The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-07-04
Jack Kearns 0utWits Them All By Having Government Officials Check Proceeds Of Bout
By WESTBROOK PEGLER Leased Wire to The Age-Herald.

%iiOit", ulS OiiA NAiN Monarch lumber sheds to Jim Cos tello's Rainbow hotel is the length of Main street, Shelby. Every foot of the way is a struggle against dawd ling, gawking crowds of cowboys and city people, farmers, paint smeared circus Indians, prize fighters, bottle holders, civilian constables with hol- sters and big badges, side-show ballyhoo girls in khaki knickers. A crowd has come after all to the con- summation of the drowsy little COW camps audacious adventure into the prize fight business. It isn't the crowd of 1000 that Shelby built for, and in most respects the world championship heavyweight fight be- tween Jack Dempsey and Tom Gib- bons will be the most colossal bust in the history of failures. But per haps that is just as well, because Shelby with 4o,000 visitors, would be about four times as crowded as Shelby is today.
 Cafe Has Lock.
 The Club Cafe, one of Shelby's per manent eatin' houses, where 200 meals was a good days business at -four bits each a few weeks ago, had
  per hour and they weren't letting customers finger over their cigarettes and coffee either. The rule of chew and get through kept relays coming steadily and the cash register pealed delerius tune from noon till night. All prices had taken a great brace and the club cafe, like other Shelby institutions, was swinging mean slap to the wallet as a chance oc- cured which may never occur again. hana1fh great veranda hats, eased along the ourbs and flung their lariats over the girls. A negro boy, down on his luck, rented his face to a man with African dodger to Shelby. Mary El- : len, the seven-toed horse, enter tained visitors all day long. Madame Astra sat at the door of her tent asking people to come in and hear what evil the tall dark man was planning.
 Jack Kearns, who might have been rail ridden under other circum- stances, made a fragrant prog ress down the sunny side of the street with Dan McKetrick, the boy from Broadway.
 Tom Snubs Society.
 Down in the railroad yards. with an unobstructed view of the mud hol- low and the simple architecture of
  wife sat in a private Pullman car called the Palm Beach and enter taiped her party from New York. This was Mrs. Ray Baker, wife of the director of the United States mint Z She, aaformer Vanderbilt, who1 wished to meet prize fighter, and was snubbed. Tom Gibbons had received society's royal command to call and had said lie would rather fool around the yard of his bungalow with his kids
 Soldiers from Missoula, sailors from a British merchantmen at Seattle, bands in dusty multi gamely playing against one another, and the little ladies from the bungalow be- Nyond the track gaped at Wild Will Lyons, the New York clothing sales man who once lived in Colorado and therefore considers himself some kin to Jack Dempsey Wild Will is a Bizarre dresser. At Atlantic City he wore picture hat of Panama weave with a bolster of noisy rib bon for a band. In Shelby, Wild Will wears high boots, corduroys. teepee hat and a shirt to outshriek the ln- dians at their war ceremonies, per formed nightly at 7:15 o'clock and S:45 o'clock for the very small ad- mission price of 50 cents.
 BfIl Hart's Double. .t Constable Jim Alsup, a strong, silent man of Bill Hart pattern, clanked along the sidewalks with noise not unlike falling stove lids and stepping wide lest his spurs in- terlock and throw him as they did the other night when he was running to the fire. On the buttes as they faded into the twilight haze little wisps of smoke went up from the Indiana teepees and horsemen with feathered headdresses were seen drift ing along the ridge in tiny silhouette. The carnival men who swarmed into Shelby were very unhappy. First the weather and then the crowd had outguessed them. II paid $20 bill for the grease license," said man breeding over a hamburger layout, and five more for the mouth wash" pointing to the bottles of pop in bucket of lukewarms water. Then they take me for s15o for ground rent and its 30 minutes from nickel to nickel. These eggs are cooking their own in the automobile camps and the home people play the regular restaurants. I'm on the ropes"
 O O O.
 Kearns Outguessed Bunch.
 Jack Kearns came to town to take entire charge of the sale of seats in order to divert to his own ends the first S100,000 or fraction thereof that came through the window. c. A. Rasmussen, the Unlled States cor lector of internal revenue for the District of Montana. came with Kearns from Great Falls and brought 25 men to check the sales for the sake of the governments amusement tax. Thus Kearns, fellow, who be- gan without education but plenty of nerve and who had fizzled as third rate lightweight, had again out smarted the financial giants of Mon- tana, the bankers and capitalistsiwho had tried everything from lying and wheedling to intimidation to get his champion into the ring for two-thirds of the price agreed on. They may have thought when they agreed to give Kearns first wallop at the re- ceipts that he would be unable to keep track of the sales. Kearns simply got the government to do 1t for him. Sheriff Harry Benjamin said Kearns was paying most of the expenses of the special police force. Watching Things Closely.
 Some of the 25 agents of the reve- nue department were sent out over the town to eye the box office busi- had been merrily collecting amuse- ment taxes for weeks. .
 A man. who claimed he had done S1,000 worth of work for one of the many and hopelessly entangled groups of promoters, presented a sheriff's attachment at the head quarters of the show and was deftly Doe, named in the writing, was not connected with the concern.
 Tom Gibbons was an mazing man on the last day before his battle with Dempsey. He slept until almost neon. took a walk, went through some very light exercises to flex his muscles and returned home. He