The River Falls journal. (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1857-1861, 1858-08-25
9f(ilstellaneous.
From the Home Journal
THE DELIBERATE ASSASSIN
BY A SOUTHERN MAJ.

MANY years ago, there HVed IN st.
Louis, Missouri, a young man, whom,
delicacy for the feelings of others requires
that | should designate by pseudonym,
which shall be Raymond. His parents
we're wealthy, respectable and ambitious
for the success of their son in life. They
accordingly gave him every facility which
the educational Institutions of the West
afforded at that day for intellectual i'm
provement. His mental aptitudes being
favorable, he came forth from college an
accomplished scholar, with range of
! culture and attainment quite unusual for
one of his age. He was originally des-
tined for the bar, but the fragility of his
health, early developed, rendering the
labors of that profession too laborious,
and the wealth of his parents, of whom
he was the only child, making them TN
necessary for his support he gave up all
idea of professional employment and had
devoted himself since his return from col
legc, to the care and Improvement of bis
! health.
, In the circle of his friends he was both
beloved and admired. To the sprlghtly
intellect and elegant scholarship, of which
have spoken, he added tho amenities
Of manner and pleasantries Of disposition,
which secure popularity in any walk of
life. The leading popularity Of his emo
tional organization was a high-toned chi
valry of spirit, which neither permitted
him to give causeless offence to others
nor to brook it when given to himself.
He was, in a nord, the youthful Cheya-
lier Bayard of the western metropolis in
which he lived, and was, as [ have said,
respected and beloved by all for his &C
complishments of manner and his graces
of both mind and heart.
In the same city with him lived ano-
Their person, his opposite in most respects,
whom | must also indicate, by one of bis
three initials, as B. This parsonage had
emigrated from Tennessee, where he was
known chiefly as a pot-house brawler and
overbearing bully, and settled in st. Louis
! to practice law. A residence of several
years, some ingenuity Of mind and great
.udacity of manner, had given him a
position, social and professional, which
lowered in the doubtful twilight between
responsibility and contempt. He was
passionately fond of drunken reyels, and
his great delight was to collect a crowd
of congenial characters and make night
hideous with their bacchanal orgies of
which, by virtue of his stentorian voice
and larger potations, he was undisputed
leader and chief.
For several nights, owing to some un-
explained delinquency of the city police,
the street on which Mr.. Raymond lived,
had been unusually disturbed by the ca
rousaIs of these nocturnal revellers. Mrs.
r. being an invalid, the uproar WAS very
annoying to her husband and son.
One morning, there appeared in one Of
the city papers an anonymous communi-
cation animadverting in terms of deser-
we'd severity, upon the conduct of the
bacchanal crowd, and invoking a moro
vigilant interpositiou of the city police to
suppress such disorderly conduct in the
future. The communication gave deadly
I offence to B. and his associates. 1t was
decided, at once, to demand the name of
the author of the piece, and to hold him
to personal responsibility. B., as the
leader to the revel, claimed the post of
avenger of the insulted honor of himself
and his associates. The name was de-
manded and given. A challenge passed,
and as B. was not excluded from the pale
of gentlemanly recognition, it was at once
accepted.
| The day and the place for the hostile
meeting were fixed. The preparations
and the departure for the field of combat,
were conducted with so much secrecy and
dispatch, that neither the police nor the
parents of Raymond. knew anything at
all of the matter, until the tidings of the
duel itself were brought to the city.
The place selected for the fight was
upon the declivity of small undulation,
facing the west, at the base of which, and
only a few feet from the spot where the
eombatants were to stand, flowed small
stream of water. The preliminaries being
arrane ed, the parties were placed in their
i respective positions-the grim and scowl-
ing bacchanal confronting the pale invalid,
J scarcely half his equal in age, but almost