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~~say, young man, I see
this sign everywhere I go.
What is MARFAK anyhow?"
~~It's a special chassis
lubricant, mister. Try
it this time instead
of ordinary grease.
It lasts twice as long"
IN THE N..EW POWDER SPRAYER
A product of Midway Chemical Company,
Chicago • Makers of FLYded Liquid Spray
THE SJITURD.11.Y EVENING POST July 6 , 19 :JS
INSIDE SE OPES
(Continued from Page 7 )
was high-strung, and he didn't like handball court, so Jim wouldn't work his mouth worked as if he wanted to
anybody to beat him at anything. And so hard, but he didn't have the nerve scream. They counted him out.
I found out that James J. Corbett, to do it himself. I didn't volunteer, Afterward, the newspapers talked
champion of the world, couldn't knock but I'd have done it if Delaney had about a solar-plexus punch-trying to
me out. told me to. make some kind of a mystery of it-
I never did knock him out in train- Except for Bob Edgren-he's the but it was a left hook to the liver. I
ing; I never tried to, and don't know most famous sports cartoonist in the knew something about that punch. I
that I could have. I was there to help world now, I guess-I didn't make any knew it when I saw it. And I saw it as
him, not to fight him. But I did find special friends in that camp. I was a plain as I can see my own hand now.
out that he couldn't knock me out. newcomer'and a kid. But I worked out They took the first moving pictures
Charley White wanted to find out a lot with Corbett, and I was alone of a championship fight, that St.
how hard Corbett could really hit, and with him a lot on the road. I was alone Patrick's Day, 1897. The day was
he figured I was the guy to take it. with him the day he met Fitz and came clear and sunny until maybe ten min-
Charley came around trying to get next thing to having a private fight utes after the knockout. Then the sky
me to lead a right hand to the body, with him. turned black and it began to snow.
next time I boxed Corbett. That's a Jogging along out toward the state- Billy Delaney and I had a gloomy
sucker punch, you know-nobody penitentiary buildings, we met Fitz train ride, going back to Oakland that
would try it against a fast man. I told and his trainer, Dan Hickey. We night; we'd worked and played for six
White I wouldn't do it. When he told slowed down. I shook hands with weeks with Jim Corbett, and it hurt
me that Fitz used that punch, I Hickey and Fitz, but when Fitz stuck to see him licked. He'd been a ring
laughed at him. out his hand to Corbett, Jim snarled at hero of mine. Even later on, when we
"Nit," I said, "and the hell with him. Corbett said: "I'll shake hands were fighting each other in the ring, we
you!" with you over there when we get in the were friends; I always liked and ad-
But White kept coming around, ask- ring on the seven teen th of March ! " mired him. So the ride home after
ing me to do it; I was hired to do what Carson City was not much fun.
the trainers wanted, and finally I said I .R Championship Changes Hands It was that night, though, that Billy
would. I knew what would happen, Delaney took on the management of
though. I can still see Jim snarling at Fitz, young Jim Jeffries, and Jim Jeffries
Maybe three weeks before the date pointing a finger over toward the arena. spoke his little piece about wanting to
with Fitz, we had another secret work- From where we were, you could just be champion.
out in the handball court; Corbett had see the arena, over beyond the state Riding down in the gloom, Delaney
four other sparring partners, but he'd buildings. finally asked me who I expected to
got so he did most of his boxing with Fitz got an ugly look in his eye-and fight next. I told him Van Buskirk, the
me. I agreed to lead that right to the he could look plenty hard. "All right," 0. C. champ. Delaney said: "He's too
body, and I did. I got what I ex- he said. That was that. tough for you." We rode on for quite a
pected-only a lot more so. The second I knew how Corbett felt; he was on while. Right after my first fight in San
that I led my right, Corbett countered edge, not himself at all, and he felt Francisco, I'd been matched to fight
with a right-hand smash to my mouth. mean about the way he'd acted. We Van Buskirk. I had pneumonia then,
He smashed me too. They say Corbett trailed back to the Springs at a dog- and after I got through a siege that
couldn't hit, but he put everything he trot, neither of us saying anything. almost killed me, Van Buskirk had
had on that one. And it burned me up. Fight time came finally-St. Pat- come around and made a crack about
I grabbed Corbett and slung him rick's Day, 1897. my running out on him.
