Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1870-08-18
Seleft Story.
DUEL In THE DARK.
BY JUDGE ARLINGTON.

has always been remarkable, even be
fore the recent war gave her profound
national interest. Many years ago sh'
supplied the class of writers who fur
nish the substratum for most of the cir
culating libraries, with plots dark ant
dreadful enough to satisfy even the
present craving for sensation. The
place has been noted since Its earliest
settlement for the belligerent character
of inhabitants and the number anC
atrocity of the violent deeds which
stained its streets with the blood of hu
man hearts.
1t il not our present purpose, however
to sketch any of these more celebrated
brute battles, but merely to select, fol
the sake of its mournful moral alone, o
solitary tragedy, which was briefly
chronicled by the press of the day, and
which then faded from the recollection
of all, save one from whom the writer
received the story in all its particularly
In the year 1927, a young lawyer, John
Thomas, emigrated from Worcester in
Massachusetts,, to the State of Mississip-
pi. He was poor, had recently married
a beautiful, accomplished woman, who
had renounced wealthy parents for his
sake, and hence was anxious to better
his fortune in as little time as possible.
This consideration determined the legal
adventurer to locate at Vicksburgh, then
considered the paradise of the bar.
In very short time the new lawyer
had ample reasons to fatter himself
on the. choice of his position. His
bland demeanor, studious habits, and
more than all, his eloquence in debate,
won him patronage; and he rose, al
most at single bound, to the first place
in his profession. He was employed in
all the land suits, and in most of the
still more lucrative'cases of homicide, so
that in the period of two years after his
advent he had cleared the round sum
of thirty thousand dollars. Let no
skeptical disciple of Lord Coke deem
this statement incredible. SIS. Prentiss
realized, cash in hand, forty thousand
dollars by his opening speech in Vicks-
burg.
During his career thus far, young
Thomas was remarkable in one respect.
He never went armed, and although in
fierce and fiery alterations of the forum
he necessarily made some enemies, no
attack had hitherto been ventured on
his person. The athleticism of his noble
form, and the look of invincible deter
mination in his keen blue eyes, had
doubtless warned the desperadoes that
"the Yankee orator." as he was gener-
ally termed, could hit as hard blows in
the courtyard as he did in the court
itself. However this may be, two years
elapsed, years too, of eminent success,
before the peaceable attorney was ever
insulted. Alas! this halcyon period
was doomed to a change alike sudden
and terrible.
There resided at that time in the town
a notorious duelist by the name of john
son, whose matchless prowess inspired
universal fear. He had slain half
dozen foes on the public "field of hon.
or" and as mary in private and irregu
lar encounter. All the members of
"the bloody fancy club" spoke of Mike
Johnson's feats with rapturous enthusi-
asm. But all good mel, in lovers Of
peace, when the "hrave wretch" passed
were pale and silent.
At the May term of the District Court,
1928 the graud jury mastering extraor-
dinary courage, returned a true bill
against Johnson for the murder Of VIM.
Lee, an inoffensive youth whom he had
shot down in a drunken frolic, under
circumstances of peculiar aggravation.
Thomas was retained hy friend of the
deceased to aid in the Prosecution and,
notwithstanding the earnest advice
of his well.wishers to the contrary, ap-
peared on The trial OF the case, one Of
the most exciting ever argued at the
bar Of Vicksburg. On the last evening
vi thc seSSIoi, aitet stoJouihhiehe, hh'S.
rushed into the presence of his wife,
with looks of such evident agitation as
to fill her soul with overpowering alarm.
"My love, tell me in the name OF
heaven, what has happened ?" she cried,
pale as a corpse, and shaking like leaf
in the wind.
Nothing" answered the husband,
thinking to conceal the most fearful
part ofthe Intelligence. Nothing, only
the murderer, Mike johnson, after his
acquittal grossly in,ulted me in the
court yald, and knocked him down. "
"And he challenged you to fight him
with pstols!" almost .hrieked the wife,
anticipating the rest, with the quick
ness of woman's keen common sense.
at is even so," replied the lawyer
mournfully.
"Oh say that you will not meet him.
Oh swear that you will not turn duelist
in this Sodom of the South !" implored
the wife, throwing her arms around his
neck, and sobbing like q child on his
bosom.
"There, do not weep now 1 will not
turn duelist, dear Emma, although 1
much fear that the consequence will be
my ruin"
"God will protect you from the bold,
bad man."
The next morning it was known in
Vicksburg that "the Yankee orator"
had been challenged and refused to fight
Accordingly, he was generally denounc.
ed as coward-a, word (which at that
day might be considered as expressing
far deeper scorn. than either: robber. or
aes,.s;p As he rassad sthrouph the