JACK JOHNSON.

Taihape Daily Times, 21 May 1918, Page 6

JACK JOHNSON.

Jack Johnson, ex-champion pugilist and fugitive from justice, is homesick •and wants to return to the United States, says Leon Meyer, a well-known sporting writer. However, there is one thing facing him that he cannot see, and that is a one-year term in prison back in Chicago.

The coloured boxer, who was chased lo Barcelona, Spain, by the war in France, is getting by over the big pond, but he doesn't seem to besatisfiod, so don't be surprised if he boards a steamer and comes back to the Windy City to serve the little "jolt" that is straring him in the face. Thia information is contained in a letter received by a close friend of the boxer in Chicago, who was connected with Johnson in the salloon game in the city where the authorities are awaiting his return.

"He wants to come back" said his former partner, who had just heard from him, "and it wouldn't surprise me to see him bob up any day. He's hob-nobbing with princes, dukes, and queens over there, but he says he would rather be mingled with deuces and treys in the backroom of some State street bar."

' 'Financially Johnson is all right Jack wasn't the fool most people imagined, and he hung on to most of his money, I guess he was hard up until the Willard contest in Havana, when he lost his title, Jack wrote that he got almost 30,000 dollars out of the match in addition to the moving pictures, which he showed in Europe. When the war broke out he hustled out of Paris, and landed in Barcelona, where he continued to make money boxing and conducting a saloon."

Johnson was apprised of the death of his mother in Chicago last week, and cabled 300 dollars home immediately after receiving the message. In a letter to his sister, the former champion writes that he is very homesick, and for her not to be surprised to see him bobbing up in, the United States in the near future. He mentioned that he was through with the boxing game and was now a full-fledged Toreador and is making a hit in his new venture. No word was inserted in the letter about his white wife. Some months ago a story was going the rounds that she had deserted him, taking with her the numerous diamonds presented her by her bushand when he was champion so it must be true.