The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1842-08-06


meeting, and high public iunctionary ofgrea!
courage and discretion, was fixed upon as my Sc
| cond and ! answered the note in the most polite
manner imaginable accepting the invitation, and
! leaving the preliminaries to be settled by the
| plenipotentiaries and high contracting parties.
| Early in the afternoon u carriage drove to the
| door, containing two of my particular friends,
with request to take ride. Surprising it was
| intended to talk over Matters and arrange for
| contingencies, the weather being exceedingly
| pleasant sprang in, and away went as fast
| as two spanking greys could carry us. In the
| bottom Of the carriage case of pistols lay very
! comfortably, and my friends informed me that
| we were going out OF town to fire at mark, sup
| posing that was rather out of practice, which
was really the fact, never having, TO my recol-
lection, fired pistol in the course of my life
! We alghted IN the centre or field, and card
was pinned to a tree, and the pistols loaded, and
placed il, my hand at distance of ten PAGES.
Nothing daunted, raised my pistol cautiously
and firmly and hit the card. "Brave--capital-
try again, - said my friends; and went OH firing
and hitting the mark, with all imaginable cecil
ness i.eruil at9ue iierum. "You are IL first rate
shot, ;" said one. "Poor devil, he will be killed''
said the other, "there is no escape for HIM" "No
standing such shots" "Pray," said to my
friends, 'what kind Of person is this who am
to meet" ga very clever fellow, of great pro-
mise, gentleman of fortune and character, ola
large and ancient family, highly esteemed and
respected
"And am to kill him." said to my
self! Good heavens man who never
wronged me, and to whom of course en-
terluined no i'll will; shut the honor of
my party was implicated, and he must
die.n | couldn reconcile myself to the
morality or the philosophy Of this issue,
| hpt I -, ha baprS If and
of right honorable men as friends, and it
was my duty supposed to submit. The
city was alive with the projected due =
we were both the lions of the day. had
not the honor of knowing my brother
lion. who | was to kill the next day;
was quite sure that had no i'll will to-
wards him, and if the honor of our res
pective parties had not been question at
issue, felt confident that we both could
have adjusted the difficulty over bottle
of south side Madeira. in the most pacific
manner imaginable. The Police, with
strict eye to their duty, took special care
to inform all the sporting characters that
the affair was to come off at the race
course at four o'clock, and all gigs in
town were engaged to witness the exh-
bition. The ladies sighed, and thought
it pity for two such nice young fellows
to run the risk Of killing each other, but
they entered into the spirit Of the contest,
and both of us stood chance Of repre-
senting the dying Gladlators for the
amusement of the audience in
the Coliseum. Just at the very
nick of time, when the period of negotia-
t!on had been nearly exhausted, my friend
F.. S. Thomas, then Editor of the City
Gazette, believing that no good political
results were TO grow out of this duel, at
a moment Of great political excitement,
and when the country at war with great
power, required union, concert in action,
and friendly feelings among citizens, cal
led early in the morning, on Heating Lew
is Simmons, Esquire, then at the head of
the Federal pa-ty, and submitted various
considerations why this hostile meeting
was. uncaled for, and the political as well
as personal consequences which might
grow out of it; and il was finally arranged
TO call the high contracting powers to-
gether in Council, and ascertain what
COulu Dc uoHc Ill TIE premises.
After a meeting and deliberation of four
hours, it was finally agreed that there
should be no meeting-that mutual ex-
plantations should be made, and the affair
was honorably arranged according 10 the
most approved principles of duellng and
the most popular requirements Of etiquette.
was entirely satisfied with the issue, hav-
ing no desire to kill my antagonist, who
by The way, was very worthy person,
by the name of Toomer, since dead; nor
had any wish to be killed myself; but
the dear public, it seems, was not so well
satisfied with the result-there was to be
no fight after all. Pompey had harnessed
the boys in the buggy-whips, spurs, and
trotting horse were all ready for the race
course, TO see two promising young fell
lows shoot each other, and so the affair is
settled-the pistols are returned to the
case-and the doctor was not called u
pom to prepare lint, probe stick, and plas-
ter This humane disappointment, how
ever, was coupled with strong suspi-
cions pretty loudly expressed, that J, like
all vapouring democrats; would rather eat
than fight. This unworthy insinualion
which aroused my Indignation, did not
allay the political fever, and in few days
afterwards lgot into newspaper contro-
versy with gentleman, believe, by the
name of Crafts, and received another
little billet doux, to meet him at the Race
Course. To use familiar phrase of
knight of the Thimble Rig, | really did
not know how 10 head off this invitation,
when my antagonist fell sick, and the af-
fair, like the other, was honorably adjus-
ted. Let it be distinctly understood, gen
lie reader, that in these challenges to
bloody conflicts, there was really in truth