The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-01-20
TEX RICHARD OPENS GREAT x
 SERIES OF FIGHT STORIES
Nive Public What It Wants Says Promoter Of Great
 Championship Ring Battles; Tells Of Gun Play, e. Gambling And Hardship Of Youth

sy Of Youth
 course. That particular bit of gossip had attracted him. Naturally, if it at tracted him it caught the interest of others. A tip like that Is worth fol- lowing.
 Notwithstanding what has been said about building up. false interest, let me tell you that Is a mighty hard thing to do. The writing men can spring all the stuff like that they want to, and we may do all we can to keep it going, but unless the public reacts to it the built-up interest will soon die out. Real interest persists and grows. That's the stuff to put your finger on-
 Says Papers Show The Way
 Take, for instance, the Dempsey-Car- pentier fight. Nearly every fight man in the country had a feeling that such q match would not be even; that Car pentier was too light. Others might the public wasn't talking about others. They wanted to see Carpenter. The affair had an international tinge. don't see how anybody could have failed to see from the very start. that Dempsey and Carpenter would be g BTGhL aLOdItAOh. hC BOoSAP Adu headed that way and there was no way of stopping it, even if we had tried.
 Why, we tried for two years to get Carpentier over here before he finally came. When the French government put it's foot down on the proposition toward the end of the war, even that did not kill the interest.
 As I say, the newspapers do it all. A man in any line of business can find a chance for success in the news papers every day if he will only read them with care and with common sense. Gossip is the clue to public desire. and in a city the newspapers furnish the only way we have of get ting at it.
 In the Klondike and along the Yukon all the big gold strikes were the re- suit of gossip.
 would ask of strangers in those days. and we went by what we heard-if it was straight talk.
 What did you see in the news papers?" we ask today.
 The wise man pays attention The unwise one simply reads and forgets. I was taught to think straight in a hard school, as will now show.
 CHAPTER H
 The Second Herd North Of 36.
 I did not live in big city until I had reached middle age. There the fact that I always have worked alone, have never sought counsel in my op- eratfons. is subject of frequent com ment. To me this is not strange. AL ways I have had to work out my prob lems alone.
 The hard side of life, the tragedies that leave their imprint upon the faces N~ me long before I had become 21. never had any boyhood in the sense that the ordinary boy does today. Cir cumstances forced me into cutting out my own way when most boys are fly ing kites and playing marbles.
 Though I may not show these things in my face-I haven't any gray hairs or wrinkles-memories of those early days can never be erased from my mind. I lived the life that most boys imagine they want to live when they read dime novels.
 When I was but or 5 years old, my father, who was a millwright, picked up the family and moved to sherman Tex. That was wild section of the country then. It was not easy to earn a living for wife and five children He heard of prospects further west and in a covered wagon we migrated to Henrietta, Tex. There my life really started. All my recollections date back to Henrietta.
 In 1880 when I was 10 years old my father took sick. It was necessary for me to go to work. I went to live with a, big cattleman named Jim Cur tis at Cambridge, Clay county, Texas. That was not far from Henrietta. In fact, Cambridge soon thereafter prac- tically ceased to exist. The two towns were bitter rivals.
 Cowboys Steal Post Office
 One night band of cowboys rode down on Cambridge and stole the post office, which they brought back and established at Henrietta. My mind is hay on the details of this, but for years I remember the fact of Henriet- ta having stolen the post office from Cambridge being a matter of bitter controversy.
 Jim Curtis was a big-hearted. very kind man and so was his family. did the chores and ran errands foI the ranch. It was there that faced my first tragedy.
 One of my duties was to go dowr to the town and tell Mir. Curtis wher dinner was ready-dinner was served at 12 o'clock. At that hour the COW. boys were usually in town and al ways in or around the saloons. They were rough, shooting fellows.
 In the spring one day Mrs. Curti. told me to go down and tell her hus band that dinner was on the table I went to the regular saloon gathering place, but he had just left. I jusi missed him in two or three places 1 leaving word at each.
 He was around here a while age with Van Rice," a cowboy told me You better get on home. son." Even at that age I recognized some thing cnlinous in the mans tone
 Just as I was turning toward tn, ranch heard some shots in a saloor across the road.
 Jim Curtis and Van Rice, both cat tlemen. had been standing at the bar ! A disagreement arose over the brand ing of some cattle. But few word. were spoken. Van Rice, dead shot as was Curtis, drew his gun in flash and opened. Before Curtis coulc get his six-shooter from it's holster ! three bcllets had gone through him. i Don't! For Gods sake, don't shoo don kill anybody" a neighborinf : cowboy called to them, but too late ! He actually leaped toward the tw, men holding his hand between them | So quick and deadly was the aim tha ard wrist and into the body of Curtis
 My boss trnbled over behind steve in the center of the room. dying 1 With his last gasp. though, ke pulle himself up on one elbow. took deiib crate aim and fired a bullet squarel, through the assaiiants heart.
 Both men dropped dead.
 Those are not pleasant recollec tions. but 1t was the atmosphere il which I started life.
 Young Tex Joins Cattle Drive
 stayed with the widow, Mrs Curtis. until the fall, when I joine, group of cattlennen and started ol