He's Willing Now

1920

But Champion Is a Late Late, Says Georgia Poet.

The following was received by the sporting editor of The Saturday Blade from Atlanta, Ga.:

Our Champion.

He's willing to fight in France, they say,
For half a million or so;
But he passed up a chance at a buck a day
When they called on us all to go.

I think I speak for a million chaps
Who went to France with a vim,
Ready for anything — death perhaps —
So —
Hope Georges whales hell out of him.

—Jack Converse.

—The Saturday Blade, Chicago, Jan. 3, 1920, p. 10.

Note: This poem concerns Jack Dempsey, whose reputation was tainted when it was alleged he was a draft dodger during World War I. There's some details at this link. "Georges" was Georges Carpentier, a French war hero. Dempsey had a match against him in 1921, called the "Battle of the Century."


Canadian Boxer Challenges

1920

Brousseau Wants to Meet Carpentier In Montreal.

The Canadian Hockey Club has cabled a challenge to Georges Carpentier's manager in London for the French boxer to meet Eugene Brousseau, Dominion's middleweight champion, in a boxing exhibition in Montreal, July 1, Dominion day, at one of the race tracks.

Brousseau has recovered from a slight attack of paralysis, which followed his bout with Chip, in Portland.

—The Saturday Blade, Chicago, Jan. 3, 1920, p. 10.

Paid $1,500 to Clear Jack Dempsey, Wife Confesses

1920

Paid $1,500 to Clear Jack Dempsey, Wife Confesses to a Federal Jury

LOS ANGELES, Cal. — A statement to the Federal Grand Jury in this city, making an investigation into the charges that she had been "induced" to leave the country in order to avoid testifying in the slacker cases against Jack Dempsey, her ex-husband, Mrs. Jack Dempsey, or Maxine Wayne, as she is better known, made a clean breast of the transaction, in which it was said she was paid a sum of money to repudiate her first statement involving Dempsey in the slacker charges.

Mrs. Dempsey said she was given $1,500 in cash in Los Angeles. It is claimed by the Department of Justice investigators that she later received other substantial sums.

Arrangements were being made, she said, to send her out of the country when the Department of Justice operatives blocked the scheme. Offers to pay her money to leave, said to have been in telegrams sent to her over fictitious signatures, will be substantiated, it was claimed by the messages themselves. They were seized by the Government. Letters written by Dempsey with reference to his draft status also are in possession of the Government.

Mrs. Dempsey frankly stated her earnings had helped to support Dempsey before he became the world's champion heavyweight.

Julius E. Gardner, who was arrested at San Diego, is involved in the plans to get Mrs. Dempsey out of the country, according to the Federal authorities.