After eight or nine years of rough work in and out of the ring, James was pretty well down and almost out. He had a wife and three children. The husky young fellow who started out to write his name on the scroll of fame humbly asked somebody else to write it on the relief roll for him. His family needed food.

So did James, for that matter. In his younger days he had been a light heavyweight, but in later and temporarily happier times he earned enough to eat his fill and he grew into a heavyweight. He went as high as 200 pounds, eating regularly and even deliberately. Two or three times after that he went down toward the light heavyweight class again, much against his will. He went short of food because he was short of money.

The Clouded Campaign Record.

Just about a year ago Jersey James was a much-battered plodding pugilist on the road to nowhere. He had been beaten some twenty-one times by various gents, some of whom were excessively unimportant in the pugilistic world.

One of his opponents broke a couple of ribs for him in a kindly way. Another broke his collarbone by accident. He was aiming at the Braddock chin but his aim was bad. Jersey James helped to swell the accident record by breaking his own right hand two or three times.

He met a stranger in the ring one night and the stranger presented him with a cauliflower ear. That was for remembrance. Other fellows cut him about the face with their gloves and there was much hem-stitching to do to repair the features of the stubborn fellow from New Jersey.

With all that behind him, James apparently had nothing ahead of him. He was washed up as a fighter: He was penniless. He had a family to support. Ne couldn't get work, even though he was a handy man at all sorts of jobs. Things looked dark for the Braddock family.

Then Max Baer fought Prime Camera, and Journeyman James, the plodding pugilistic, got a break. Some smart fellows were building up a fighter named Corn Griffin. He was to be an the Baer-Carnera program, in the supporting cast. He needed a victim to prove his sterling worth. Somebody happened to think of Jersey James. He would do nicely for a victim. He needed the money and what would one more beating be to him?

The Road Back.

So James came over from Jersey, an alleged lamb for the slaughter. His right hand had only recently healed from one of its broken fits. He had no time to train but that didn't make any difference because he had no money to pay for training expenses and neither did his manager. Both were broke. If nothing else, this was a chance to eat.

The tall Corn Griffin laid into the untrained and half-starved Braddock in the Long Island Bowl and gave Jersey James hark-from-the-tomb for a couple of rounds. Mr. Braddock went back to his corner on wobbly pins. But in the third round Jersey James, the stubborn gent, caught the full-flowering Corn Griffin on the chin and spread Corn all over the canvas.

That was one thing about Jersey James. They might out-box him or even belt him around. But he was stubborn and he could hit.

The victory over Griffin was the first step on the road back far Jersey James. But this Battle of Long Island didn't put James on Easy Street, It just about paid his debts and provided a little much-needed food.

In November be drew another lucky break. Somehow he managed to win a decision over John Henry Lewis who was--and is--a pretty good fighter. This meant that Jersey James was off the relief roll and on the regular fighting rolls again.

The Big Jump.

His next advance was a long leap. Art Lasky bad been coming along fast as a heavyweight contender. Art didn't want to fight Braddock because beating Jersey James wouldn't mean much. But in the end Art had to be content with the match because Braddock seemed to be the only one who wanted to fight him. At that stage Jersey James would have been willing to fight Lasky, Baer, the National Guard and a Bengal tiger in the same ring for $500 in cash and give the tiger the first three bites.

The story of that evening was that Lasky went in there alone with Jersey James and Jersey James gave him a fierce walloping. If Lasky had won, as expected, the boxing commissioners would have made him No. 1 Man on Max Baer's list of callers. When Jersey James won, they put him in that favored spot.

He Can't Lose

Around town the query is: Has Braddock any chance? Well, in a certain and very important fashion for the Braddock family, James can't lose. He was broke and now he is headed for a heavy chunk of money. His family was hungry and now the Braddocks, big and little, are assured of good food and pleasant lodgings for same time to come. That was what James was after -- and it seemed far, far away -- when he started to rise from the depths a year ago. He has put that in the winning column by coming up for this fight for the heavyweight championship.

As for Braddock's chances of winning the fight, Jack Dempsey always said that any one who could punch was a dangerous opponent. That was why the Manasss Mauler tore in with speed and tried to finish off his opponents in a hurry. He didn't want to linger in a vicinity where danger was stalking.

The hilarious Harlequin of Hollywood is younger, stronger, bigger and faster than Jersey James, the journeyman plodder. By any system of accounting, Baer figures to win. But Braddock is a stubborn gent and he can punch with his right hand. He has been hungry and this is his chance at a fortune. He has a chance. Probably it is just a chance. But a year ago it seemed that he had no chance whatever to get anywhere. And look where he is now.

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