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Show Ichie, New Champion, Is Credit to the Ring leror of ' Arrogant Ad'r Is Courteous Intelligent and a Gentleman at all Times, iW, W. NAUGHTON. 'KANCISCO. Dec. 7. San :Itic6 has a world'a cham-puglllst cham-puglllst and Is very proud b s the first champion this boasted slnc3 Jim Corbelt lin L. Sullivan. Ho is the tvelpht champion wo havo although we hnvo made one bid for the honor. iec for general regret that anio to Ritchie, through a' , ns Spider Kelly, one of of sluggefdom, says, "II o been worse." ng," argued Kelly, "that 0d been slowly but surely Ritchie down ami the foul :d foul occurred when a ctory was inevitable? Think ngs that would have been As It was, "Wolgast was around, flinging his arms a longshoreman after hav-s hav-s turned In hs head by a t put him to the floor and i completely. Three parts wd believed that "Wolgast berately to escape tho dls-knockout, dls-knockout, and the rcmaln-ilm rcmaln-ilm the benefit of the doubt his brain was cloudy and lot see where he was hjt-; hjt-; will argue that "Wolgast beaten man at the time, o that by foul or by fair ent where It belonged." y evident thoro would have ' lore sympathy for Wolgast iad not displayed such bad icrs during tho fight. Ho eo unfavorably with the that ono of the ringside christened tho pair "Arro-nnd "Arro-nnd "Wistful WJlIIe." told afterwards that Wol-him Wol-him vulgar names and uaed mguugfc In every round. But was confined to hoareo .nd the crowd heard It noL begun to "talk for publl-tho publl-tho resting spell between and oeventh round. It was :h round that Ritchie begau mself in reserve In accord-instructions accord-instructions from his man-Wolgast, man-Wolgast, fn common -with tie, thought that Hitchlo's whs giving out. me thla next round," yelled :o the Eeconds who were aponglng arjd towelling him. dm to pieces." talked eo that ho could -bo f way to tho main doors, ta believed he intended his e 1)q far-reaching, ably supported by Manager as, who stood behind hla nea clapped his hando to-e to-e a raco track layer of odds Ting to stimulate business, e4 loudly, "Come, come, fin- ' up and let ub get out of managed to land on Rltch-Tvith Rltch-Tvith an overhand punch In 1 that followed, and as tho Pi down over Ritchie's Up sneered, "What's tho uae ot inches wJthyour nose?" id that all is fair In love, ind politics, dnd no doubt at felt that he was perfectly to adopt any method of mdlago that Improved hla of winning. But when ecolved the Blgnal from hlo tear loose again, and when, ling oven with Wolgast in round ha kept right along Wolgast to the floor In tho thosq close to tho ring, re-ig re-ig Woigajst'B bumptlousnps uiul bearing, withheld their he, fight It was still a cbso ant Ad and WlBtful Willie. Hi a signed statement to tho d that Ritchie was not by any means tho fighter his friends considered , him " and thrft. a return match would show' Ad Wolgast was still the beat 133-poundcr living1. Ritchie concluded his mild statement state-ment with the words: "Poor Ad., I ani sorry, for he was a good, honest title holder."' IT'S a remarkable thin? that Ritchie, who Js so new to tho game that his namo docs not appear ap-pear In the ID 12 record books, should now be the world's lightweight champion. cham-pion. It Ib also remarkable how tho life lines of Ritchie and Wolgast have crossed and rccrossed. Ritchie secured his first boost up tho ladder of fame, when, at a few hours' n'otlce. he went to Los Angeles An-geles last Thanksgiving and acted an understudy for Wolgast ih a bout with Freddie Welsh. That Was whon Wolgast was taken down with appendicitis. ap-pendicitis. Then. 911 tho anniversary of the day In question Ritchie relieved re-lieved Wolgast of his championship laurels. How long a tenure of the championship cham-pionship title is In store for Ttltchlo remains to be seen, but one thing Is , certain thu .title, is In good hands. No better gentleman than Ritchie exists ex-ists in any walk of life. Ho is courteous cour-teous and Intelligent at any time, and has none of the .earmarks of. the genus pug. From the first time he had seen Wolgast box ho had boon obsessed with the idea he could beat tho Michigan Mich-igan Wildcat. ".Mind you, I don't claim that I am the benl lightweight in tho world," explained Ritchie. "For all I know, thero are any number of boys better than I am. Thero aro quite a number num-ber that I would not say offhand T can defeat. But I believe am confident. con-fident. In fact I can conquer Wolgast, Wol-gast, and Z aro going after him to tho excluon of all others. T am willing will-ing to wait till tho chance comes and when tho match Is made I will bet my little accumulation the amount is not very large on my chances." Willie has been patient and steadfast stead-fast and has prove' the truth of hi claims. |
