Jack Dempsey had no loaded gloves, nor did he use plaster of Paris over his bandages. I make this assertion despite the recent statement by Jack Kearns, Dempsey’s manager in that contest, that he had sprinkled plaster of Paris powder over the bandages on Jack’s hands and then poured on alcohol to form a plaster cast. I watched the proceedings and the only person who had anything to do with the taping job was Deforest, who, after he had taped the hands, poured some water over the bandages to keep Jack’s hands cool. Of course, any solution poured over bandages will harden them, but that’s all that took place. Deforest became riled when the loaded gloves stories began to appear. I recall a press conference he had with several reporters, including myself, at which he angrily remarked: “I regard the stories that I put plaster of Paris on Jack’s bandages as plain libel. I’m tired of hearing people talk about such nonsense. It’s pure trash. These rumors affect my reputation for honesty and fair dealing. I did apply some water over the bandages when Jack complained about the extreme heat, and that was all. I did not apply any foreign substance to them. I used a hard adhesive tape. This certainly was not irregular. It was not against the rules. It was the same kind of tape I always used when I bandaged Kid McCoy’s hands.” Deforest’s statement should settle all further arguments. It was not until the recent fall-out between Kearns and Dempsey over the proposed movie of Jack’s life (in which Kearns plays no part) that the latter gave this new version of the bandaging of Dempsey’s hands. Kearns has always denied the plaster of Paris yarn over the years, only to change the story in the past few months. * * * * * It was during the training camp period for the Toledo fight that Rickard first expressed to me his thinking for bouts to come. He had invited the Connecticut sportsman, Joe Mulvihill, the Mad Hatter of Danbury, to accompany us on a visit to Dempsey’s camp, and on the way, Mulvihill had remarked, “One of these days, Tex, we’ll have a million dollar gate.” Tex laughed and kidded him, but after Mulvihill had gone back to the hotel with several newspapermen, Rickard turned to me and said, “That ain’t a dream, Nat.” I could see that he was visualizing things, though he didn’t do much talking. He was keeping his plans to himself, but he did say to me: “What we need is one big international heavyweight championship and you’ll see the biggest crowd that ever attended a boxing match in this country.” It wasn’t long after Dempsey won the title that I went overseas as Rickard’s agent to seek the man that Tex wanted so badly for that million dollar gate. He soon signed French war hero Georges Carpentier, for a fight with Dempsey, and from the moment that the contract was made it looked as if Rickard’s dream would come true.