FITZSIMMONS WINS

Bob Fitzsimmons.

The Cortland Democrat, Friday, February 28, 1896.

FITZSIMMONS WINS.

Knocked Out Maher in Ninety-five Seconds.

A RIGHT SWING ON THE JAW.

Laid the Irishman Low and Won the Battle—Picturesque Scene in Which the Ring Was Pitched.

   Peter Maher was knocked out by "Bob" Fitzsimmons last Friday in the first round after one minute and thirty-five seconds of actual fighting.

   Fitzsimmons played the same old game as he so often played before, leading on his opponent until he had him where he wanted him and then landed a lightning right hand swing on the jaw, and it was over. It was the identical blow that knocked out "Jim" Hall in New Orleans.

   The train arrived at Langtry, Texas, at about 3:30 o'clock central time, and over a rocky road winding about the precipitous cliffs along the Rio Grande the crowd wended its way to the sandy beach of the river. Forty-two Mexicans had carried the ring material down to the river bank on Thursday night after working hard all day upon a roadway down from the bluff. A narrow wooden footbridge had been put up across the swiftly flowing stream. The crowd stumbled over the stony path and waded ankle deep in the sand, guided by little "Jimmy" White, a boy who came from Toronto to be at the fight.

   The battle ground was a sandy flat upon a big bend in the Rio Grande river on the Mexican side. It was just two miles from the village of Langtry. In the center of a canvas wall, about 200 feet in diameter, the ring was pitched. The board floor was covered with canvas, over which resin was sprinkled. At one side was the frame compartment for the taking by the kinetoscope of the pictures of the fight as it proceeded. On the opposite side of the ring were two little tents for the principals.

   The referee called the men to the center of the ring and said:

   "By the articles of agreement this is to be a fair up and up fight. When there is a clinch and a call for a breakaway, each of you take a step back. I don't want to be seizing you and getting between you. If there is a knock down the man must be on his feet before he can be assailed. Be careful about fouls. Get ready."

   "Shake hands," Referee Siler said.

   The men advanced. Fitzsimmons with the air of confidence still showing plainly. Maher promptly and with more of a familiar air then he had yet shown. They retired to their corners. In an instant the whistle of warning sounded; five seconds later the call of "time" followed. Up sprang Fitzsimmons, advancing with his little eyes flashing like balls of burnished blue. Maher's advance was rapid enough to meet Fitzsimmons at the middle of the 24 foot ring. His eyes were circled from the recent attack of "alkali eye" and seemed staring like a stage make-up without the deceptive footlight glare.

FlTZSIMMONS LEADS.

   Fitzsimmons led with his left, Maher backed toward his corner. Fitzsimmons landed with his right and a clinch followed. Maher struck Fitzsimmons with his right hand while they were clinched and Referee Siler warned him that if he did so again he would give the fight to Fitzsimmons. After the breakaway Peter landed his left on Fitzsimmons' neck. Close infighting followed and Maher succeeded in landing his left on Fitzsimmons' upper lip, drawing blood. Fitzsimmons landed with left and right. A clinch followed, Maher feinted and Fitzsimmons led with his right, but fell short. A mix up followed, in which Maher landed both right and left on either side of Fitzsimmons' head. Maher led with his left and another clinch followed. Fitzsimmons seemed a bit bothered and broke ground on Maher's leads. Maher followed him up and led with his left, when Fitzsimmons side-stepped and, swinging his right, landed full on the point of Maher's left chin.

MAHER COULDN'T GET UP.

   Maher measured his length on the floor, his head striking the canvas with great force. He vainly attempted to arise, but could not do more than raise his head. His seconds called on him to get up, but he failed to respond and sank back on the canvas. They had not been sparring more than a minute when this occurred. Maher was knocked out completely and the fight was awarded to Fitzsimmons.

   As Maher fell to the floor, Fitzsimmons stepped back, his eyes sparkling and a smile playing around his mouth. He gazed upon his fallen foe for about three seconds and then walked over to his corner and sat down.

   Maher was unconscious fifteen seconds, and it was fully one minute after he had been carried to his corner before he regained consciousness. He was not disposed to talk much.

   Fitzsimmons was very modest considering the brilliant victory he had won.

   "I could have put him out the first punch," he said, "but did not reach him hard enough."

   After Fitzsimmons and his party had reached the railway station, Ernest Rector, the kinetoscope man, approached him with a proposition to fight Maher six rounds in front of his machine, which would not work yesterday because of the dark weather. Fitzsimmons readily accepted the chance, but said that be must have $5,000 cash in advance and 50 per cent of the net receipts of the exhibition of the pictures.

