Evening star., 1938-04-26
MASTODON|CBOUT
CLOSE ET0MURDER
Beaten Tom Never Is Same
Aqain-Jeff Still Hale in
His 64th Year.
BY LAWRENCE PERRY.

BY LAWRENCE PERRY.
NEW YORK, April 26-Jim Jeffries,
celebrating his SD birthday out on
his ranch near Burbank, Calf, hands
. Jolt to those still living and active
who were following the sports trail
when JEFF was in his glorious prime
Invitation from JEFF to cross the con-
tinent and see how hale and hearty
he is despite advancing years in
evitably suggests how swiftly the
years have gone. But this always is
the case when memory of events
lying back in the mists remains keen
and bright. 1t is only when things
Of the past are dim in mind that SUBJ
sequent years seem laggard.
1t was a shock, two years ago, to
see that great mountain of a man.
heavy moving, partly bald, and then
picture the young, bronzed Hercules
who stepped through the ropes in the
ring at Coney Island to meet Tom
Sharkey in 1898. There was battle
that stamped itself indelibly upon the
mind; 20 rounds of action that caught
at the heart every minute of the way;
Of blows given and taken that made
the ring posts quiver So enduringly
vivid were the impressions of that
mastodonic encounter, so strikingly
defined the details as to cause it to
linger freshly in mind long after more
recent events have vanished.
Great Give and-Take Fight.
So far as give and take were con-
cerned, every one Of those 20 rounds
equaled in high pressure action the
few rounds of the most memorable OF
all modern battles, that between
Dempsey and Firpo. OF course neither
JEFF nor Tom went out of the ring,
but that was because they were the
stuff OF which granite is made. This
writer may be old-fashioned, but it
seems to him that any of the modern
wallopers who used their fists as in
cessantly as Jeffries and Sharkey did
that night in Coney Island, under
lights that all but fried them, would
have found their arms dropping off.
Sharkey went to the hospital after
that fight, never the same man again.
Then there was the time when Jim
corbett had wangled Billy Brady
Into signing his huge meal ticket for
a comeback fight in Coney Island
Jeh came lunging into a backstage
apartment in the Princess Theater on
Greeley Square. He was swarthy. he
was stalwart as young oak. His
black hair cleaned in the light fow-
ing from dust-covered incandescent
lamp. His dark eyes were smoldering
and he was the finest physical speci-
men that ever walked Gotham town.
lowering about, swapping and snarl-
ing, was Billy Brady.
Contempt Costly to Corbett.
Word had come to the two that
Corbett. far from dissipating and car
rying on his carefree life in the period
OF training, had, on the contrary
trained to the last notch. 1t was diff
cult to fool Brady then, as now; but
Jim Corbett certainly had led the
world champions manager astray. In
deed, so cleverly had Corbett con-
Quoted his strategy that, hardly two
weeks before the battle, Brady had
sent word to ham that, If he did not
take this battle seriously and try to
mt himself for the ordeal, he would
call off the fight. Then to find. after
all, that Gentleman Jim had trained
as never before in his life, Brady was
plumb scared, while his fighter, less
imaginative, was bent on murder.
There was battle, too-skill YER
sus dynamic power; Corbett slipping
IN and out, peppering his opponent
until the big fellow must have
thought all the boxing gloves in the
world were raining upon Coney Is
land. And then the 23d round, Corbett |
smiling contemptuously, decided he
would trade punches with the big
stiff. Was ever fall so promptly at
tendant upon pride? Like a light,
jim went out that round when JET |
caught him in corner!
Great days, brothers all, were
those. 1t is nice, in thinking about
them, to know that jeff still is ex-
tant and living happily upon his
Sabine farm, loved by many and re-
spected by all.