The Idaho world. [volume] (Idaho City, Idaho Territory) 1864-1918, 1873-01-16
IDAHO WORLD.
FoWI ESCAPED BEING KILLED IN A DUEL.
By MARX TWAIN.

Ills merely thrown ia to curry favor with 'a
religious element.
Alter had reported couple OF years ON tn
VIRGINIA CITY (Neyada) Daily Enterprise, tue.
nromoted me to be editor-in- chlet-and IasteS
inst week, BY the watch. But made an un
Commonly live newspaper while did last an0
when retired had duel on my hands, anl
three horse-whppings promised me. Inc iat
ter made no attempt to collect; however, tnl'
history concerns only the former. Ii was Tue
old flush times" of the silver excitement,
when the population was wonderfully via ano
,nixe6: everybody went armed TO the tee.a'
and all sights and insults had to be atoned 10,
with the best article OF blood your system couii
finnish In the course OF my editing maze
trnnble with q Mr.. Lord, editor of the rival
naner He few up about some little tribe or
other that / said about him do not remem-
her now what it was | suppose l called him
\ thief. or boiy-snatcher. or an idiot, or some
thing like that l was obliged to make the pa
ner readable, and could not fail in my duty 10
a whole community of subscribers merely 10
save the exaggerated sensitiVeness OF an indl-
yidual. Mr. Lord was offended, and replied
vigorously in his paper Vigorously means u
great deal when it refers 10 a personal edltori-
al IN q frontier newspaper. DGellng was all
the fashion among the upper classes IN that
country, aud very few gentlemen would throw
away an opportunity OF lighting one To hill q
person in duel caused man 10 DC even more
looked up to than to Kill TWO men in the ordina-
~ way. Well, ont there. ii You abused man.
and that man did not Ike il, you had 10 call
him out and kill him; otherwise you woaid be
disgraced So / challenged Mr, Lord, and
did hope he would not accept bnt knew per
fectlv well that he did not want 10 light, and so
/ challenged him in the most violent and I'M
placable manner. Aud then l sat down ana
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 discussing the code with lot Of aged rut
fans who had had experience in such things
and altogether there was a loving interes. u
Ken in the matter. which made me uaspeakaby
uncomfortable. The answer came-Mr LORD
declined. Our boys were t2rious, and so was
lon the surface.
Isent him another challenge, and another, |
and another; and the more he did not want TO !
fight the bloodihirstier became Bat q. las:
the mans tone changed. lie appeared TO he /
waking up. Ii was becoming apparent thai be .
was going to tgh. me, after all. ought u /
have known how il would be-he was : man .
who never could be depeaded upon. Our boys
were exultan. Twas not. though tried ~ BE-. \
1t was now time 10 60 Qua aud practice. II I
was the custom there 10 fight Guels with navy
six-shooters at fifteen paces-load and empty
TIL the game for the funeral was secure. We
went to q little rayine just outside OF town and /
borrowed barn door Tor L t2rget-bo-rowed
it from a gentleman who was abseur-and we
stood this barn door up, and stood 2 sail Oh end
against the middle OF il, 10 represent Lord. aud
put squash on top the rail 10 represent his
head He was very tall, lean creature. the
poorest sort Of material for a duel-uotAiue
but a line shot could fetch" hiRi. aud evea
then be might split your bullet. Exaggeration
aside. the rail was, of course, little too thin
10 represent his body accurately, but the squash
vas all right. If there was any intellectual
Inference between the squash and his head, !.
vas in favor of the squash.
Well, practiced and practiced at the barn.
loor, and could not hit that: and practjcedl
1t the rail. and could not his that; aud tried
lard for the squash and could not hit the
quash. would have been entirely d.sheart
med but that occasionally | crippled one oil
ne boys and that encouraged me to hope
AT last We began to hear pis.ol-shots near
y IN the next raviae- We knew what that
meant The other PARTY were out prac.icine
co. Then was in the last degree distressed
or OF course those people would hear our
hots, and they would send spies over the
idge. and the spies would find nv barn.door /
Without wound or scratch and that would !
imply De the end OF me-for of course that J
Their man would Immediately become as blood +.
nirsty as was Just at this moment little !.
ird, no larger than sparrow, few by and lit 3
sage bush about thirty PAGES away, and
~ little second, Steve ellis who was match. L
IS marksman with pistol-much better than =
Was-snatched out his revolver and shot the q
ir0s head of We all ran to pick I'D the O
anne, ana sure enough, just at this moment s.
'me OF the duellsts come recommending over
re little ridge. They ran to our group to see
nat the matter was, and when they saw the
rd Lords second said: u
That was a splendid shot How far off G
as it," - !,
Steve said, with some indifference: fo
IN, no great distance. About thirty PAGES y .
Thirty PAGES. Heavens alive, who did it," a,
My man-Twain'
The mischief he did! Can he do that Of.
M" ''''' oi-
"Well-yes. He can do it about-vell-
out four times out OF fiye.' &C
knew the little rascal was lying but / to
yer SAID anything l never told him so. He gu
IS not OF disposition to invite confidence of til
it Kind, So | let the matter rest. But II
IS IS comfort to see those people look sick ca
see their underjaws drop, when Steve eq
lde the statements. They went off aud e,t 70
rd, and took him home: and when we cot ~ ~
me, half an hour later, there was note saw.
mat Dir. Lord peremptorily declined to tn
w. an
lt was narrow escape. We found ont O.
erwards that Lord bit bis mark thirteen
lss IN eighteen shots. If he had put those
rteen bullets through me. it would have
rowed my sphere OF usefulness good deal
souiu nave Wen ni2h closed 1t, i'm fact. True on
could have nut pegs In fha hal..s a :. 4 - hal