OCR Text |
Show ITGSSING BIG BILLS TO THENEWS8BYS John L. Sullivan Recalls His Costly Freak When He Was in Denver. HOW HE "MADE UP" WITH CHARLEY MITCH ELL His Severe Censure Upon the Phony Craft Fighting of Today. By John L. Sullivan. The other day in Denver, Colo., l got a 1100 bill changer! into coins, from a ! dollar to a nickel, and after Inviting fill the r.ewsbovs to race I me In Sixteenth eireet. I flung the whole pailful of chlck-:n-feed to them and let them scramble rot ti "He'd better save his money, for he'll dee the day he'll need It," 1 heard u man from the Bast In a dinky cap say. I didn't tako time to tell him tbut I'd been broke several times bul some of the hundreds of thousands of dollars I've dropped all over the country between the ; two oceans sc. -ins to come back when l need It. Just now, I'm g.-ttlug It by the fistful. We are going to be a long time dead and only a few of us know how to enjoy lifo os it goes I'm having a good time and without having had h drink in ten months. And It will b- many months before be-fore I tak- another drink, During the last twenty-live years, Pve given booze high battle, and I find thi-y ar- making It faster than evei No man living has ver won a decision from old Barleycorn. . and he Is still the champion of cham- ! jilons. I know, for I have entered the ring with him minv iirn- It's i pleasure; to me to tell my experience with Barleycorn, Barley-corn, except for the good It may do as a I warning to the rising young man who has a leaning toward red-eye. If 1 can draw some good advice from my experience, perhaps It may benefit some one some- 1 whan. I How He "Made Up ' With Charley Mitchell. I was reminded by a friend not long ago of the time 1 "made up" with "hare Mitchell Wh:l" playirg In "The Man Krom Boston," in st Louie, as I came on the Stage at a matinee, 1 spied in s box my old friend Jack BfCAultffc and with him was Mitchell, Squire Ablngton and a couple of others Up to that time, Charley and I had swapped some pretty hard knocks and there wasn't any love between us. But I sent out a note to MrtAullrls saying: "Jack, come along into my dressing-Zoom, and bring Charlcj with you." i Mitchell didn't know but what I might' lock the door on him and settle our lone u row i for fair, as this happened aboul the time of the Fltzslmmons-JIm Hall light in New Orleans, and I was still In the i-i mo. But Charley was game and he took a chance ftn Irish hospitality, ami he marched Into the dressing-room like the good B3ort he g "Shake hands. Charley," says I to him when he came in. "It's my place to cx-tend cx-tend a welcome to you in u strange land, and anything you can order I'll pay for " We had a great time talking over our battle In France, and then I was called . 10 go on the stag' . I lugged Jack an I 'barley on the stage and when tin curtain cur-tain went up and the audience saw us I three together, I yelled, "United we stand, oivlded we fall." Say. It brought down the house and we were busy mailing speeches for ten minutes. Phony Graft Fighting as Done Todny. Fo'.ks who thlnty thut prlr.e-ilghting exists ex-ists today are onlv connicg themselves, in the good old das. I've seen seconds ' hew the eurs of their men to g t them back enough so they couid be pushed to , the Scratch to K' t i :.,rr Scrap In the 'Id days. light, rs used to pickle face and bands till they were as hard a the side of i a door, and when they got Into the ring for bate knikklcs or tight gloves work they ga- ihe crowd their money's worth. The men who went Into the ring for ror.gh-ilnd-tumble, smash-swapping tight- , nig dldr't educate themselves to know' how to run away. They didn't go out for asy money In exchange for counterfeit fighting. It was n tgging away for keeps, and they didn't use fen-ln-a-bed mat-tr mat-tr eases on their nts so as to make the pictures pic-tures long enough to be profitable afterwards after-wards If the men who toss their coin In at (he get nowadays could get a whiff of th real article, they'd have some of ihe pink-tea art'sts arrested for obtaining money under false pretenses. Some of the contests I've been In, and some I've witnessed, would Jar the foundations of erne of Ihe flglv pavilions of today. Of couree. pious people would not stand for the rough work we used to do in the open air, wltn one eye on the man against us ' and the other peeled for the Sheriff who was billed to positively appear and la nil us all in chdkey', but It was nothing i.ut fighting and none of your phony graft l nutations. Rumor as to Why Slade Made the Eig Tour. When I mad.- my eight months' knock-hlg-OUt 'our. Herbert Slade. the Maori half-breed, who had been imported from New Zealand io do me no, was ens of the bunch of boxers I took along. I hid already put Slade in the scrap heap, having hav-ing knocked him througlj the ropes In I ' Madison Sq"nre (iarden ami clouted him ' dafEv In three rounds. One of the riimii'S about the ha I f-hr. etl's purpose In going along with my combln-allot) combln-allot) wis that ho Intended to study my style, get all the experience with me In friendly bouts, and when he had me size i up right to challenge me for the chum- j I plorrshlp. Jim Mae. and .mother chap, who was dllTy to ice me got a licking, induced in-duced Slade to dorue to this country to face me, and some of mv friends put a good .le.il of stock In the reported plan of the New Zealandcr. But I didn't fear a regiment of Sludos. and l hoped that he would have the spunk to challenge me again, for about all the ..th.-r candidates had taken to tb tali : timber and the only way J could get ' anybn'lv to ink.- ,-i wallop iiot.i me was to ' advertise to gie real money for four-round four-round whirls, siudo looked ai)!o io make good, if anybody any-body did for he was a bigger man than i was, weighing pounds and 8 feel -. inches But he didn't llc up to the ru- i mors as to what ho Intended to do about putting In an application for another Ugh I I guess he always remembered thai I knocked him down five limes In the three rounds In New York, and that If Cap! Williams hadn't stopped the fight h- might have had the tight knocked oul of him for all time. I've no doubt thai Mace and the other !chap who had combed the earth for a man to do me up were willing for Blade to trv again, but Slude kn W bettc:-. Z he Third liian in the Ring With Fifr. end 0"Biicn. Fits wants Jeffries to referee his battle with O'Brien, it will be worth while for the freckled lighter to get all the snfe-guards snfe-guards about this flrrht. for It Is going to menu a lot to the old fellow per ha ds more tiinn an, right Kit:, has hr.n In of late yean. But l don't see where Jeff filr. In as referee and more than half a dozen other men that couid be named. Jeffries Is on the level, all right, but he hasn't had the experience hi refereelt.g that la required for a alaahlng bout like thin one promises to lull lu-ll la apt to be a long fight, nnd between be-tween two p en like O'Brien and Fltz good boxers, and both no to the minute with shifts and tricks there will be a lot of close decisions for the reforce. to make. I think Slier or Qfaney would iome nearer to calling the right decision bo that every sport will get a BQUarer run for his money than they will be likely to sret from Jewries, Jew-ries, who hasn't been In the tight places the others have been In In close flghte With Jeffries as third man In the ring, the fight will look more Important from an advertising Standpoint but there will be more chances for a fluke and another fight to settle the question of superiority between Kltr. and O'Brien And the sports have a right to exnect that the question wlil be settled In this tight without legV nig any room for rag-chewing afterwords. The men Will go into the ring so evenly matched, all things considered, that unless 'he third-man work is gilt-edged, we may never hear the last of It. I'm not out to knock Jeffries out of a .fob. I want to see the thing settled as it ought to be rleM. |