The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1873-05-15
A Forthcoming Duel.

l
RICHARD ScHELL and Lawrence Jerome,
two we'll known brokers, of New York,
are no longer the friends that they have
long been popularity supposed to be.
Both are keen and sharp as briar, and
would scorn the imputation that they
could be taken in by the ordinary and
average speculator. But they have each
been accustomed to trust implicitly to the
good faith of the other. It seems that
Uncle Dick, as the former is sometimes
irreverently called, induced the latter to
invest in quantity of Western Union
Telegraph stock, and then proceeded to
set on foot certain reports which caused
rapid depreciation, and caused, also,
Mr.. Jerome to lose a goodly sum of
money. The latter did not like this treat
ment, and forthwith wrote to a newspa- |
per, and told the public just what he
thought of Uncle Dick, in the plainest and |
pithiest English at his command. Uncle
Dick was indignant. He felt that an at
tempt to horsewhip Mr.. Jerome in the
public street would probably be fraugbt
with difficulties, and perhaps, with dam
ger, and to pull his rivals nose, would be
paltry and insignificant revenge. Long
and earnestly he debated the question,
and finally concluded to write a chal-
lenge, inviting that gentleman to
meet him on the 1st of June at some point
on the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Rail-
road, there to commit their difference to
the issue of mortal combat. He would
not presume to dictate, but he thought
the locomotive would be a novel and eff
fective weapon. His proposition was that
each man should drive his own engine,
and having committed his soul to heaven
and his property to the next of kin,
should attempt the somewhat hazardous
experiment of trying to pass the other on
single track. The company would
doubtless make no objection to providing
the engines at reasonable price, as they
had ON their line plenty of old and worn
out machines, which they would be rather
pleased than otherwise to get rid of at a
fair valuation. Having dispatched this
challenge by a confidential messenger,
Uncle Dick seated himself in his easy
chair, and with some nervousness, but un-
abated determination, awaited the result.
About the same hour Mr.. Lawrence Je
rome was sitting in a sumptuously fur
nished apartment in his residence. He,
too, was nervous, though he knew moth
ing of the plot Matched in the fertile brain
of Uncle Dick, whereby he was to be
hurled into eternity amid the crash of To-
comotives but for twenty days he had
been paying his brother % per cent. for
carrying his Western Union stock hence
the gloom which overspread his rubicund
countenance, and the maledictions, not
loud but deep, which occasionally escaped
him as he remembered the glowing repre-
sentations of Uncle Dick. A letter was
placed in his hand by servant. He
opened it with unwonted haste, for it
might be from his broker. 1t was not,
however, and well might Mr.. Jerome rub
his eyes in alnazement as he read the start
ling challenge from Uncle Dick.
At first he was disposed to look upon it
as gigantic joke, but as he read for the
second time the threatening document he
held in his hand, he became convinced
that the sanguinary spirit breathed in
every letter of it, though perhaps most
clearly visible in the blots and scratches,
was not the senseless Joke of an idler, but
the inexorable determination ofa man who
thirsted for his blood. Mr.. Lawrence
Jeromeis a brave man, but he has fami-
ly; and the thought that should he fall
before the rush of his opponents locomo-
tive, he would leave that family disconso-
late, save for the inconsiderable consola-
tion to be derived from the possession OF
quantity of Western Union stock and a
wrecked locomotive, was more than he
could bear. More than this, even should
he escape, the pleasure of contemplating
the mangled remains of Uncle Dick would
be dearly purchased at the cost of the
locomotive. Some comfort, however, at
tended the recollection that an arrange
ment might be effected by which the
estate of the dead man would pay for the
two locomotives, unless, as was most
probable, both men should be killed, in
which case, except to the surviving rela-
tives, it would matter but little how the
engines were paid for, or whether they
were paid for at all or not.
Fortified by this idea, Mr.. Jerome sat
down and replied to Uncle Dicks chal-
lenge in terms, if possible, even more des-
perately vindictive than those used by his
opponent. He longed to take his place
on the iron horse, swoop down with a
whistle upon his betrayer, and dash tri-
umphantly up to the nearest station with
the liteless form of his opponent sticking
to the cowcatcher. This was not exectly
the sort of answer Uncle Dick expected
to receive, and he was proportiOnally
nonplussed. However, there was no time
to waste in useless regrets, and he at once
began diligent study of the construction
of the locomotive. Hitherto the proceed
ings had been conducted with perfect
secrecy. but now all Wall street was ring
ing with the rumor that the lives of two
of its most prominent men were in peril.
1t was received with incredulity, espe-
cially when the street heard the descrip-
ton of weapons to be employed in the
approaching combat, but as one circum-
stance after another lent strength to the
rumor, it began to gain credence, and it
was not thought unworthy of two of the
giants of Change that in the settlement
of mortal feuds they should depart from
the beaten track of ordinary men.--N. Y.
Sun.