The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-08-03
RICHARD IS BORN .ADVENTURER AND DARING PLLNGER
Exploits Have Carried Him From Texas To
 Alaska And Paraguay

NEW YORK, Aug. 2.-A more inter- esting and adventurous life than that of the lad who went from cOwpunching in Texas to mining, and has been a prospector, ranchman, capitalist, pro- moter of fights and gambler, would be hard to imagine outside of Zane Grey western story. Yet Tex Rickard lays claim to just such life; not boast fully, but in the same matter-of-fact manner in which he mentions coming fight.
 Born in Kansas City, Mo-, in 1871, he moved with his family at an early age to Panhahdle-H Henrietta, Tex, where his father built the first flour mill that the frontier days knew. At 12 we find him COW punching in the west, at 22 the city marshal of Henri etta. Always restless and eager for the unexplored, he roamed the west, Arizona, New Mexico and Nevada. He went from there to Alaska, and was the first man to cross Chilkoot Pass. He worked his way up into the Yukon, stalked claim there, and left for Nevada with his first of many for tunes, $40,000 It lasted just three months, for in Dawson City he gambled it away He went to chopping cord wood with Rex Beach, the novelist, and soon after / returned to Nome. After being made mayor of this city of the north he left in three months time and returned to Nevada.
 Fortune Goes With Panic
 It is said of him that l entered Goldfield with a deck of cards and left with half a million. At any rate, this fortune went up with the panic shortly after. Coming to New York on busi- ness in May, 1906, he saw for the first time a fight between Britt and McGOv- ern, and returning to Goldfield became determined to enter the promoting busi- ness. He borrowed $30,000 for this enterprise and brought about the Cans Battling Nelson fight, which netted him something over $69,715. Since that time he has promoted over thirty of the biggest ring contests ever staged. In 1910 he astounded the country by off, fering tremendous guarantees for the Johnson-Jeffries fight at Reno. Again he proved himself a sure winner by clearing $100,000, tremendous sum at that time.
 And again he left "easy street" to search for the new, the unexplored With his wife he started for Buenos Ayres, and from there travelled up the River Platte and Paraguay river to AsunciOn. the first seat of the Span ish government in the New World It is matter of record how he explored the Chaco country on horseback, and organized the Paraguay Land and Cat tie company, of which he is general manager.
 Returning to the promoting business, which he had threatened to leave over and over again, he brought about the Willard Dempsey fight at Toledo in 1919 and netted $450, ,O00. Since that time his profits have always exceeded his stakes And the stakes have been tremendously big at that.
 Tt is my idea" he said, "that the American people will pay more to see a good prizefight than to hear the finest opera singer in the world. l work upon this basis, and so far 7 think l can say I've heen successful. You take a little Italian boy from the East Side, place him in Madison Square Garden against a rival from the West Side, or the North Side, or South Side, for that matter. Two unknown chaps, advertise them as whizz-bangers and be sure that they are good scrappers, and you have it in a nutshell. Why, the people willeflock to see tl em.
 1t isn't the sporting element in the narrow sense of the word that ire ouents the Garden, either. Some of my steadiest fight fans come from the best families in the country. l won't men tion any names, but when r say rest I mean those who move in New YOrk's Four Hundred. And of late, womcn have become intensely interested in prize fighting. Why, think they en- ioy it more than the men"