New-York tribune., 1919-02-07
Rickard Plans
ToCet Papers
Signed To-day
Tales of the 'sWild and
Woolly'' Float Through
the Hotel BiItmore
By w. Q. Mcclellan

BY w. O. Mcclellan 81
Jack Dempsey arrived almost within
reaching distance of the S27,500 which
he is to receive for meeting Jess WilS
lard last night. He detrained at Long
Branch. N. j., and went into bivouac
ready to march on the Claridge this
afternoon to sign articles with Tex
Riekard.
Ike Dorgan, the tiredest business
man in New York, and Jack Kearnss
Dempsey's manager, left last night to
ocate Dempsey in the Jersey marshes
o insure his presence at the signing
up. From al accounts Dempsey will
not have to be roped and dragged to
the meeting place Rickard has been
trying to keep the time and place of
The meeting secret in order to avoid
the usual audience of gumen, actorg
and other celebrities, but it looks as
though the pash ight picture had to
be taken. So
Offers for site for the bout have
been piling up. One offer looked like
real money. II was an offer of $780,,
600 to be paid to Richard as soon as
he built the arena in one certain burg,
OF this $4,000 was TO be paid the
moment Richard agreed to stage the
fight in this place. The offer was CON-
tidential It sounds like oil money
though Only oil burgs are gushing at
the rate OF a hundred thousand gush
at this stage Of the game.
Denver Makes Bid
Denver makes bid and guarantees
twenty or twenty-five rounds with
decision. That might sound reason~
able if the fight cannot be held in the
vicinity of New York or Chicago
Denver also offers an arena already
built. m
Some of Richards bigger and better
past came up and slipped him on the
back at the Biltmore yesterday. dc
was headed through one of the corr
ridors of the hotel, when wiry little
man tapped him on the shoulder, With
Hello, Tex" punctuated with some
Of that stacatte profanity with which
men of the open greet one another after
they have not foregathered for some
timee. "a
1t was Oscar s Ashby, who wintered
with Rickard at Circle City, Alaska, iii
96. That was before the rush into the
Klondike 1t developed from the er(9
suing conversation that Rickard did
not always reach languidly for the easy
money that came across the grae7
table or from the money fight fans OF
Broadway. :.
when l first knew Ashby | wax
packing over the Chilcoot Pass" sai1f
Richard THAT meant that | carried
a hundred pounds on my back for
twenty-five miles day" He straight
ened his shoulders and bent as though
he could feel the gall of the pack.
ropes. Sometimes l dragged or pushed
Il sleigh. Then it was case of three
or four hundred pounds. | had no
dogs when I mushed into the Klondikes
Good old days. weren't they, Oscar"
That is before any and all kinds of
people came to the Klondike. In those
days you could walk into a mans tent
and help yourself to grub. The tent
flaps would be open and there might
be ten or twenty thousand dollars
worth of gold in coal-oil cans. Often
lve taken pan off the fire with three
or four thousand in it SO could stick
q pot on TO cook some grub. Nobody
ever touched a mans gold. Everybody
had gold or could get it. TheA' were
no thieves in Circle City.
Not Always Lucky
"Can you imagine anything like chat
here? No doors, safes or bars, and
gold all over. I wasn't always lucky,
as Oscar will tell you. Oscar put one
over on me once, or rather l put it
over Oil myself. One Of the first claims
, staked l sold to Oscar for s17,5oO.
How much did you really take out OF
that Claim, Oscar?"
Just little over S370,0o0," replied
Ashby with q quiet grin at was
pretty fair claim"
Il remember sinking a hole" con-
tined Rickard. at looked pretty good
i-goed enough 10 sell. I mean. The
first pan I tried had something like
$40 dollars in it. I thought the stuff
didn't go down very far though, so ]
used the shovclful Of stuff to sell the
claim. our offer looked pretty good to
me after packing across the Chilcoot.
"Of course, all this sounds like easy
money, but don't run away with that
idea. 1t was the toughest work l ever
did in my life. ard / don't think I'd
ever want to try to 1t again. The
easy money and the big money! Rick
ards eyes twinkled, 'are right in the
cities. They are richer than all the
gcdfelds"
Al Meyers. who discovered and chris
tened Goldtield, where Richard staged
his first fight, drifted into the party
and told of the discovery of certain
mines that once used to be listed to
give the placid adventurers of the cities
a thrill. Meyers was at one time presi-
dent of the Goldfield Miilionaire's Club.
lCW Oi tIOSS are anyLliuG
like millionaires to-day. Then the talk
switched to gambling tales of Tex
Richards Northern Bar at Goldfield,
where $50 gold pieces were used as
: white chips. They told the tale anew
of how Diamond Jack cleared the main
street Of Goldfield with Il pair of blue
barrelled re,tlvers while Shanghai
! Larry Sullivan dove through the only
,, plate glass window within reach.
They recalled cor George" Grog-
: den's speech at that Nat Goodwin din
! ner. "Old George" started to talk
! with the cocktails. After an hour they
led him out into the desert and left
him there. He had nothing left but
:, his voice and continued to crate until
sunrise, all unconscious of the fact
that he was not at the dinner.
1t was good talk, like a gust down
= the icebound pass or the peitng sand
,. wind that sweeps the Nevada. They
told of Old Elliot's mighty fict and how
it once drove quelcher's head through
an inch of plank. And they recalled
Kid Highley, of the incfutable smile.
who used to deal faro with Rickard
within the Arctic Circle and in the
+ Nevada Desert. Sometimes they re-
= called the bellies of the mining camps
G and the battles in the Illyads of Alaska