Dodgeville chronicle. [volume] (Dodgeville, Wis.) 1862-current, 1875-07-23
Dueling.

There was French regiment in which
dueling was all the rage. The officers
were always fighting each other, or getting
up little affairs with the officers of other
regiments At last the War Office, wearied
out of patience, changed the commanding
officer. A Colonel was sent down who
would be sure to stamp out such nonsense
A few days after his arrival two of the
officers came to ask his permission to go
out and'fight. To the amazement OF every
body, he gave his consent; the officers
went forth to fight, they slightly wounded
each other and "honor was satisfied as
the phrase goes upon these occasions.
They were no sooner recovered than they
received an orderto wait upon the Colonel.
- You have to go out and fight again
tomorrow, !" he said; and, as they looked
at him with questioning establishment, he
explained: "When officers fight in the
regiment have the honor to command,
they kill. COP The officers went out
again and, this time, made right good
holes in each other, which it took them
six months to heal. The story is very
horrible. They were sent out again and
again, and at last they killed each other;
but henceforth forever in that regiment,
and good many besides, there was an
end of dueling. The fate of the young
men who were sacrificed to bring about
such result was sad, but they brought 1t
on themselves, inasmuch as, being fully
aware that this Colonel was sent to repress
dueling, they chose, almost on his arrival,
to demand that he would stultify himself
and permit them to have their way. 1t Is,
we have said, only ON the condition OF the
duel being thoroughly in earnest and
A-l1 Hoo thof hos a CON
d'etre in modern society; and the history
of this French regiment proves that it
hourishes in these modern days chiefly on
the credit of being innocuous. When the
duel comes really to mean death, and not
merely an exchange of shots, it must be
an event of the rarcst occurrence in re-
fined society We shall not undertake to
kill each other without the most irresisti
BILE reasons, and if we can settle our bar
gains without killing we may laugh at the
code of honor which insists on pistols.
There is comical story told of two
Americans who settled their quarrel in
fashion which would have made the hair
on Partisan fencing-master bristle with
horror, but which, nevertheless, had an in
SEPARATION of common sense in it. They
were both in love with the same lady and
it became necessary to their feelings that
they should fight for possession Of her.
One of the two must clearly be put out of
the way. Yet why should they kill each
other? They bore each other no malice;
each would be glad that the other should
speed with some other fair; they only insist
ed upon being left in sole possession of the
lady in dispute. The question resolved
itself to All issue-which was the better
shot? And they determined to settle this
question by shooting, not at each other,
but at tree. The tree was shot at; the
inferior marksman perforce admitted that
he would have been annihilated by his
rival, and agreed to vanish, not by giving
up the ghost, but by leaving the country.
Here were all the results of a duel OBJ
tanned without its mock heroics and with
out more tragedy than belongs to all re-
unciation..-London World.