In Niles

In an optical office on the second floor above the drug store that is the social centre of Niles, Mich., Harry Wills, onetime stevedore, leaned his black bulk against a door-jam and watched Champion William Harrison Dempsey sign a contract to meet him in a ten-round, no-decision contest in Michigan City, Ind., in Sept., 1926. Promoter Floyd Fitzsimmons posted 1200,000 as a forfeit, Dempsey $100,000, Wills $50,000. Every man in the land who reads a,sport sheet had an opinion to offer bn this historic scene, the culmination of four years of bickering. Some likened it to the Oath of the Tennis Court, the signing of Magna Carta, of the Treaty of Versailles. Others were more skeptical; among them:

Promoter Tex Rickard. "I think Dempsey must be crazy.... I have what I consider an ironclad agreement with him to box Wills for me. I think I can hold him to this contract for an amount equivalent

to the estimated profits A lot

of things can happen between now and the fall of 1926."

Manager Jack Kearns. "You can say right now that if Dempsey has not provided for my share of his money from the fight, he'll find himself in a pretty mess. I'll not only seek to prevent his fighting but I'll proceed against him in connection with every source of income he has...."