The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1922-12-04
~ RANK 8. aaENKR


something of 4 slump.
1t looks like a rather drear winter
for most Of the gentry with busted
frontispieces, inasmuch as the bust
ness Of dollar making has shdded con-
siderably in New York-and is perish
ing elsewhere.
New York put the rollers under the
fight game IN other purlieus around
the country-and now New York Is
becoming bit punch drunk itself.
The high and ultimately ruinous
purses Tex Richard hung up is main
ly responsible for it all.
Before fistcuffing galloped back to
the Empire State, the game flourished
in different parts of New Jersey, in
Denver. along the Pacific Slope, in
Milwaukee, in a-half dozen other towns
in Wisconsin, in certain parts of lndi-
ana, in Memphis, New Orleans, Bos-
ton and lot of other places.
Prices Reasonable
The prices charged were reasonable.
The fighters didn't get the price of a
kings ransom every time they met
but they got plenty of work, which.
at the end of the year, meant a nice
healthy bank balance.
Then back to New York. with a
blare of trumpets, blaze of glory and
staggering prices. Richard for the
duel purpose of getting real talent and
lots of publicity. offered fighters any
where from five to 20 times what they
were accustomed to getting elsewhere.
The stampede was on
The boys of tin chins, the flattened
beezers and the meanty ears, forgot
all else in the world but the hope of
New York bout They scoffed at
the offers made by Boston, Milwaukee,
Denver, New Orleans and other pro-
moters-offers which once were Gag
erly snapped at
Want Rickatd Offers
They wanted offers from Richard
they wanted the $1,000, 10000, $40, 900
and $4,000 donations of the gambling
Westerner."
Richard got away with the thing
for time. For New Workers, deprived
for several years of the sight of fight
ers in action, were so fistic hungry
that they paid the huge admission
pDices which Richard was forced to
ask to make good on his purse guaran-
tees and to clear a little profit for
himself
But all the while Richard was kill
ing the geese which were laying the
gilded eggs for himself and the fight
ers. The reaction was sure to set in !:
the revolt against huge admission
prices was certain To come after the
first fight hunger of fandom was
appeased
The public began to pass up the fan.
cy priced Garden fights.
Then the Boxing Commission step
ped in. 1t fixed a limit for admission
tickets. That was fair enough-for the
common people. But not for Rick
ard, for the simple reason that the
! fighters, having become money-mad
| cared not that the Richard intake had
| been decreased by official ruling
They wanted those nice, fancy purs
es, please-"or we won't fight"
Commission Aids Richard
In this emergency, the commission
which had previously helped the casf
customers, turned around and helped
Richard. 1t ruled that heneefortt
! the purse guarantee system would be
the bunk-that it was officially, com
pletely and finally dead.
fight on percentage basis"
So ruled the august Cornish!
And bango went those huge purses
$4,000 stuff The fighters and theiI
managers walled and whined that the!
/ couldn't fight for such little money
as the cut-rate admissions and per
centage arrangement would net them
But they're doing it.
Here's the odd angle:
! Richard for a time held to the maxi
mum admission figures allowed by thu
law. And for time he peopled Madi
son Square Garden. But eventual,
the natives decided that even thos,
reduced prices" we're exhorbitant
They forgot to show up on fight nights
Desperate, Richard sIashed price
again-cut them well under the to-
limits. That was a good move be
, cause the popular price shows hav
been filling the Garden which, earle
in the season, was little more thai
half full.
The fighters?
, All, there's the gloom squadron!
Intake Is Decreased
| For under the new price arrange
meut in New York, the intake is onI
; one-half or one-thirG what is used t
be. And under the percentage thin
, the headline fighters, as a rule, ar
: now getting only about one-fourth O
| one-fifth of the money of two season
ago.
A lot of them would like to tur
back to Boston, to New Orleans, t
Milwaukee and those other cities no7
which they deserted when the gol
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