New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1857-07-31


militant must be a most uncomfortable thing 10
m,psse Just to think that the point of every par.
sarsph must be a pistol,-thst every personality
involves powder that the slightest slip Of the pen
msy be followed By shots that the penalty OF
reskisssness must be the revolver that all your
fun, criticism and personal isvective must lead to
guns, percussion caps and ball cartridges The
luxury Of editing paper under such circumstances
in New.York would be altogether too costly. We
should fancy every footstep heard upon our stairs
to be that OF an assassin. We should be obliged to
write with . rife at our side six shooter In
our pocket, and q howie.knifs between our
teeth. We should think it to be our duty TO put
on secret arwor, like the first and last Napoleon.
We should proceed at once to fortify the Office
Upon one side, Paixhan gun should grin horribly
up Nassau street at The Herald-uPon the other,
like instrument of death should terrfy the dlscon-
tented deDizeDs Of Spruce street. We should keep
bull dogs with the square't chops and the shortest
tails. always at the door. There should be man.
trsp at every landing.place. We would have SEN
tnels and watchwords, and all that sort OF thing
In short, We should 60 in for q war, and fight it
out with as much aacrity as if we were after Gen.
Jscksons golden tobscco.bo1.
Should it ever be our fortune to conduct news
paper in Louisvllle Kentucky (Which the Fates
foreteId), all these precautions will at once be
adopted by us. We cannot think Of printing
Office in that place without moat, draw.brdge'
portculIs, bastion and rampant. We should ex'
pect at least every other sarcasm to lead to siege
and should lay in our provender and powder ac-
cordiDgy. Those who think such precautions
would be unnece sssry ought to read the accounts
Of the great Prentice and Durrett mOnOmachy,
which have occupied recently so large space in
the daily newspapers. Wehave perused them with
reverence anu W.; VII awe. We have always sup
posed Mr.. Prentice to be successful "joker of
jokes" Who has not heard of Prentice's last"
and who has not devOutly wished that it was really
the lastl Behold the funny man trsusmOgrifed
into fighting man See the punster pugnacious
How this metamorphosis occurred, we can relate in
. very few words. certain Mr. Elliott is run
ming for Congress in Kentucky upon the Buchanan
sntry, declared that the said Elliott was an unre
formed inebriate, inordnately given to whisky skins
ard other beverages Of like nature Upon this
The Louisville Courier resorted to the arg. I'D hon.,
and made very distinct illusions to the bacchana-
liam propensites of Mr.. Prentice. He had been
seen in mellow condition in the streets Of Louis.
vile. He had been noticed availing himself Of the
legs Of his friends, his own being past service.
Therefore, as The Courier with show of justice,
argued it did not lay in the boots aud breeches of
MIR. Prentice to taunt any man with alcoholic in
dulgences.
The reply of Mr.. Prentice to this charge fills us
with admiration. Supposing certain Mr.. Durrett
agreeable billet dOur to that gentleman informing
him that, if he would he at Q certain corner at q
certain hour it would give Mr. Prentice the utmost
satisfaction to shoot him. Our own way would
have been to keep clear of that particular corner.
We never were shot; but our impression, derived
from observation and reading, is, that the violent
entrance Of leaden ball into any part Of the human
system is always accompanied by pain. We sup
pore however, that Mr.. Durrett had his little lido
syncracy, and was the victim of monOmauia for
being shot. At any rate, he went to the given
corner at the given hour. Prentice was there,
and popped at his foe, who in his turn
popped at Prentice. They made targets Of each
other for some time, but neither was hit. Each
gentleman was no doubt actuated by benevolent
desire to send the other to the shades; but each,
agtated by bis emotions, took very bad aim.
A Door Mr.. Hinkls, who had an office on
the corner, hearing the pistols and the whizzng of
the bullets, got up to shut his door, and
" bile doing so received pumbeous deposit in the
calf Of his leg. Was there ever such ridiculous
bluhderf 1t was of course necessary to shoot
somebody, but why should poor Mr. Hinkle be
made the victimi The wrath of Prentice aud Dur
rett was great but why should Hinkle be made
burnt Offering to sppease itl However, after this
innocent man was shot, the champions had the
COED sense to suspend their explosions for the time
More letters, however, are passing between them
Durett, with great consideration, has invited Prem
tice to 20 to some unfrequented place and take
another bout at popping. He justly thinks that
this pastime should be SO pursued as not "to i'm
peril the lives of innocent persons" Prentice re-
plies that he has such an utter, absolute, over
wbelming contempt for Durrett that he does not
consider that person worth shooting. 1T IT,"
says Mr. P, benevolenty and generously, "per.
fectly immaterial to me whether your life is taken
OF not" Here is magpanmity which We think
We should appreciate, were we the foe Of Mr..
Prentice. We hope that he will be guided by tho
same rule should anything in this article prove
offensive to him. 1t may be perfectly inmate
rial" to him whether our life is taken or not but it
ia not perfectlv mmaterial to ia.