Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1873-01-08

nSnt, ana so cnalienSeu MIN IN the moSe
violent and implacable manner. Aud then
| sat down and suffered till the answer
came. All our boys-the editOrs-were
in our office, helping" me in the dismal
business, and telling about duels, and dis
cussing the code with lot of aged rufians
who had had experience in such things,
and altogether there was loving interest
taken in the matter, which made me
unspeakably uncomfortable. The answer
came-Mr Lord declined, Our boys
were furious, and so was lon the
surface
sent him another challenge, and
another and another; and the more he did
not want to fight, the blood thirstier l
became But at last the mans tone
changed. He appeared to be waking up.
1t was becoming apparent that he was
going to fight me, after all. ought to
have known how it would be-he was a
man who never could be depended upon.
| though l tried to be.
1t was now time to 60 out and practice.
1t was the custom there to fight duels
with navy six shooters at fifteen PAGES
load and empty till the game for the
funeral was secured We went to little
ravine Just outside of the town, and bor-
rowed barn door for target-borrowed
it of a gentleman who was absent-and
we stood this barn door up, and stood a
rail on end against the middle oft, to
represent Lsrd, and put a squash on top
OF the rail to represent his head, He was
very tall, lean creature, the poorest sort
of material for duel-nothing but line
shot could fetch him, and even then he
mil ght split your bullet. Exaggelation
aside, the rail was, of course, a little too
thin to represent his body accurately, but
the squash was all right. If there was
any intellectual difference betEeen the
squash and his head, it was in favor Of the
| squash.
We'll, [ practiced and practiced at the
practiced at the rail and could not hit
that, and [ tried hard for the squash, and
could not hit the squash | would have
been entirely disheartened but that occa-
sionally | crippled one Of the boys, and
that encouraged me to hope.
At last we began to hear pistol-shots
near by, 10 the next ravine. We knew
what that meant The other party were
out practicing, too, Then | was in the
last degree distressed, for, Of course, those
people would hear our shots, and they
would send spies over the ridge, and the
spies would find my barn door without a
wound or a scratch, and that would simply
! be the end of me-for Of course that other
man would Immediately become as blood
thirsty as | was. Just at this moment
little bird. no larger than a sparrow
few by, and lit on a sage-bush about 80
PAGES away; and my little second, Steve
| ellis, who was a matchless mark sman
with pistol-much better than | was
snatched out his revolver, and shot the
birds head off We all ran to pick up
the game, and sure enough, just at this
moment some OF the other dueists came
reconnoitering over the little rljge. They
rau to our group to see what the matter
was and when they saw the bird, Lords
second said. That was a splendid shot.
/ bow far off was it p
Steve said, with some indifference, "Oh
no great distance. About 80 PAGES"
Thirty PAGES Heavens alive, who
did it?"
d" My man-Twain."
The mischief he did Can he do that
often p
Well-yes. lie can do it about
well-about four times out of five"
I knew the little rascal was lying, but |
never said anything. never told him So
He was not OF disposition to invite conf
dence Of that kind, so | let the matter rest.
But it was a comfort to see those people
look sick, and see their under Jaws drop,
when Steve made these statements They
went off and got Lord, and took him home,
and when We got home, half an hour later,
there was a note saying that Mr.. Lord
peremptorly declined to fight!
1t was narrow escape. We found out
afterward that Lord hit his mark l3 times
in Is shots. If he had put those IL
bullets through me, it would have narrow
ed my sphere of usefulness good deal
would have well nigh closed it in fact
True, they could have put pegs in the
holes. and used me for hat rack but
what is hat rack to a man who feels he
has intellectual powers? | would scorn
such a position.
| have written this true incident of my
personal history for one purpose, and one
purpose only-to warn the youth of the
day against the pern.clous practice of
dueling, and to plead with them to war
against it. If the remarks and suggestions
[ am making can be of any service to
Sunday school teachers, and newspapers
interested in the moral progress of society,
they are at liberty to use them, and |
shall even be grateful to have them widely
disseminated, so that they may do as much
good as possible. | was young and foolish
when | challenged that gentleman, and |
thought it was very fine and very grand to
be duelist, and stand upon the field of
honor" But | am older and more
experienced now, and am inhexibly
opposed to the dreadful custom. am
glad indeed, to be enabled to lift up my
voice against it. think it is bad
immoral thing. think it is every mans
duty to do everything ne can to discourage
dueling. always do now; discourage
it upon every occasion.
If a man were to challenge me now
now that l can fully appreciate the ini-
putty of that practice-I would 60 to that
man, and take him by the hand, and lead
him to quiet, retired room, and kill him