The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1873-01-09

If you abused a man and that man did
not like it, you had to call him out and
kill him; otherwise you would be dis
graced. So challenged Mr.. Lord, and
did hope he would not accept; but
knew perfectly well that he did not want
to fight, and so challenged him IN the
most violent and implacable manner.
And then sat down and suffered and
suffered till the answer came. All our
boys-the editors-were IN the office
helping" me in the dismal business,
and telling about duels. and discussing
the code with a lot of aged ruffians who
had had experience in such things, and
altogether there was loving interest
taken in the matter which. made me nm
speakably uncomfortable. The answer
came-AIr. Lord declined Our boys
were furions, aud so was lon the sur-
face
l sent him another challenge, and an
other and another; and the more he did
not want to fight, the bloodthirstier 1
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 man who never could be de-
pended upon. Our boys were exultant
/ was not, though / tried to be.
1t was now time to go out and prac-
tice. 1t was the custom there to fight
duels with navy six-shooters at fifteen
paces-load and empty till the game for
the funeral was secured. We went to
little ravine just outside OF town, and
borrowed barn door for target-bor-
rowed it of gentleman who was absent
and We stood this barn-door up, and
stood 81 rail on end against the middle
of it to represent Lord, and put squash
on top of the rail to represent his head.
He was a very tall, lean creature, the
poorest sort of material for a duel
nothing but n line shot could "fetch"
him, and even then he might split your
bullet. EXaggeratiOn aside, the ran
was, of course, little too thin to rep
resent his body accurately, but the
squash was all right If there was any
intellectual difference between the
squash and his head, it was in favor of
the squash
Well, 1 practiced and practiced ut the
barn door, and could not Init it: and /
that; and / tried hard for the squash,
4
and could not hit the squash. i would
have been entirely disheartened, but
that occasionally crippled one of the
boys, and that encouraged me to hope.
At last we began to hear pistSl-shots
near by, in the next ravine We knew
what that meant The other party were
out practicin2, too. Then / was i'm the
last degree distressed; for, of course,
those peopl9lwould hear our shots and
they would send spies over the ridge,
and the spies weuld find my barn-door
without n wound or n scratch, and that
would simply be the end of ms-for, OF
course, that other man would immedi-
ately become rs bloodthirsty rs / was.
Just at this moment little bird, no
larger than sparrow, flew by, and lit
on sage-bush, about thirty PAGES away:
and my little second, Steve ellis, who
was n matchless marksman with pistol
much better than swas-snatchcd out
his revoler, and shot the birds head off.
We all ran to pick up the game. and,
sure enough.i rist at this moment some
with or immediately preceding the
seeding down to grass. That the grass,
being the ultimate and paying crop, it is
of the other duelists came reconnoiter-
ing over the little ridge They ran to
our group TO see what the matter was;
and when they saw the bird, Lords sec
ond said
That was splendid shot How fan
off was it?"
Steve said with some indifference:
"Oh, no great distance. About ihir-
ty PAGES.
"Tbnty PAGES! Heavens alive, whc
did it?"
My mGn-Twain.
The mischief he did! Can he do
that often -
Well--yes. He can do it about
well-about four times out of five
l knew the little rascal was lying, but
l never said anything. 1 never told
him So He was not of a disposition tc
invite condolences of that kind, so 1 LEI
the matter rest. But it was n comfort
to see those people look sick, and Sc,
their under-iaws drop, when Steve mad,
these statements. They went off ant
got Lord, and took him home; and wheI
we got home half an hour later, ther,
was a note saying that Mr. Lord pre-
cnptorily declined to fight
1t was u narrow escape We fount
out afterwards that Lord had Int Iii
mark thirteen times in eighteen shots
Ii he hal put those thirteen bullets
through me it would have narrowed m,
sphere of usefulness "a good deal-woul,
have we'll nigh clio ed it, in fact True
they could have put pegs in the holes
and used me for hat-rack; hut what i
a hat-racll to man who feels he has in
tellectual powers? would scorn sucl
Il position
I have written this true incident O
my personal history for one purpos
only-to warn the youth of the dn
against the peniciohs practice OF duel
ing, and 10 plead with them to wa
against it. If the remarks and sugges
tions 1 am making can be of any servic
2 TO Sunday-school teachers and newspa
q pers interested in the moral progress O
, society, they are at liberty to use them
S and shall even be grateful to hav
, them widely disseminated, so that the
may do as much good as possible.
$ was young and foolish when challeng
r ell that gentleman, and / Thought it wa
= very fine and very grand to be a duelist
and stand upon the field of honor
p But am older and more experience
I now, and am inflexibly opposed TO tn
y dreadful custom. / think it is ever
= mans duty to do everything he can Z
A