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Show he could not see Erne. In their next meeting Gans won In the lirst round. When Gans became champion be fell Into bad bands. His greatest fake was with Terry Mi Govern in Chicago in 1900. He had agreed to lay down for the benefit of a coterie of negro gamblers, who made thousands thous-ands out of the match. Gans tried to quit in the first round, but was afraid of being mobbed. In the second he kept his promise. From that lime until his memorable memor-able fake fight with Jimmy Britt in San Francisco in 1904. he participated participat-ed In a number of crooked fights, j allowing his opponents to stay so that be and his backers could wiu the round money His Take with Britt was one of the rawest ever attempted attempt-ed aud almost forced Ills retirement from the ring. Gans placed himself in better hands, however, said he would fight honestly, honest-ly, and rroiu that time until his last fight he was absolutely on the level NELSON KILLED F10ME GANS The death of Joe Gans removes one cf the most picturesque fUhurs the 1 np has ever kn-i vn In the -jasi n years he wts constantly before the public as the most scientific exponent expon-ent nl tne urt of ficlf-dcfen.se pugilism has Known. His fighting career ex-Tended ex-Tended over 15 years and be held the lightweight championship of tiie world for six years, winning It from Frank Frne in i:02 an' losing to Battling Nelson I" 190S During that time the black fighter wou for himself the application of the "Old Master" on account of his iucomparable skill, his ease and grace of action In the ring and bis llght-lilDgllke llght-lilDgllke blows tint put his opponents oppon-ents away for the count. Recovers Lost Favor. Though a cloud rested over the great fighter for a period of years, duo to crookedness, he dispelled this in later jears, and when he fought Nelson for the last time, two years ago. he was perhaps the. most popu-l?r popu-l?r fighter of the decade. Followers of pugilism were sincerely sin-cerely grieved when Gans fell before the rushing, butting tactics of the unconquerable Dane. Not many years before that Gans was hooted when-! ever he appeared In public. It was known that be had been the principal in "fxed" flcbls. In fact, the negro made a. full confession of his crookedness, crook-edness, begged foiglveness and promised to fight on the square If gien another chance. He kept his nurd and was soon restored to his former popularity. Cans made hundreds of thousands of dollars In the ring, but he died "comparatively "com-paratively poor. It Is estimated that he earned $300,000 during his career and that of this he retained a scant $10,000 at his death. 'Craps" and j gambling were his vices and he could no more resist the passion than he could stop breathing. Thousands and thousands slipped through his fingers fing-ers at the gaming tables and the racetracks. race-tracks. Jn other ways the black flght-?r flght-?r was a lad of good habits. He was a sensible youth and In his palmiest days assumed no arrogance that made him disliked by men of the white race. In fact, he has often been called call-ed the "whitest negro" that ever crawled through the ropes, and for his gentlemanllness was given stand ing above many fighters of more preferred pre-ferred color. Gans' exact age wa6 never known. He himself did not know the day or year of bis birth, but estimated It to be about 1S74. If so, he was 30 years old when he died. At the age of 34, at least eight years past the time when most prize fighters have received their quietus, Gans fought within the one year the tao hardest battles of his career his two fights with Battling Nelson. For sameness and skill, these fights stand without parallel. Making Weight Killed Him. Many rlug critics believe Gans' first fisiit w ith Nelson at Gold field on Labor La-bor day, 1906. killed him. A purse of $31,000 was offered for this ght. hut In order to get Nelson to meet lilm Gans hod to promise the Dane tro-thirds of the purse, win, lose or draw. Other conditions were imposed by Nelson's manager, Billy Nolan, one of these being that Gans weigh 1C3 pounds at the ringside. Tivo days before the battle, Gans. try as he might in his stuffv little -mriaslum. could not tear off the poiT.ds of flesh that Nolan said must come off. Becoming desperate, the negro took to the hot alkali road under un-der the blazing sun, repeating the performance per-formance next day. Nolan Insisted Hi?.t Gans weigh In with full fighting togs scaling not a fraction of an ounce over 133 Gans needed the money f-oin that fight and would have cut off a leg to make the weight. For Uiree days he ate little mote than a bit of toast three times a day. slaking his thirst w'lth a tiny cup of tea When he woke the day of that bat-lie bat-lie at Coldfield he weighed 133 strlp-3cd. strlp-3cd. but he had to get below that to -lllow for the trunks and the rest of hi fighting togs. Out on the road a went w ithout a Lite to eat. At 10 o'clock that morning he had to stop on the scales for the preliminary prelim-inary weigh-In Nolan, among the liarsh conditions that the newspaper nien covering the fltht protested against as unfair, insisted that the negro must step on the scales twice before the ringside scaling. Fearful 1st he be overweight. Gans worked almost until the last minute. When he stepped on the scales he bad left off part of his scanty ring attire. Nolan No-lan rpilckly observed this. "If you are going to fight, with anymore any-more clothes on you had better put 'cm on," said Nolan. "Ah, Billy." said Joe in pleading .'ones, "why don't you be reasonable? You don't want your boy- to whip a dead man, uo you? Why don't you show some sportsmanship?' But Nolan was inexorable. The result of that battle Is too well known to require more than passing mention. For 12 rounds the - boys fouKht savagely under a blazing Ne- vada sun, Gans on account of his weakened condition, being put to the severest test of Ll life to ki'ep the bane from overcoming him. He was forced to re-sort to every trick he knew and the exhibition he gave under such Tying conditions was dimply marvel-'us. marvel-'us. A few seconds after the open-In? open-In? of the final round Gans went down 'ludor a blow that Referee Slier held a foul. Gans was awarded the battle. Last Great Fight. It was bin last great fight, how- ever. The weight had killed him and tn Oans that won the championship frm Erne In a round began to fade, "hen n? mad bU lasl battle, which as with Jabez White, the Kncllsh-Vian. Kncllsh-Vian. he was onlv a shadow. The two heating (hat Nelson gave him In San Francisco iu 190S were the flushing flu-shing touches Cans bfgan fighting at the age or Hi. He was substituted for a boy who failed to show up at a little local boxlne show In ' hi home city. He whipped two boys that night and his i-ewnrd was $5. Onns took up boxing because be wa Inclined to ill health. He displayed dis-played such cli'verness that he was urged to make boxing his profession. In 1S94 Gann bgan to show lhe real Huff Iu him. and from that time until he fell before Neleou he fought every lightweight that sought a battle with him and cometlm fee took on the welters After fighting his way through the second and third raters he challenged Frank Erne. The champion cham-pion was then at his best and Gans was forced to top In the 12th. His eyelid was almost eomplftely severed sever-ed and the blood blinded him so that |