BOXERS AND THEIR DOINGS.

Taihape Daily Times, 23 March 1918, Page 7

BOXERS AND THEIR DOINGS.

CHAMPIONS DIE BROKE

America is making but slow progress in the matter of fisticuffs. It may be that she has something or more importance to think of just now, but the news that filter? trough at somewhat long intervals is not of a. very important nature, says an English writer,. who, continuing, pens the following: Particulars in very small quantities are certainly coming to hand of the last days of poor old Bob Fitzsimmons, and the newspapers have it that he was earning "a small income on the vaudeville stage. Fitzsimmons had, of course, outgrown and outlived his fame, as every man does in these fickle times. I think old Mace held sway as well as anyone. He never saved money, though he made much, for he was reported to be a £IO,OOO man when he owned a hotel in Australia, but I fancy he left all his cash in the colonies. Jem never was a Saver. Fitzsimmons was built on the same lines. I once remember Mace being at a certain place. - The ,old man was very popular, and always touching his hat to the good sportsman. Every touch brought him something, if only a bit of silver. I stood and watched him some time, and just when the old champion received a piece of gold he rose, and, leaning oer my way he said to a chum, "It's getting on for the interval. I think I'll go now. I've got four-ten." Mace went, and the interval arrived. The end of the show came also, and with it the return of Maee from a "pub" close at hand. The old boy had been beset by harpies and spong ers, and in the short space of an hour and a-half he got rid of the whole of his "four-ten" by treating his friends and giving presents to the hangerson. Another time, when the "Sportsman" got up a subscription for the old champion, at the suggestion of a few of the right sort, and banked it, Jem wanted it in a lump. But he did not get it, for on the day he paid a visit to "The Sportsman" office in ( Fleet Street, the street was almost impassable owing to the presence of hangers-on and spongers. But Mace and his friends were an awful worry, and he was such a persistent person, and his tales so woeful, that the funa | was soon exhausted. I am not aware J how much money Fitzsimmons earned, but Mace-, I know, captured a great deal one way or another, and if he had been at all provident he would never have wanted, nor would he have caught Ms death of cold, as he did. by sitting outside a booth and

getting wet in wretched weather. Fitasimmons was on the rocks more than once, and he had a bad time at the finish. But he never had to rough it like old Jem .1 remember meeting Mace and "Pincher" Wainwright, an old knuckle fighter, who were inseparable for a long time, and they vowed they had nothing to eat for two > days, I believed them, and so would anyone who had seen them have a "tucker" at the ham and beef shop that used to flourish at the time ill Covent. Garden,, at the expense of dear old John Perceval, the man who backed Tom Sayers and Heenan. I have seen the late Lord Mandeville enjoying a good healthy "blow-out" at the same establishment, also Frank Slavin. It was very good and cheap. Boiled beef and pease pudding, "and plenty of pudding, please," as "Pincher" used to say. He was s great card was "Pincher," and was a wonderful fellow with doss. He stood right leg first when he fought, and actually had a prize-fight, for £lO a side when he was over sitxy years of age. He landed on evil times inde'ed at the finish, and lodged in Millman Street, near Guildford Street, in his last illness, directly opposite rooms occupied by Bill Siayjn, .brotner to Frank. His greatest horror was the thought of being buried by the parish, and he begged me to put him under the ground properly. Thanks to the kindness of Peggy Bettinson, whom I approached, the National Sporting Club gave the old boy a decent and respectable funeral. He was a regular visitor at the N.S.C., and always allowed to see the boxing, as was Mace.