The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-07-01
Montana Folk Can't Picture
 Anyone Allowing Mere S100,000 Stand In Way Of Good Old Fist Fight

GREAT FALLS, Mont. June 3D. A lynching bee or a law suit seems to impend here, as quaint Fourth of July celebration, should the busi- ness-like MT, Kearns restrain the g. gressive Jack Dempsey from being unkind to Tom Gibbons next We'd nesday.
 But there were no ropes or in- functions in evidence Saturday night. Chiefly, because none of the sangu- inc Montanans who made merry on the Main street really had a doubt in the world that the fight will be held on the Fourth.
 Whether they are over-optimistic remains to be seen, but it is plain that the eastern contingent already gathered here is throwing off much more doubt and gloom per capita than the prominent taxpayers who have adopted fight promotion as a hobby.
 For the fans and Journalists from east of the Mississippi, a contract Is contract, whether it hog-tie a prize fight or real estate deal. They see a mere trifle of s1OO. .00O standing between Shelby and the eli max of it's great publicity pageant. and their business intuition tells them that if the coin boys stays bash ful. the deal is off.
 But the westerners, undaunted by I. kearns made everyone in the neigh borhood sign, feel that nothing Is more simple than a fist fight. Two men get real near each other and try to damage one another with their knuckles, at the same time avoiding as much damage themselves as agility will permit.
 Can't Realize Situation.
 The idea that MT, Dempsey. ruled by MT. kearns. will refuse 10 bruise the epidermis of the St. Paul realtor simply because he has received only Szoo,O0O instead of $3O0.O00, sounds tar-1etched to these passionate chil- dren of the west. They are alien to the ways of the mart, at least, comparatively. Some one must he spoofing. Maybe it's MT. Kearns who, after all, may have a sense of humor.
 And anyway. hasn't honest George stanton, the infallible Great Falls banker announced positively that the indispensable S1o000O needed to lift the mortgage from the Dempsey cottage will be paid Monday, as per MT. kearns' hints? MT. Stanton has and furthermore, has painted a vivid picture of the $4o0,0o0 in gate receipts that he expects will soon mako his safe the exposure of all safe crackers eyes.
 FlaVoring all this business Nail vete and this optimism of the open spaces, nevertheless, Is talk of rough treatment for the tenderfeet if no fight eventuates, and of stern Mon tana justice to see that the fight does eventuate. Pugilistic promo titn by injunction is the dernier cry from Great Falls, while Kearns growls: DO your worst, don't fear the law. The contract is lawyer proof" The legal talent of the re- zion. carrying brief cases around his hotel lobby right under Kearns' nose dld not appal him. He says there is nothing in the agreement to make Jack shake a fist fer less than $500 900.
 Make The Champ Dance.
 If the law can't make Dempsey dance. few oldtime COW punchers of the Great Falls and Shelby sub urbs feel that a resort to old-fash- toned methods might be more potent There is humorous talk of what might happen if Dempsey were urged to box In the same whimsical fash ion once employed to make tender feet dance. It consisted, one re- calls. of dispatching lead pellets at the Identical square inches of ter rain where the tenderfeets' hoofs might be if he weren't lifting them rhythmically
 All this chatter has given some of the movie men on the scene flickers Of hope that their exile from the fleshpots of Hollywood and Fort Lee has not been in vain. They visualize an impromptu mob scene, with Kearns standing defiantly under a tree, clad Tn hempen cravat; crowd of lutsy Montanans all set to give him a lift and at the penultimate moment, Dempsey galloping to the rescue. waving pair of eight-ounce gloves or, better, cavalcade of oil million aires, waving $1,000 banknotes. What an action scene! Kearns kissing Mayor Johnson, as the sun sets be- hind the arena.
 Cured Of Fight Lust.
 A lot of blood thirty Americans from the east seem to have been cured of their fight lust by the cur tain of doubt that has descended on the bout the past few days Shelby is swallowing hard and letting fade it's hopes of setting a crowd of linen knickered customers resembling a regatta audience or an assemblage like the paddock at Acqueduct; but 12,000 customers are expected from the unimproved and undefiled 1,O00- mile circle of which Shelby is the temporary center; and automobile