Jack Johnson Stranded.

Manawatu Times, Volume XL, Issue 13522, 5 October 1916, Page 7

Jack Johnson Stranded.

News cornea from Madrid, Spain, fcays a New Yoxk paper, that Jack {Johnson, the former world's champion is down and out. The letter goes on to say:—"Only the diamonds that his jittle white wife is wearing stand between Johnson and poverty. This is the general impression of Americans who have observed the former world's champion in his desperate efforts to make money in Spain. Some months ago Johnson turned up in Spain with his wife, an English boxing trainer and a coloured boxer, and took a suite of rooms at a palatial hotel. He attempted to book passages for Brazil, but learned that he was not permitted to leave Spain without a passport. The American Embassy refused to issue him a passport under instructions from /Washington because he fled from Chicago. Making the best of his plight, Johnson went to Barcelona and staged a prize iight between himself and another negro. But the Spaniards are so used to seeing blood spilled at bull lights that the bout was not a success, though Johnson beat his opponent to a pulp, in an effort to satisfy the spectators' love of gore. The 1000 dollars that Johnson earned at the iight soon ran out and he is having a hard time coaxing promoters to stage another affair. He told friends that "Unless he can start a boxing school here he will have hard sledding."