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Show Kw n"GnTPsAPL Happily Mappild Quick Fame j and Fortune Us-I Us-I ually Lead to a Thoughtless Wedding and Before Long to Divorce. BY GLEN L. WALLAR. HAPFIXESS In married life seems to be foreign for-eign to the boxing fraternity In general. The majority of the exponents of the fistic game fall for Cupid, but on rare occasions doea the little dart-thrower score a complete knockout. knock-out. In most Instances a "come-back" Is registered, reg-istered, with a divorce court Judge officiating as the referee. Fortunately, there are exceptions. excep-tions. It is possible to be a boxer and also live a happy married life, and, thankfully, two of the present-day champions of the world prove that such Is possible, these notables being be-ing none other than .less Wlllard, the heavyweight heavy-weight champion, and Johnny Kllbane prho reigns supremo In the featherweight division Both these experts of the padded mitt are not only devoted husbands, hut proud fathers, AN'. Hard being called papa by four youngsters ranging In age from 2 years to 0, while Kilbane and wife are the proud parents of two girls, one 3 years old and the other 5Vi years of age. w lllard's baby Is also named Jess, and was R months old when the present title bolder defeated Jack Johnson In Havana on April 5, 1015, for the heavyweight championship of the world. Of the other Wlllard children all aro girls Enid, 3 vears old; Florence R, and Zella, n Both of these happily married champions took unto themselves a life mate before the had gained any of their present-day fame, Llkeh fortunate, as many of the failures of marriage are due to hurried matches brought about by publicity. Not so with Wlllard and Kllbane. though. Each selected a girl from his own circle, although al-though In different walks of life, as when Jess was a young man It was farm life for him, while Kllbane was always a city boy. Wlllard was born In Kansas on a farm near Kmmcti. the record books say on December 20, 18.87. At the youthful ago of 18 he married his present wife, whoso maiden name was Miss Hattie Evans. For several years the circumstances were none too bright for the big fellow. Ho was the joungest son of a family of four, and as his father was a poor farmer, Jess was not given a comfortable start on making his getaway get-away an a married man. But the wife and Joss were true helpmates, and they shared their hardships together in thoso days as they do their prosperity now. The big fellow workel as a farmhand for a while, then moved to Cairo, III., where he served as deputy eheriff for a while and then moved back west again, this time to Oklahoma, and In 1010 took up boxing, box-ing, whJch turned out to be the best move he ever made, although for several years poverty continued to knock at his door. It la dlfforent now, though, as the champion has a fortune and there Is nothing too good for his family, Mrs. Wlllard. who cheered him In his days of hardships, Is now reaping her reward In living In clover and seeing her children brought up according to her own desires. Since becoming champion Wlllard has bought a beautiful horr. In Chicago. Johnny Kllbane was married to Miss Irene McDonnell in June. 1010. Both were born and raised In Cleveland, Ohio, and have made that city their home their entire lives. Mrs. Kllbane Kll-bane was Johnny's childhood playmate, the two attending the same school and being together In many Catholic events of Importance They were sweethearts for eleven years prior to marrying. mar-rying. There is but one year's difference in their ages, Kllbane being 27 years old last April, while his wire Is Just one year younger. They are never separated for any length of time, aa Johnny train at home for his matches, and as a result docs not have to be away from his wife but a few days In going and returning from a bout. On many occasions Mrs. Kllbano and the "kiddies ' mado the trip with the champion cham-pion for his rights, while it la hla custom to en-Joy en-Joy a family vacation twice yearly, going to jl- California for one and to the Atlantic Coaat Tor the other. Kilbano Is the typical home-loving man, and It can be truthfully said that there Is no man more devoted to wife and children than Johnny Kllbane, the featherweight champion of the World, Like Wlllard, the featherweight tit la holder does not Indulge In Intoxicants, smoke or chaw BY J. B. SHERIDAN. You can 'grave it on his tombstone, You may write on his card, "A young man married is a young man marred." 