Eye Wash

Tex Rickard trumpeted from Florida and the nation's press picked up the echoes greedily. Said the famed promoter: "Jack Dempsey is through with the ring." Said Fisticuffer Dempsey in California: "If Tex says so I guess it's true." Failing sight owing to socks in and about the eye were among the reasons offered. Skeptics of the press, long used to sound and fury meaning nothing but publicity, pointed out wearily that Dempsey would not be through with the ring until the public unmistakably gave evidence of unwillingness to pay to see him fight.