The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1873-06-30
The Duello In New York.

4
The most vehement of TRADES were heapet
upon Virginia and the South by New Yorl
journals upon the occasion of the late due
in this city. Our whole community wa
held responsible for that duel-it being de
nounced rs an outcropping Of southern
morality. And now we have duel in New
York. We print the particulars elsewhere
And what story it Is, this duel of mem
bers of the thigh society" of New York
The parties are said to be gentlemen Of
"high, social position" What was the
grievance of the challenging party? The
papers all say that he had suffered dishonor
by the seduction of his wife by the man he
challenged! We have been familiar with
public events in the South for 10! these
MANY years, and we never knew duel
to be, fought on this ground. South
ern men don't fight duels for such cause.
The northern imitators of the chiyalry in
this cause are but poor copyists, and degrade
the duel in their vulgar imitation. Southern
gentlemen have killed seducers, but if they
did not do this they never went to the field
to seek redress for an injury from them.
We have no defence for the duel. 1t is
one way to resent wrongs. 1t is only better
than some others resorted to in those bloody
and lawless conflicts which will continue as
long as men are expected TO resent insults.
How long that will be no one can tell
But our New York friends have the duel,
and they have what is worse. While they
are denouncing us of the South let them de-
fend themselves not only for what they
satirize us, but for that which is peculiarly
bad in their own society, where money, not
worth, is the claim for social responsibility,
and where the gamblers and swindlers in
gold, and stock rings, are the leaders of the
social circle. The New York Commercial,
speaking OF the duel, says: .,... ...,.....
ct Is we'll enough to talk about Paris,
and to thank the kind stars that we are not
like ths Parisians, and that. American life
and education breed a race of quite another
sort than is granted in the sitting atmos-
phere Of the 'gas sej0ur.' But alas the
evidences thicken that our young men born
for the purple are quite equal to all that the
most eXacting immortality demands, and that
they and their companions are able at the
same time to maintain the semblance of O
decent regard for the prophecies of life, and
are quoted as authorities in things fashions
bic, are foremost on the lists of our first cir
cles,' without whom ball or dinner party
would be dreary waste. One gentleman
of high standing, long suspected of foul play
at cards, is detected and exposed, and made
10 suffer social and club ostracism. Another
who is supposed to hold the keys OF q lead
ing club, membership in which has generally
been regarded as personal distinction,
challenges man for seduciDg his wife,
who is notorious as a social offender.
The seducer accepts the challenge.
They meet and exchange shots. We can
hardly realize that such a miserable pol
troon could fire, a pistol, much less hold a
high position in the first-society q ID OF New
York. What commentary on the best
upper-tendom. A man of honor Is sat-
isfied to have his home desolatel, his family
connections disgraced, to stand UP and be
shot down like a dog, provided he can draw
pair Of hair-triggers on the sedueer OF his
wife. And the offender ia received in the
best society as q hero, and new honors
and new conuuests await him. Surely there
is something very rotten in Denmark when
such things can be and when 80 many hidden
offences come to the surface together. The
mere fact of exposure has lost its terrors
Society pretends to abhor, but soon pities
and embraces, and q new garland is added
to the coronal Of social rerown. 4, There i.
no court of honor to pass upon these cases
but society owes it to itself to put a ban thai
cannot be removed, and one whose sting vii
be forever felt, upon the unblushing viola
tors Of social obligations" tc. s}; 4 /!