1 ILL CLARK, known as the W p--f't A Belfast Chicken, a wise old J J ow l of the prize ring, al-Way" al-Way" ln",Bt(1 trat mar-' mar-' Y rld fighter waa a dead J cock in the pit. "Wotever I) does It' the Chicken was t WOnt to say. "a flghtln' (nan is no good after he gets married." The Thicken was by way of being a bit of a philosopher. philos-opher. He knew boxing as no other man of the times knew it. His life of some 85 years was 11 aMasjaaaBjaBBjBjBjBjM Who Apt: Exceptions an epitome of the prima ring. Ho had eeen Crlbb. who had seen Flgg the first champion of the ring- He had a keen, observant mind, had the Chicken, and he waa a most Interesting talker. Ho violated all the first principles of the ring about not marrying. He had been married three times. But the Chicken was never a great fighter. He did not have the hands. His knuckles were weak. They did not fight with gloves In his day. Marriage Is generally regarded as the grave of athletic excellence. Yet no manner of men are so prono to marry young as aro professional athletes. This Is susceptible of explanation. They have time on their hunds, their fame makes them attractive to women, they are usually eplendld physical specimens, they have the advantage of the touch of the superman and they have money. The girl docs the rest. Hence, we find that pugilists, leading nerve-raoUIng nerve-raoUIng lives and making money rapidly, are usually married very young, and, in some cases, very often. Baseball players are usually married very young. These are the men of the grent money-making sports. The great prize fighters are always in a rush to get married. Sullivan, the first of the great fighters of tho modern era. wont out for a time one night and woke up to find himself married. No one quit knew how this happened. It Is not known that any of his friends ever met Mra. Sullivan before or aftor marriage. Her Identity has always been shrouded in mystery. It ia known only that aha la alive, divorced from her famous husband. It has olten been said that regret for this untimely marriage had a deal to do with the wlldness of which Sullivan was famous In his halcyon days. That may be as may be. Eater on, after he had passed 60, John L. married again. His second wife, who was a boyhood sweetheart died, Two of Sullivan's immediate successors In " 'm'" "" 1 '-" - 1 i' " the championship, Corbett and Fltzsimmooe, wore much-married men, men to whose marriage mar-riage a certain halo of romance was attache 1. Corbett was a mere slip of a bank clerk, ln-daetl, ln-daetl, a mere amateur tighter, when In 1830 he eloped from San Francisco with a girl named Ollle Lake. They went to Salt Lake City, were married and begun a honeymoon, two turtle doves, without a cent. They had Just about mone enough to get to 'Salt Lake and pay the Justice for marrying thorn. They were quite broke. Yet Corbett had a fortune In his two fists There was gold for them to dig and not far away, cither. Who remembers Duncan McDonald, a hard-grained, hard-grained, tough Scotchman, who at that time was a resident of Butte, Mont. Duncan was remote from New York fame, but in the Uocklea'he was known as a champion. The Rocky Mountains were full of hard-rock men in theso days, Irish mostly, hulking, hammering hammer-ing chape, who had honeycombed tho granite and quartz of tho backbone of the continent and made the Great Divide look like a colander They loved, fighting men. To them Duncan McDonald was a pal and a hero Duncan could flwht a little. He would be a good third-rate man now, as good as many a big stiff who la drawing nice purses for bad tights about New York. in any event, Corbett was broke In Salt Lake aboul Christmas time 1890, when Duncan came, like Santa Claus, bearing gifts to the Frisco bank clerk. McDonald was offering 250 .T.TT-T-. -I-1 n inin i. I 1 M ' 1 to any man who could stay eight rounds with him. Corbett waa 2.1 years old, alim, white. He was fashionably dressed nnd well-mannered He had a wife on his hands and no money In his pockets or anywhere else. He read McDonald's challenge In the newspapers. newspa-pers. Then he cried to hla wife. "Keno, ullle Here la where we have a real honeymoon and go back to San Francisco In a drawing room." Corbett loat no time in .looking up Ed Kelly, Mike Fitzgerald and other well-known flstio fanciers of the Mormon metropolis. They vouched for him and ho got a chanco to meet McDonald. The slim, pale youth did not look dangerous to the eyes of the rugged miner. It should bo remembered that Corbett was the first of the gymnasium made fighters of which many were to come. Prior to hla timo ihe bulldogs bull-dogs of tho ring were trulnod In tho open, digging dig-ging ditches, shoeing