New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1921-07-03

IL
with ticket found q seat, There WAS
1sSs CONFUSION during this greatest of
al sporting events than there ia Mt an
9Taanafsy Sunday ball game at the Polo
Grounds.
Ushcrs Work SkiilfuIly
The incoming tide of fight fans nerv-
Gus and eNcitable with visions of crowd
complications that might leave them
sFandees on the outer edges of the
great wooden bowl, discovered that
after they penetrated the police lines
2 quarter of mile from the arena.
1he rest was easy. Every seat,
except those that sold for S.
was numbered and reserved and everv
Tan who had ticket bearing
number corresponding to that
on ms seat found that everything went
smoothly. There were plenty of ushers
and they knew their business.
After the Knockout, when the ebb
tide OF humanity began to flow toward
Inc exits, there was remarkably little
delay, considering that the number of
persons inside the octagonal arena was
nearly equal TO the population of the
City of Yonkers.
The Jersey City authorities had
scores of streetcars ready for the de,
parting crowd, and while the trip
to the tube terminals and the ferries
auto
mobiles leaving the vicinity Of the
bowl, it was not necessary to walk.
Fleets OF extra boats operated by the
pennsylvania Railroad Company were
lying IN the river, and those who could
not wedge their way into the Hudson
tubes found plenty of accommodations
on the ferries.
The management of the fight made
wise move when it postponed the
1faArN NY.tsa Of = H., i
counters, that between Renault, one Of
Dempsey's training partners, and Billy
M}ske, until after the championship
battle This held large part IF the
crowd in the bowl and gave those who
wanted to make an early departure
chance TO board waiting trolley cars.
As RESULT of this scheme the big
crowd left Jersey City il two sections.
Dempsey Hears Only Cheers
Before Carpenter and Dempsey
made their appearance, the former en-
tering the arena from the south aisle
and the latter from the east. it had
been reported that the champion was
to be given a decidedly unpleasant re-
ception by large delegation of Ameri-
can Legion members who were at the
ringside. This failed to develop and
when Jack STROBE down the pine trail
leading TO the scene of the battle the
cheers he received quite overwhelmed
any adverse sentiments that might
have been expressed
From the moment the worlds great
est pugilstic figures entered the ring
the good-natured indifference of the
crowd was dissipated like summer
mist under a fresh west wind. The
SPECTATORS fretted and began hurting
sarcasns toward The ring while the
fighters, seconds, trainers, managers
and other important personages went
through seemingly endless formalities.
Auttered about the ring, babbling
French and gesticulating madly.
Hundreds of photographs were taken
and the niceties Of the ring went mer-
Iily on until the crowd rose up in it's
innetience and shouted: Let's go!"
When the ring was finally cleared of
foral horse shoes and few scores of
fstic LIGHTS who hoped to be intro
duced by Joe Humphrey, the tension
increased until, when hostihties began
the HIGH pressure excitement seemed
to gelvanize the throngs into silence.
Crowd Comes Early
Long before daylight the crowd began
to move down on Tex Richards mann
moth pine bowl, in the center of which
was gistening a white square which
had magnetized the attention of the
world.
Bound with four strands of white
rope, its floor covered with white can
vas stretched so tight that not a
wrinkle showed, the eighteen-foot battle
ground on which Dempsey and Car
Pentier met stared up in pristine and
binding Whiteness at the leaden skies
overhead. To the birds perched along
the far-fung outer rim of the arena, on
the pine peaks where the SIS seats were,
the ring looked like tiny, sparkling
diamond set in the center Of an octagon
OF heaving humanity.
The dawn of the great day had not
begun to opalize Manhattan's gaunt
skyline when the first ripples of the
human tidal wave to come began to
lap at the police lines which Mayor
Hague OF Jersey City had posted
around the arena seven hours before
the time scheduled for the opening of
the food gates.
Hardly Any Crushing
In justice to Mayor Hague and John
Bentley, Commissioner of Pubic Safety
in Jersey City, it can be said here that
their system for controlling tho
crowds resulted in the smooth handling
Of a situation unprecedented in the
sporting history of the country. There
was little or 10 congestion about the
various entrances, even when the drive
on the huge wooden bowl was at its
height, and this was due undoubtedly
to the fact that in order to pass the
thin blue line Of police surrounding
the place at distance of a quarter of
Il mile every person was required to
show ticket to the fight or a yellow
police card issGed especially for the
occasion by Commissioner Bentley.
This regulation kept the idly curious
who were far more numerous than the
spectators, at comfortable distance
from the arena. Outside the protect
ing police lines there milled and
swirled the most gigantic crowd this
city on the banks of the Hudson had
ever seen:
Through this surging outer rim,
made up largely of persons who had
no hope whatever of gaining admis-
sion to the charmed octagon, the
ticket holders had to battle their way
As the pressure on the blue line in
creased, which it did rapidly after II
O'Clock, it was necessary to reinforce
the protecting dikes in spots, and this
was done by calling on reserve battal-
ions of firemen. Once through the
police lines the holders of tickets had
practically no difficulty in passing the
tnrnstiles and finding their way to
their designated spot in the gigantic
yellow sea of seats.
ITShero Wall nr;IIa5