"FITZ" AND THE BEAR.

   It was a long and tedious journey for the fighters and spectators, the ride to the battle ground. There were five cars in the train, About 150 people bought tickets at the station for Langtry, putting up $11.65 cash. The tickets to the fight were $20, and those who wished could secure sleeping car accommodations for $3.

   A quieter and better behaved lot of visitors to a prize fight never gathered.

   The run to Langtry is 389 miles. It was without momentous incident. At Marathon about 8 o'clock in the morning, Fitzsimmons espied a big, black bear chained to the corner of an adobe house about 500 feet front the track. Fitzsimmons dodged over to the bear and scraped an acquaintance while the engine was taking water.

   No weights were announced at the ringside, but Fitzsimmons weighed about 165 and Maher about 180. The crowd disappeared from Langtry almost as quickly as it had come, and it was not in the neighborhood over two and a half hours all told. The west bound regular train for El Paso was held until 6 o'clock, and when it went, it carried with it the pugilists and nearly every person who had come down to see the fight. The one special train from Eagle Pass started on its homeward way at the same time and the great fight was over and done.

CORBETT PUTS UP MONEY.

   Corbett had a big house at the Haymarket theater in Chicago Friday night, and was wildly cheered when he read the following telegram:

   H. L. Beach, Associated Press Correspondent, Langtry, Tex.:

   I am in the office of The Associated Press. Tell Fitzsimmons to come to Chicago as soon as he possibly can and I will make a match with him for any amount to fight him in any place on earth. Arrangements can be made in The Associated Press office, Western Union building. I leave here to-morrow night and return the first of March. Tell Fitzsimmons to name the day he will be here between March 1st and 6th, and we will have no trouble agreeing upon terms.

   JAMES J. CORBETT.

   Corbett after reading the telegram placed $1,000 in the hands of Manager

Davis of the Haymarket theater. "There are only three places on earth where we can fight," said Corbett, "England, South Africa and Australia. I will go to anyone of these places to meet this man. I want him to do business, that's all I want. I want to say right here as a young American of Irish descent, that I will meet any man on the face of the earth."

"Bill" Nye.

DEATH OF BILL NYE.

The Famous Humorist Succumbs to Paralysis.

   ASHEVILLE, N. C., Feb. 23—Edgar W. Nye, better known as Bill Nye, died at his home at Buck Shoals about 1 o'clock yesterday afternoon. Death was due to a paralytic stroke.

   "Bill" Nye, the famous humorist, was born in Shirley, Piscataquis county, Me., August 25, 1850, but at the age of two years, according to his own story, took his parents by the hand, and telling them that Maine was no place for him he started West with them. He received an academical education at River Falls, Wis., and in 1876 went to Wyoming territory where he was admitted to the bar, and, as he says, practiced law in a quiet kind of a way, though frequently warned by the authorities not to do so.

   From the Cheyenne Sun, Nye drifted to the Denver Tribune, for which he wrote regularly, as well as for the Salt Lake Tribune. Later on a new paper was started in Laramie City and named the Boomerang, from a favorite mule owned by Nye, and which he called Boomerang, because he never knew where it would strike.

   When his health gave out he went to Denver and while recuperating there his partners in the Boomerang got control of the paper and Nye came East. But he came East to fortune and success. His work was paid well for by the most prominent papers in the country.

PAGE FOUR—EDITORIALS.

   ◘ The proposed Raines excise bill creates an army of officials, with fat salaries. The chief State officer is to have $5,000 a year and there is to be a deputy in every Senatorial district—fifty in all—who will probably have several assistants in large cities and one in every town. There's lots of political patronage in the Raines excise bill.—Skaneateles Free Press.

   ◘ It is said that "politics makes strange bedfellows," and the people of this place have a splendid example of this truism in the present political situation. Here we find a majority of the clergymen of Cortland, occupying the same bed and the same boat with the Peck crowd at the helm and acting as pilots. It will be a miracle if the old hulk don't land the whole party on the shores of despair. Surely she bears a motley crowd.

   ◘ The spectacle of the Good Government people and the Peck's walking arm in arm and in loving converse on the streets of Cortland, is at least a striking one and the prophet who had the hardihood to predict a thing of the kind a year ago, would have been laughed at for his seeming simplicity. The thought, that the good people are reposing calmly in the capacious stomachs of the whiskey element of the republican party, is enough to make even the very wicked people tired.

   ◘ The firm of Santee & Pearse, which was dissolved some two weeks since because the senior member thought the purpose for which it was organized had been fully accomplished, has apparently been reorganized on the plan proposed by the senior member. The junior member has been brought over to his partners way of thinking and has practically renounced the cause of Good Government and is now supporting to the best of his ability the Peck wing of the republican party and its candidates. "O, what a fall was there, my countrymen!"

