RENO RECALLED.

NZ Truth, Issue 605, 20 January 1917, Page 11

RENO RECALLED.

Th« Jeffries- Johnson Fight. Jack London's "Abysmal Brute." Jack London, the noted author, Whose . death occurred recently on a ranch hear Glen Ellen, California, dubbed Jim. Jeffries the "Abysmal Brute" when the big Calif orniah was training for his fight with Jack Johnson, which took place at Reno,, Nev., m the afternoon of the Fourth of July, 1910. The appellation stuck to Jeffries and many writers used it m their descriptions of the scenes incidental to the training camps and the battle which was fought m the shadows of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. • The mounted State Rangers, cowboys, Indians, miners and bucking horses that were common sights on the streets of Reno interested London much more than 1 did the two prizefighters who were to battle for the heavy- weight championship of the world. He did not want to see the negro triumph over the white man, and yet Jeffries's sullen disposition did not inspire him with much admiration for the "white hope." The whole thing palled upon him and he lost heart m what was going on, even though it was something that was attracting more attention m this country and Europe than anything of a similar nature ever had before. WHEN LONDON'S GENIUS FAILED. Coming into the lobby of the Golden Hotel one evening, he approached a group of writers, among whom were Rex Beach and Alfred Henry Lewis, Bat Masterson, Bob Edgxen and others of lesser note, and declared that he was going home. "I'm falling down on this Job," said London. "I can't get the atmosphere of what's m the air, and I'm disgusted fathi the whole thing." "Do you know," continued London, "that I've started half-a-dozen stories and had to tear them up,. This damned thing doesn't appeal to me and I can't get the bigness of it." It required the persuasion of his friends to prevent Londoir from packing up his belongings and quitting Reno that night.' "Never mind, Mr. London," said Sir Alfred Lewis, "I . am even worse off than you axe. I have come all the way from England to see this fight, arid now I don't know what to write about." It was said that Sir Alfred had never witnessed a ring battle. Rex Beach tried to lift London out of the dumps. BeaCh had been writing some very beautiful and interesting side lights dealing with the picturesque characters of the surrounding country, scenes at the gambling tables, where thousands of dollars were' changing hands almost every hour of the day or night,, and descriptions of the hills and streams and mountain trout that were word : paintings of exceptional beauty. But he wrote little about the fight. GEORGE ADE'S FIGHT REPORT. Beach was m happy vein, and ho tried to impart hts cheerfulness to London. "Cheer up, Jack, you've been m worse messes than this," said Beach. "Forget the fight and write about something else. Say, did you ever hear how Georgo Ade covered a fight for a Now York paper? "You know Ade iv a humorist, and I guess writing up prize fights wasn't just m his line, but he got away with it is the shortest story ever written of a fight, and made a hit "Ade was sent out to report the fight between Bob Fltzslmmons and Peter Maher, which was to be to a finish and take place on the banks of the Rio Grande River near Langtry, Tex. It had been called Langtry after Lillian Langtry, the actress, because the denlaens of that email burg one day Btopped a train upon which she waft travelling and presented her with a bear. Not knowing what to do with the bear, Miss Langtry made a neat speech of acceptance and then handed it right back to tho donors, find from that time on it wan kept chained to one of the posts of the town hall and was tho principal sight of the town.

"Well, the fight between Fitasimmons and Mtiher took place on February 21, 1896. The men entered the ring and it was seen that Maher's eyes were badly inflamed and so badly swollen that he could hardly see. This condition was said to have been Caused by the alkali dust of the section of the country m which he had been training. The men squared off and m less time than it takes to tell it, and before anyOne had time to realise what was happening:, Fitzsirnmons cracked Maher on the jaw, and the fight was over. It had lasted less than one round, and Ade had nothing; .to write about, because he knew nothing of the blow which had knocked out Maher, and there was nothing else to describe. So he wired his paper the following account: FOUND HIS STRIDE LATER. "'I stooped to tie my shoe, and when I looked up the fight was / over." " London's experience at Reno made, a very unfavorable impression upon him, but/ it provided him with material which he moulded into < a story a couple of years afterwards and called It "The Abysmal Brute.". For this story London took the body and physical development of Jim Jeffries and clothed it with a different mentality and spirit, and named his champion Pat Glendon. Glendon came from a long line of fighting men, of which his father was best, and .the author imputes to him only the purest motives m his career as a prize fighter and an "abhorrence of dishonest methods. It was London's conception of what a champion fist fighter should be like. In Pat Glendon he created on ideal that he never found m reality. It is probable that London gave but little study to the boxing game and must have deponded very much upon others for statements contained- in his story reflecting upon nearly everyone connected with the sport. He betrayed his ignorance of the science of boxing, too, by ascribing methods to Giendon that no real boxer would use, as, for. instance: "Glendon stopped right-hand punches for stomach with his hip." No experienced boxer Will stop punches with his hip if he can avoid it, because it is. known to them that such blows will deaden the leg and maße action sluggish. One of the things that thoroughly disgusted London with the contest between Jeffries and Johnson was his conviction that a man had beon sent into the ring who hed no chance to win, unless the fight was "fixed"— a man who was a mere shadow of his former self. RING CONDITIONS JARRED ON HIM. He knew that men behind Jeffries Were responsible for it and it convinced him that things of the prize ring were not as they should be, and he was all too willing to believe it. So, m a conversation that his hero, Pat Glendon, "the abysmal brute," is having with Miss Maud Sangster, a writer for a San Fxanciaoo paper, Glendon is made to say: , The ring is rottener than you told me It seems everybody connected with It is crooked. The very supervisors that grant the fight permits graft off the promoters; < and the promoters, managers and fighters graft oft each other, and oft* the public. It's down to a system, m one way, and on the olher hand, they're always — do you know what the doublo-cross is? (She nodded). Well, they don't seem to miss a chance to give each other the double-cross. That was London's indictment of the ring, and he believed it, though he concludes that "It'd a good game, too, If It were only square."