horses, driving teams. They were always weather-beaten, hearty looking look-ing chaps. Corbett always did look pinched and lean. The battle look place at the old Salt .uake Theater, built by Brlgham Young, tho hero or many, many honeymoons. Corbett not only stayed the eight rounds, but he gave .McDonald a thorough hiding. Tho men who saw him right that night kept him In mind and most of them backed him to beat Sullivan three years later. It was quite a romantlo elopement and honeymoon. honey-moon. Corbett and Miss Lako started from San Francisco with scarce enough money to get to Salt Lake. Tho young man was entirely unknown to fame. To pay expenses he fought a gallant battle with a much older and a thoroughly thor-oughly seasoned boxer, a man of fame in his class and In his district They returned home, Corbett famous and with money In bis pocket His romantic elopement, the battle on the bridal trip, hla victory', the triumphal return all combined to aeslst Corbett wonderfully In his way upward He got a lot of bencllcent publicity pub-licity out of the affair, and that brought him popularity, more contests, more victories, money, fame, very quickly. Alas, for love, romance, ro-mance, wonder things, great actions Corbett a,id hla wife lived together only for a few years After Jim defeated Sullivan for the championship cham-pionship ho became rich. He always had been attractive. They were divorced and Loth remarried. re-married. Yet it was quite a romantic elopement and it cannot be said that this marrlago did Cor-oett Cor-oett any harm. Like Napoleon, his luck slipped after he was divorced from Ollle Lako, and he was beaten In the first fight he fought aa the husband of another woman. Luck broke quite Ibe reverse for Fltzslmmons, who did his best fighting after ne was divorced from his first wife and married to Rose Julian, a young woman who had won lame as a contortionist. con-tortionist. When the dingo farrier first Hashed his fiery flame across the American Contlneut he waa accompanied by his first wife a fair, sweet-laced, simple-looking English girl, who had borne him several children. Young Bob Fltzslmmons, of whom we read now and then as a possible successor tc his fighting father, la the son of the first Mra. Fltzslmmons. Sho aetmcd to be "a nico sort of a person, ' as women say, but Fltxsimmon6 had not been long under the management of Martin Julian when he became enamored of tho latter's sister. Rose, a very beautiful young woman of excellent excel-lent reputation. There was not much about the great knocker-out to attract women, he was odd-looking, something like an ostrich, and he was not a brilliant conversationalist. It waa said at the time that the marriage was one of convenience on the part of the Julians, to keep tha gold mine which Fltzslmmons was in the family. Howover that may be, Rose Fltzslmmons proved to bo a devoted wife. She bore her husband hus-band aeveral children In the ahort period of their married life, and never loft his side. Mrs. Fltsalmmona waa In her husband's corner on March 17. 1S97, when ha mot and whipped Corbett Cor-bett at Carson City, Nov. Things went badly with Fltzslmmons in the first seven rounds of that fight. It was about the sixth round that m, W ..... . '' : t . '. i I Corbett fairly punched holes In the Cornlshman Fitz was an awful sight in that round. His face and chest and arms were covered with his own gore and ho was beaten to his knock-knees. Mrs. Fltzslmmons never gave up the ship. Corbett Cor-bett looked at her over Fltzslmmon's gory shoulder and grinned. She shouted back, "You can't whip him In 1000 years " It seemed that Fltzstmrnona -was utterly beaten at the time. Two rounds after the tide of battle changed. Fltxblmmons grew; stronger while Corbett became weaker. Finally, In tho thirteenth round, Fltzslmmons landed the famoua solar plexus that forever robbed Corbett Cor-bett of that championship Mrs. Fltzslmmons fought like a Lioness while her husband was battling in tho ring. Sho died within a year or two, leaving the 'peerless puncher with another young family on his hands. Fltzslmmons was much under her Influence She was a very clevor woman, lnflnltoly hla superior mentally and "ran" his biiFlness for him. Fltzslmmons was inconsolable inconsola-ble when she died. Within a few months he startled the world by marrying Julia May Glf-forrl. Glf-forrl. an actrcaa. The third marriage did not take very well. After many disagreements, most of which found their way into publlo print, Fltzslmmons waa divorced from hla third v:lto Fltzslmmons was anything but attractive, yet ne seems to have had no troublo In