   ◘ The Good Government people held their convention last Monday evening and renominated Dr. F. W. Higgins for president, Chas. W. Collins for treasurer, Chas. E. Sanders for assessor, Francis E. Whitmore, Dr. S. J. Sornberger and Dr. Geo. H. Smith for school commissioners. They also endorsed the nomination of C. S. Bull for police justice and O. K. George for collector on the Peck republican ticket. G. W. Porter, a temperance man with only one leg, was a candidate for collector but be was turned down by the Good Government people and an active republican politician of the Peck stripe endorsed.

   ◘ A year ago the DEMOCRAT assured every member of the party in this village, that the Good Government movement was simply a movement in the interest of the republican party and that it would be abandoned just as soon as the object of its originators was accomplished, and the DEMOCRAT warned them to let it severely alone, but quite a large number of democrats failed to heed the warning. If anything was needed to prove that we were correct then, the fact that the clergymen and a few others who organized the movement, have abandoned the same and gone over to the Peck wing of the republican party, which represents anything but the good government or temperance element of the republicans of this village, would seem to furnish the proof.

   ◘ Dr. Higgins, who was nominated for president by the Good Government people on Monday night, declines to be a candidate. Finding himself abandoned by the clergymen and Dr. Santee, who supported him last spring, he naturally feels that his friends of other days are not satisfied with his administration of affairs or they could not have deserted at such a critical time. The village never had a president who spent more time in performing his duties than Dr. Higgins, and that he has exhibited rare intelligence and firmness throughout his term, goes without saying. He certainty deserved better treatment from his associates. If he did his duty to the best of his ability and no one can say he did not, he was entitled to a vindication at their hands. Instead of this, the clergymen practically say to him: "You have been tried and found wanting," and to emphasize this verdict they transfer their allegiance and support to a man who says to them that he "Has no time to give to the practical work of the office and would only be able to preside at the meetings of the board." Have the Good Government people abandoned the cause of good government? It looks as though they had.

   ◘ The ticket nominated by the Democrats and endorsed by the Independents, will be found at the head of this column. Mr. Price has served before in the same office and his administration was a success. Mr. Mellon is well qualified for the office of Police Justice and should be elected. In making up a citizens' ticket to be elected it was but fair to select men from both parties. In fact a citizens' movement could not be a success unless such a course was adopted. It was intended to be and is an effort of the citizens of all par ties to bring about a better state of affairs in Cortland and we hope every Democrat will vote it clear. The ticket is bound to win.

HERE AND THERE.

   Burgess, the clothier, has a new advertisement on our last page.

   E. T. Brown of Groton has taken out letters patent on a weatherstrip.

   Messrs M. J. Muncy & Son hare purchased the Grant-st. market and took possession last Friday morning.

   The Loyal Circle of King's Daughters will meet with Mrs. A. M. Johnson, 54 North Main-st., Friday, February 28, at 3:30 P. M.

   Last Thursday Mr. H. C. Lovell fell from a ladder in Benton's lumberyard, striking the ground on his right shoulder. No bones were broken, but he sustained painful bruises.

   Last Wednesday night burglars entered the meat market of John Felkel on Clinton-ave. by breaking a sash in a rear window. They carried away $1.47 which was in the cash register which was left unlocked. No clue to the burglars.

   The Pomona Grange of Cortland county will meet in Good Templars' Hall, Cortland, Tuesday, March 3rd, at 10:30 A. M. The lecturer has arranged a good program, delegates to the State Grange will report and other matters of interest introduced.

   Vesta Lodge, I. O. O. F., gave a charity ball in their rooms last evening which was well attended and thoroughly enjoyed. Daniels' orchestra furnished excellent music.

   The ladies of the East Side sewing circle will hold a ten cent tea at the rooms in the Stevenson block, corner Elm and Pomeroy-sts., Friday afternoon and evening. Supper from 5:30 to 8 P. M. A most cordial invitation is extended to all to come and enjoy a pleasant social time and a first-class supper.

   Last Monday the sheriff was served with an order granted by Judge Forbes, requiring him to show cause why he should not be punished for contempt in levying on the personal property of the Hitchcock Mfg. Co. Notice of a motion to set aside the judgments of the creditors upon which the execution was levied was also served on Dougherty & Miller, attorneys for the judgment creditors. The order also contained an order directing all further proceedings to be stayed until March 31. The sheriff postponed the sale which was advertised to take place last Tuesday to March 10.