey, the two with Jack O OBrien, tre Dan Creedon affair and several others added probably $5o,0OO more to his bank roll. Scattered in between the dates of these fights were many other battles of lesser importance which earned Bob from $1Q0O to $10,0O0.
 Figures which are before me would i'm dicate that Bob certainly gathered at least s250,000 through his ring activities. Certainly anoHer $1000 0O0-and perhaps more--came through his stage work Bob was big theatrical attraction in his pugilistic prime and always was able to demand, and get, some very lucrative contracts.
 And all of it had gone before Bob Fitz- simmons died.
 
 Wheer did it go?
 The answer is found in letter which came to me from Mrs Robert Fitzsim- mons short time after Bob's death and I which said in part
 If the world had treated Bob half as square as he treated it Bob would not have died a poor man. I know many who robbed him and who played with his good nature.''
 Bob was a big, tender-hearted fellow, who never could see a friend in distress, and whose purse was always open to everyone in need. Naturally, some folks who posed as friends merely for the pur- pose of shaking him down borrowed thousands of dollars from Bob. Dur ing the days of his pugilistic greatness it was case of easy come, easy go" Interruptions persons figuring that Bob knew little about the financial side Of things, preyed upon him. They inter- ested him in a lot of wildcat schemes and promised fabulous returns on each investment Bob couldn't resist their appeals and fell a victim to lot of crooked propositions which never brought back dollar
 Some years ago Bob and I appeared on the same stage in Detroit and later posed for pictures together each of us illustrating the most important blow de- livered in our Carson City battle. showed the punch used when I floored Bob in the sixth round and Bob repeat ed his punch to my stomach which won the championship for him. Afterward we chatted together for quite a time over the old days and finally swung back into the present, whereupon l asked Bob if the stories were true that his fortune had dwindled away.
 ''Yes, that's right, Jim," he said. l About all of it is gone"
 where did it go?" l asked him.
 ..Well, part of it went to help out some of my so-called friends They 'borrowed it from me- If I could collect all the money that's owing to me l guess l we shall have constant improvement !! in the development of our stock and 1 n degree at all [