into a corner of the handball court, and Corbett was more like his old self "If I can't lick Van Buskirk," I told
when he bounced out, I threw him when the grind was over, and when he Delaney, "I'll go back to boilermak-
right back again. I went hog-wild. was right, James J. Corbett was a great ing." Delaney said nothing for maybe
Charley White yelled: '' Time ! '' De- man. He was lightning-fast ·in the an hour. Then suddenly he popped out:
laney grabbed hold of me, and Charley ring; he had a smooth way of going. "How about me handling you?" ·
kept yelling: "Time!" We'd gone He hit with a punch that flickered like ''Would you want to? '' I asked him.
maybe a minute and a half. a snake's tongue. He was dead serious He nodded. And that was all the
when he was working, and a good show- contract he and I ever had.
How a Legend Started man when he was fighting. I wish I
could give a picture of him the way he On the Trail of Fitzsimmons
Corbett said: "That's enough for was before the training got him down
today." But afterward, in the rubbing too fine-easy, friendly, a swell guy to Along late that night I told Delaney,
room, he said: "I'm afraid I hurt you work with in the training ring. all of a sudden, that I wanted to fight
with that right hand." Jim invited me to be in his corner, Bob Fitzsimmons. I said : "I don't
Well, the punch had set me back on but he had four men lined up already, think Fitz can lick me, and I bet I can
my heels, and it had cut the inside of and I thought four was too many. I hit a~ hard as he can." Billy gave me
my lips against my teeth, but it excused myself. I helped in the dress- the once-over, slow, with a funny look
hadn't shaken me very bad and I ing room, but when the call came, I in his eye. "I don't mean right now,"
wouldn't say it had hurt. went out. I told him. "Maybe a couple years
Charley White butted in. "Sure it I went out and got myself a bleacher from now." He went back to looking
hurt, kid; tell him so," he said. seat alongside my old Los Angeles out the window, without making me
"I won't!" I said. I was just a kid, friend and backer, Charley Murray. any answer. He never did answer me.
full of the old jinnegar, and I was sore Charley had bet on Corbett. · All the rest of the ride he had nothing
that they'd used me for a punching I saw Jim Corbett knocked out in to say, and he didn't even say good-by
bag. "And if you can't hit any harder the fourteenth round that day_ by ex- when we hit Oakland.
than that," I told Corbe.tt, "you won't actly the punch that had started me He got me Van Buskirk, though-I
hurt Fitzsimmons, either!" developing the Jeffries crouch-a left knocked him out in two rounds- and
Corbett hit the ceiling, and I guess I hook to the liver. Delaney got me nearly three thousand
pretty near got fired. As early as the sixth, I persuaded dollars for my end of the purse. Up in
That was how they started-the story Charley to go down in to the crowd and the hotel room afterward, with the
that, when I was just a green kid, I'd hedge his Corbett money. Corbett was cash laid out on the table between us,
knocked Jim Corbett out. The news- "off." He dropped Fitz to his knees in I asked Delaney what I owed him. He
pa perm en hanging around outside the that sixth, waited for him, but when was very quiet about it. "Whatever
court had heard the crash when Cor- Fitz got up, Corbett's right uppercut you think is right,'' he . said.
bett hit the wall, and they'd heard missed him by a foot. When Jim Cor- I baited him. I said: "Suppose we
White and Delaney yelling at me. But bett swung and missed like that, some- cut it in two."
there was nothing to the story. I thing was wrong. Delaney jumped up, sore as a goat.
did•n't knock Corbett out. That smash In that fourteenth, Fitz half turned "You'll never have a manager that's
in the handball court was when I his body, backed away, and Corbett worth half," he yelled, "and don't
found he couldn't knock Jim Jeffries came in with his right hand cocked. ever let any so-and-so tell you he is !"
out. Fitz pivoted and hooked his left to the He said : "You split me five hundred;
Things got bad in that camp, though, liver. That sock hurt me, sitting on the I'll be satisfied."
before fight time came. Corbett got to bleachers- I knew how it felt. Corbett And that was our money arrange-
worrying, and he worked his head off. went down. He twisted a little on the ment from then on. After every fight,
Delaney even wanted to burn down the canvas. His face was death-white, and (Contin ued on Pag e 84)