JACK JOHNSTON.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXI, Issue 494, 14 October 1909, Page 4

JACK JOHNSTON.

“ FEAT-FOOTED AS A WASHER-WOMAN.”

“CAN NEVER EICK ME.”

(By James J. Jeffries in The American Weekly).

“I leave for Carlebad to-day, but before leaving here, I want to say a few words regarding Johnson and myself. “With regard to the fight, I want as big a purse as possible to fight for, I’m a business man, and I want a side bet with Johnston if I can get it, and as big as he can cover. That’s business, too. But what I want to get most Is to get that big buck in the ring. I’ll fight him for no side bet at all if I can’t get him some other way. I have been asked if I am sore at Johnston. Well, I’m not going to say 'l’m pleased to meet you,’ when we get in the ring. That’s my answer.

“That nigger can never lick me. If you have seen him fight, you surely know that he stands as flattlooted as a washer*woman. I have sat at the ring side and watched him two or three times, and let me tell you that no man on earth who stands flat-footed can ever lick me. They’ve got to get up on their toes and do that. The man that stands flat-footed in the ring is licked before he ties a glove, that is, if the other man is anything near his equal. “Then Johnson has only one punch. I have four hundred punches, and everyone of them is better than his best. I can hit anywhere from anywhere. Short or range from the hip to the shoulder or anywhere else. I have two good hands. He has one. I can send them in from away off, or pound ’em in with two inches play. Johnson can’t. Many sportcritics, and others as well, believe him clever. He is not clever. He is good at blocking, yes. But his footwork is that of a man that stands flat-footed and has one punch. I’m not holding him too lightly. “I am going to train for him until I am in absolutely perfect condition and I’ll lick him. But he isn't really a dangerous man — like old Fitz, for example. That old man was bad, b-a-d —as long as he was on his feet. You never cared to give him an inch. When he was right he could lick a field full of Johnsons. “Some people talk of the traditional hardheadedness of the negrc f and believe that he cannot be hurt on the head. Hit him on the head, on the body, on the shinbone — anywhere at all, and if you hit him hard enough he’ll feel it. I do not know now where the fight will be held. That's up to the clubs to decide. The club making the best offer, the responsible club —of course, will get the fight. I’m out for the velvet now. I want money. I’ve got all the glory I can get out of the business. I don’t want to ever fight again, but it seems to me I have to. The white people make me fight. It will never do for a negro to hold the heavy-weight championship of the world while there is a white man to fight him for it. I suppose the fight will be held in California.

“lu couclusion I want to say that I don’t want to get in conversation with that big black. I have posted 50oodols to show the public that I am in earnest. The first thing to do is to have some club make us an offer that is mutually satisfactory. Then we can agree on the articles and put up with our forfeit. The money posted now doesn’t bind anyone to anything, for there is no agreement to be bound to. “I will return to the United States-in five weeks. My manager, Sam Berger, will remain to receive bids for the fight.”