New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1873-07-16
HOTEL HOSTILITLES.

Something worse may befall the eaters Oh o
tavern dinner than the toughness of the beef,
the strength of the butter, the slopplness OF
the coffee, and the general weakness ana IN
adequacy OF the banquet. One can haruiy
take much ease in an inn, when ne Is JUS
tracted in his mastication, or In his puzzled
perusal of the bill of fare, by duet OF pistol
pops. The smell of powder is not appetizlng'
The yhiz of the leaden messengers is not cpl
curean. With his life in immediate dan
ger. how can the most confirmed
sybarite surrender himself to prandlal
enioyments9 How can he (if we may be al
lowed to ask such question: properly STUDY
the courses when be is likely to become SUD
denly corse himselff How partake OF fooc
when he may so soon be food h1mself "A
caravansery liable to duels In the dining-roonl
should serve nothing but funeral baked meats
and keep private coroner, If not an UNDER
taker OF at least surgeon on the premises.
The knights of old Toasted in chain mail, and
"drank the red wine through the helmet bars"
hit rpoWy.a-days the "g6ntleManly proprietors"
would hardly permit us to dine In sheet-fon
garments. ; They would MT be considered
genteel enough for q first-class house.
Now. whether the Otis House in Atchison,
Kansas, is of this genteel and expensive
description, we do not know but we suppose
that il ia, from the fact that one hundred
ladies, gentlemen and children were eating
their dinners in it on Sunday, July @. at
what stage Of the feast they had arrived,
| whether they were busy with soup or with wal
nuts, we know not; but being at the beginning,
middle or end of the carte, they were sud
denly astonished, and dropped spoon, fork or
nut-pick in the greatest alarm; for there was
Mr.. Jacob S. Hoke discharging the contents
of his revolver at Mr.. William NJ. Mar
bourg, who stood at the entrance and
was returning Mr.. Hoke's compliments,
shot for shot. Here was a pleas
ant state of things for the gentlemanly
landlord, for the gentlemanly head waiter,
for the ungentlemanly tail walters, and last,
and of course least, for the ladies and gen.
tlemen who were dining, and some of whom
might have had tid-bits on their way from
plate to mouth at tho very moment OF the
first explosion. To put it mildly, this
little interruption occasioned a stir. Ladies
screamed, children cried, both made pel-mell
for the door, as if tho Otis House were very
much on fire. The combatants, however, con-
bourg received a shot in the arm. An I'M
fortunate colored waiter received shot in
the cheek, and must have howled horribly.
Hoke was seized by the friends with whom
he had been dining, and was disarmed.
The wounded MarbOurg went in search
of a surgeon. The wall of woman subsidized.
| The men who had crawled under the tables
emerged from their bomb-proofs. The CORE
spondent of The Ledrenworth Commercial, who
appears to have been an eye witness of these
lively TRANSACTIONS went to his den, and, i'm
| proving the opportunity, sent to his newspa-
| per a graphic description of the fight, in the
course Of which he gravely and wisely re-
marked that "the fact of these men having
go little regard for the lives of others as to
"carry a personal fight into large hotel and
" open fire In the midst of women and chill
"dren renders them deserving of punishment
"of no ordinary severity" Not very gram
NAUTICAL perhaps, but good sound sense, and
conclusion to be disputed by nobody who
| loves to dine in peace and safety.
| Is the reader curious to know the occasion
of this malapropos monomachy' VIII anybody
be astonished out Of his senses to learn that
a wOman-MIs. HOke, in fact-was ut the bot
tom of the ditlicultyf VIII it be considered
ungallant if we observe that ""ris ever thus 7"
| Mrs. Hoke had discarded her true and lawful
husband, and cast her fortunes with Marbourg.
Hence the spelling of the dinner in the Otis
House, Atchison, Kansas, July 9, 1873.
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