Inducing many women to marry him. He must have quite a numerous progeny by his first and second wlvos. He did not have much luck after the death of Rose Julian. Norman Selby, known as Kid MoCoy, waa a shifty fighter and had aa many wives aa Blue Beard. The Kid waa a most attractive ohap, good-looking after his fashion and found It no troublo whatever to Interest the ladles In hlm-iclf. hlm-iclf. Ho married many tlmea before he made his 11,000,000, which was accomplished by wedding wed-ding the young and beautiful widow of a railroad rail-road Official, it seemed that McCoy had donr: well, had won himself a homo for life, the I0V.7 was worth several million dollars, young, beautiful, beau-tiful, etc. Lackaday for tho constancy of fighting men. Tho Kid could land, but he could not "stay put." Mrs. McCoy alleged that her corkscrew puncher was a gay philanderer and got a divorce. di-vorce. Tho Kid was a wonder to win homes and then toss thorn off. He wooed and agnln won his former wife and all her beauty and her millions. Again he could not stay put. She put him away for good. It seems, this time. The Kid tried many ways of making a living besides marrying ono keoplng a saloon In New York, Ixmdon and Paris, hotels, ho-tels, Jewelry stores, teaching boxing, etc. Ho could not mnko anything stick The last that waa heard of him he was an enlisted man In or of the New York regiments along the Mexican Mex-ican border. McCoy is still a young man for all of his 46 years. He Is etlll trim and well set up, and, like Wilde's prisoner of Reading Gaol, "his step is light and gay " Ho may yet Induce some sentimental Susan to take a boy . Jj, " ' ' ' 1 ' ' ' ' to raise. None of the Kid's marriages seemed 9 to take. He did not give them time. Marriage may not be good for fighting men, aa Bill Clarke was wont to hold. It la an .issuied fact that fighting men are not good for marriage. Few of them have mado succesa-ful succesa-ful marriages Still fewer hae gone through llfo married to their first wives. Sullivan, Corbett Cor-bett pnd Fltzslmmons. not to mention the negro, ne-gro, the last holders of the world a championship, champion-ship, all parted from their first wives. Scores of tho leaser lights have had domestic trouble and a aeries of spouses. In a word, matrimony seoms to be at a disadvantage In tho prize ring. Many famous fighters havo fallen to the wiles of Delllaha, Tom Hyer, a etar of the early 1800a; John C Heenan, the famous "Benecta Boy." who fought Sayers at Farnborough. and Stanley Ketchel, who waa shot and killed near Sprlng-flold. Sprlng-flold. Mo., were all great fighting men who had their strength shorn from thorn by dealing witf women. The Icanlnga of Jack Johnson, the negro, fot white wives cost him millions of dollars, hit championship and a country In which to rest his head. Johnson's dealings with white women wom-en got him Into the meshes of tho not which tha Mann act spreads for evildoers. Johnson s first white wife (he had had several negro wlvea before) be-fore) died some five years ago under tragic circumstances. cir-cumstances. Federal prlaone of tha United Statea yawn for tho negro and foreign countries seem to have 4bM no use for him. So thoroughly Is Johnson being hounded that It Is said that he la about to glva up and accept a prison term to find a home. Among professional baseball players marriage mar-riage flourlehes to much greater advantage than among prize fighters. Like their brothers of tha rlnc, tho baliplaers, having time and means, marry young, usually to girls who are their superiors su-periors in social and educational ways These baseball marriages usually stick. A remarkable thing about the marrlagea of athletes la that they are very rarely blessed with children. Few of tho great fighters have left any issue. Sullivan. Corbett. Jeffries, Sharkey Shar-key and scores of othor groat fighters are childless. child-less. The same applies In a lesser degree to baseball players. The shifting home, pressure of economic reasons, the uncertain future of athletics and the desire of tho athletea to live In a fashion better than that to which the average aver-age man of the working class, from which they spring, governs tho size of athletic families. I'pon the whole It may be aaid that the prlae fighter is not a good subject for the marriage ring Tho baseball players offer a greater certainty, cer-tainty, but even hero marriage had not proven an unmitigated success. So wo must agree witn the poet that In ao far, at leaat, aa the pro-fesslonal pro-fesslonal athlete la concerned "a young mai , married is a young man marred." TJl wmu MmMk aHaVadaH |