| OCR Text |
Show I worth , so mueh, bat which is so hard to larn.' "Your mosey it your, best friend.' y, ; ; - ' rrom ntwsboy to' iha rtriU Uf&V wrtgbt champion of tha world with , a capital of 1100,000 tails in ths fewest . words th Ufa history of Battllnx Nelson, Nel-son, wfco recent lost to Joa Oans at , Gcldfleld, Ner. . Nelson was bom In Copenhagen, Denmark, Den-mark, on June 5,1882. When but a boy his folks xaored to this country. Nelson waa born a fighter and his mitts were in play early to life. It was, howerer. In 1896 that ho engaged In his first real r fight His folks objected to his being a fighter, and at time drore him, from their home. Battling, however, loved the game and waa determined to become be-come a champion, and his determination determina-tion stirred him on until he had fulfilled ful-filled his aim. Three years ago' Battling was com-TJsratively com-TJsratively unknown. Though a fighter, he was seen about Chicago eelling papers and carrying email satchels and parcels for people from hotels to depot. de-pot. A 10 cent piece st thst time looked to Nelson like a $5 bill to the arerage workingman of today. He was down with no one to aid him. He waa full of confidence, however, and firm in his belief that he would some day be champion of the world. Lands In Salt Lake. Chicago permitted only six round bouts and Nelson' saw no chance to accomplish ac-complish his aim there. With all the elothes he owned in the world on his back, and in a small grip, he left Chi-eago Chi-eago and landed in Salt Lake City, Utah, an unknown. After much begging he succeeded in getting a match with Dpider Veleh, who picked Nelson as a soft piece of money. But the unexpected unex-pected happened. Nelson laid him man low. His -victorr over Welch brought aim a mateh with Martin Canole and again Nelson put bis man away. Eddie H&nlon, Aurelio Herrera and Yonng C-orbett came next and each went down in defeat before the Battler. Then he met Jimmy Britt, the idol of the West and white light weight champion. cham-pion. Nelson lost this fight, but the decision de-cision waa a questionable one. From that dav the Dane was looked ujon as a wonder. He was recognized as a good fighter. These battles brought him something like $20,000, but his manager's share and other expenses left tho Dane little. His real start in life, however, came in February of 1905. Matched With Corbett. Nelson was matched to meet Corbett a second time. The two fought at Frisco and Nelson won. His share of the purse was 7100. He then went East and took on Abe Attell, Kid Sullivan Sulli-van and Jack O'Neil in six-round bouts, this bringing him $4.00. After much hard work on the part of Billy Nolan, his manager, the Dane waa re-matched re-matched with Jimmy Britt at Frisco. Nelson won the fight and the white light-weight title, and his earnings from this fifht wre $23,000. This includes in-cludes the picture money which Bat has coming. His next battle was with Terry Mc-Govern Mc-Govern in Philadelphia, and the Battler earned $11,797 for defeating his man. Then came that memorable fight at Goldfield. Nelson lost the title to Uans, the real light-weight champion of the world, but he received $22,500 for his end. From the dav he whipoed Young Corbett Cor-bett until the" present day Nelson has been employed W theatrical companies at large salaries' (Of course the time that he was in training and the time spent in traveling from fight to fight must be omitted.) Fortune on Stage. Hie first theatrical engagement was for ten weeks at $1000 a week. Figuring Figur-ing his earnings on the stage from this date until December 31, 1906, Nelson cleared over $40,000. Twelve thousand dollars was added to his bank roll through his interests in the moving pictures of his Goldfield fight. While in Goldfield training for his fight with Gans the Battler was presented pre-sented with 10,000 shares of gold stock which today are valued at $3 a share. 'It is not definitely known just what money he won on his different" fights, but it is safe to say that he has won $100,000. Of all this money he was forced, of course, to pav expenses for himself, manager ano those who worked for him as well as give his manager his percentage.. Fiering all in air the Battler today has a capital of $100,000. Today he is in England, where they are paring him $1000 a week to show his skill with the gloves, and it is likely like-ly that he will get a match across the water that will earn him a title. It can safely be said that Nelson has within the last two years earned, including in-cluding everything, close to $200,000, a salary twice as large as that of the President of the Unlited States, or a little less than $2000 a week. ' There are a number of fighters who have earned big monev. but Nelson holds the record. For the short time thst he has been before the public he has esrned more then anv fighter that ever shied his castor in the ring. Saved Bis Money. There are but few fighters who, of all they hare earned, have anything to show for it, but Nelson is not one of Shis kind. . , , , Among the sporting element of the world the Dane is known as a "cheap skate," but he has the money. Much of his earnings is still in cash, while mueh is invested in property. The greater part of Hegewisch, Nelson ' home town, belongs to him, and ths latest reports from abroad are that whenever he registers he signs "Battling "Bat-tling Nelson, Mayor of Hegewisch." Nelson has done mueh for the southwest south-west suburb. He has formed an improvement im-provement society and the many improvements im-provements already made have increased in-creased the value of the Jand. Nelson is Ambitions. Nelson is very ambitious. He is ever willing to work, and let it be known that, though his work on the stag! lasts' but a few minutes, it is wesring. Nelson is a model young man with clean habits. He neither smokes, drinks nor chews, plays the rsees or keeps late hours things that have wrecked the hopes of many championship fighters and have left them in the world todsy without a dollar, when they onee rolled in wealth. Every prosperous man has enemies, and Nelson has quite, a few, but compare com-pare his life with that of other champions cham-pions who have squandered their monev , and take from it the lesson that is j |
