The Birmingham age-herald., 1918-12-13
Corbett's Daily Letter
 On Greet Sport Topics
Rv JANEs ,. CoRBETT


 A short time after the return of Joe Coburn from England he was challenged by Mike McCoole. The latter was ex- tremely anxious to retrieve the laurels he had lost to Coburn in the encounter of 1865. For a time Coburn paid but little attention to McCooes challenge. This exasperated Mcesole. who wene>So one of the big sporting centers in the cast and announced:
 q have Slo0O here with me that I'll put up now to bind my appearance for match with Coburn. He seems to thinN 1 that I've been bluffing This Sio0o Is his if I don't show up on the day that the match is to be pulled off I'll meet him within 50 miles of New Orleans, Mem phis, Louisville, Cincinnati or st. Louis. He can fight me for any amount that he wants up to 5000.
 | That defi was hurled at Coburn on Oc- tober 10, 1867 and during the following month the two men met in Chicago and I signed articles for finish battle for a side bet of S5O00
 As champion.% insisted Coburn, q re- serve the right to make the choice or the battle-ground" McCoole readily agreed to this and Coburn chose a spot in the vicinity of Gold Springs, Indi- ana, and named May P. 1888 as the day for the contest
 1 Few battles fought on American soil 1 during the early history of pugilism excited as much interest as the proposed meeting of the country and which num- oered over 5000, gathered around the 1 ring which was pitched on the turf l A few minutes before the time sched- ! uled for Coburns arrival, a wagon rum hled along the road toward the ring It trainer. When the wagon was within 200 feet of the ring, William F Woods, the chief of the counterfeit detective serv- 1 ice of the treasury department, stopped | 1t and with Detective E. L. Quinton, de- l manded Coburn to alight. Coburn got | off the wagon and so did Cusick, where- upon both men were placed under arrest 1 and were hurried away to a jail in Law ! renceburg, Indiana. The failure of the fight to be staged discouraged McCoole | from any further challenges and he prac- tically retired from the ring
 ! Meanwhile, Jem Mace had come to the 1 United States and Coburn directed his 1 challenging energies at the Englishman. A match was made for a S2000 side bet to be fought on May II. 1870, in Port Rye son, Canada. As the men were about to toe scratch for the first round word was passed to them that Canadian off cers were among the ringside crowd and that the first blow that was struck would result in the arrest of both fight CTS.
 Therefore, Coburn and Mace merely stepped toward each other in the center of the ring. shook hands, backed away about five feet and there they stood for | 1 hour and + minutes, without a single blow being struck. By that time the officers, angered at the way Coburn and Mace were trcking them, jumped up and I declared that the very action of Mace and Coburn appearing in a ring ready for battle constituted : fracture of the law. I They ordered the two men out of the orders.
 The referee of the contest Dick Hol- llywood, announced the next day that the stakes should remain posted and the two men should fight in Kansas City on June '2, 1870. Cobun demurred but Mace sig nified his willingness ito fight any.