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SHOWMAN
in my day, with much more excuse. There was no boxing outside private clubs or bootlegged bouts on barges, with the sheriff's posse likely to appear any minute. The ordinary citizen had no chance to see boxing at all and, by the same token, side-bets were the only way the boxers could make any money out of straight fighting. So the average man's urge to see the fighters in action and the fighters' financial needs were taken care of— more or less— by exhibition-tours or by theatrical tours, with the boxers starred in specially constructed plays.
Sullivan went over in a big way in a play called "Honest Hearts and Willing Hands"— the title should give you a rough idea of what it was like. Peter Jackson, who, black or not, was as fine and intelligent a man as ever walked, played Uncle Tom as well as I've ever seen it played in my life. Bob Fitzsimmons, the blacksmith from down under, was exploited winning the championship in "The Honest Blacksmith." The play included a real forge on the stage and Fitzsimmons would delight the audience by making real horseshoes before their eyes— and, if he liked you, he'd make one specially for you with his name written in the redhot iron. Acting ability didn't cut much ice in these cases. Plenty of people were going to pay money to see the great John L. whether or not he could act a lick. But that made it all the neater for somebody like Corbett who could act and fight both.
It was that combination, in fact, which made the pair
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