The Canton mail. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 18??-1882, 1875-06-19
BILLY KIRwAN's AFFAIR OF HONOR

This capital and very Milesian story
is from "a Few More Old Dublin Rec
elections
Few affairs of honor have been sur
passed in real Irish fnn by the one
which took place in Dublin, in which
the celebrated fre-eater and champion
of the Dublin corporation, D'Esterre,
afterward shot by O'Connel. came out
in ga new way to pay old debts," and
had his overstrained notions of chivalry
turned into successful ridicule by an
honest plain-dealing mans mother.wit
and common sense. D'Esterre used to
put his name to paper Without thought
of payment. One day Billy Kirwan, a
well-known bill broker, was offered a
bundle of bills for discount. It was
Mr.. Kirwan's boast that he instinctively
knew bad paper by the feel of it.
"There's bad paper in your lot
L can perceive, Sir, without taking the
trouble to look over it seri ah-tint ct
lite rah tim" remarked Billy who had
been originally intended by his pious
Galway parents for the church, and had
In his boyhood q decent converse with
the preIiminaries of the classics.
Fs,nuDs habet IN coy7su," he continued
cas- a body might say to spawned
horses. You had better remove it, If
you playse, Sir. before have anything
to say to you, for I wouldn't touch il
with q pair of kitchen tongA much less
dirty my hands with it.
al am asfonished to hear you say SO,
Sir" said the merchant "and would
you be pleased to mention what it is in
my hand that encounters your objec-
tion?"
"Why a certain acceptance signed
III. D'Esterre. and if you must know my
opinion, would not advance the value
OF a brass button and all that q jeckass
could draw ON the same security"
"Good heavens and why not?"
"For a rayson have; and nobody
knows it better than Mr.. DEsterre
himself" answered Kirwan.
As Mr.. Kirwan was sitting alone
after dinner the same evening, enjoying
his pipe and his glass of punch over
one of MGhee's late leaders in the
Evening Post, or just as palpable, one
of Dan O'Connell's earlier speeches in
favor of Catholic emancipation, the
servant came in with q card from Col
onel Henry.
"Who's Colonel Henry P" demanded
K1rwan.
Faith, and it's meself doesn't know
him from the man in the moon.''
"Rowl in the colonel and lay another
tuLADlCI bdIA lilo 1uhStcI Vi thc uOu66.
Colonel Henry, tall and gentleman
Unlocking man of middle age was ush-
cred in.
"Mighty glad I am to see you, colonel,
whatever you've come about" said our
host "but before you begin 1 would
advise you to mix tumbler of that ex-
cellent Johnny Power that's forenent
you. If you take it off at once, it will |
pull you through the opening part of |
your business pleasantly and comfort |
ably and then you can mix second at |
once to prepare you for contingencies. p"
Col Henry having taken Kirwsn's |
advice SO far as mixing, but not sud-
denly absorbing, the liquor, opened his |
business with all the grandeur of per-
feet Sir Lucius, as in days long gone by 1
when Jack johnson used to enact the |
part not Tyrone Power.
The colonel very much regretted that |
it fell to his lot to have to deliver hos
tile message to a gentleman of such re-
sIrectabllity as Mr.. Kirwan from one
equally respectable and estimable as
MIR. DEsterre. He repeated the in
furious and insulting expressions which
the gentleman whom he had the honor
of addressing had made use of in speak
ing of his friend during the day to
certain merchant in the Commercial
Buildings, and which had travelled the
round of the city before nightfall. He
pointed out, moreover. the utter i'm
possibility of Mr.. D'Esterre allowing
such an outrage ON lis name and char
acter to be uttered and sent forth to the
world without demanding the satisfac-
ton Of gentleman.
Then. colonel, honey, come to the
point, and just tell me what it is that
You want" demanded Kirwan.
Gan apology or the alternative"
(Which means that I must eat nv
words or fight ?"
"Most decidedly"
1t can't be done for the money"
I" For the money!"
"Yes, for the money. I'd be glad to
accommodate you, my dear colonel, in
any way in my power; but the money
stands in my way most completely and
Col. Henry looked bewildered. Kir.
vans argumentnm ad crumenum was
evidently beyond him. "What money?
whose money ?" he exclaimed.
"Wby, my money, to be sure; the
money that your respectable friend Mr..
D'Esterre owes me this last couple of
years nothing more nor less than
cool hundred, independent of interest
and expenses. lent it to him at first
not as a matter of business but on his
pledged word of honor that he'd return
it to me at the time he promised and,
upon my honor and sow1, he hasn't
done so from that day to this"
The colonel doubted what he had I
10 do with the money question.
Everything, said Kirwan, sin the
regard of your not having the ghost of
an argument on your side when you ask
me To apOlOoiZe or fiQht
The colonel still could not see it but ,
mis- opponent very soon made him, in
this wise He'd be liar and coward
TO apologize or in any way retract what
he had said and still felt OF D'Esterre,
70 long as D'Esterre chose to act dis !
toward him and to go out
and fight him would be to act like the
biggest fool in existence. "Blood-an'- {
Gums, colonel - said Billy, 'do you ,
On the other hand, if D'Esterre hits me, !
he'll send me to the devil after it aud {
you know the scripture says that out of {
hell there's no redemption +"
Every true indeed, and by no means r
IN unreasonable way of putting it." OBJ c
,erved Colonel Henry "but, "he added, g
will you, if satisfy you on the money t
elf You pay me-that's the chat ~ v
cared Billy. s
"Psy you-certainly that's what b
mes n but will you then fight2" 4
Like a Trojan, colonel cried Kir- u
ran. Anything to oblge you-any- a
hing for peace and quietness." b
"I shall aee you tomorrow morning a
gain, Mr.. KirwaD," aid the colonel, Q
i ing and formally bowling to his host, o
tho vainly endeavored to make him Il
Ike another jorum, 'just to show that 81
here was no luminosity between them" 81
"You'n have your friend ready in the it
,ornino when call ?" asked Henry, as fl
, TURF ed for the last time. ID