American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1876-01-15
The Field OF Honor.

Mr.. WOODWARD, of Wlnnsboro, Ga,
owned a yellow dog of a rowing and pred
atory cast of mind, dog of active hab-
its, possessing large information concern
| ing adjacent hen roosts and smoke houses
Mr.. Cloney, of the same city, had forbid
den that yellow dog TO come upon his
premises he had warned Mr. Woodward to
make more economical use of his
| dogs time, but without effect. Where
| upon Mr.. Cloney. arose and slew that yell
| low canine with the strong hand of ire
| sponsible power. Mr.. Woodward did not
waste his time in unmanly sorrow, but
hastened to wipe out in gore the wrong in
| fiicted upon his honor. The loss of dog
is dishonor, and death is better than dis
honor. Mr.. Cloney, nothing 10th, hay
ing now killed the dog, is quite ready to
attend to the case OF his owner. So these
two gentlemen repair with their seconds
to Sand Bar Ferry, and arrange the pre-
iminaries of meeting, which is happily
prevented by the intercession of friends.
And all this took place while Mr.. lilly,
shot in a duel through the stomach and
bowels, was dying in agony in the same
little city, and forgiving his slayer with
ly-defined questions as to the morality and
legality of the duel, ought not the absurd
ity of such things as this bring 1t into ridi-
Guile and disrepute! A duel is, perhaps,
better than Southwestern vendetta, or a
brutal street fight, or political horse
whipping" 1t is even better than a gen.
tlemanly assassination; but this is not
saying anything In its favor. The great
objection to it, outside of the moral or
legal aspect, is that it is an ap-
peal to arms to decide what never
gets decided. 1t always leaves be-
hind it lifelong hatreds and heart
burnings among the friends and relatives
of the parties, ready to flash out into dead
ly feud. The thing which il is called
upon to do is the very thing which it emf
nently does not do-decide. This much
may, however, be said in its favor: Its
courtesy and punctilio fit it in some de-
gree for the healing of bitter quarrels
Two men, smartlng under mutual in jury
or insult, desire each others blood. They
cannot, if they would, approach each
other with tenders of peace and goodwill.
But as soon as one of them calls in a
friend and sends challenge the affair has
passed completely out of his hands, and
when the challenged party names his
friend he also is in other hands than his
own. Now, if these seconds happen to be
men of high character they will not let
their men fight over a mere trifle. They
are cool men of the world, and feel re-
sponsible to public opinion, which in |
some quarters is, unfortunately, stronger |
than the law on this subject. They can,
by virtue of their power, take steps to-
ward reconciliation, which the parties |
themselves could not take; and thus it has
often happened that an old quarrel has
turned into lasting friendship by "a
challenge sent and accepted. The trouble
is that seconds often do not have this high |
character. and have besides scant allow
ance of brain; and another difficulty is
that - society'-which always holds up
its hands and shrieks with horror at a
fatal duel-always sneers more or less
openly at one amicably adjusted. Fortu
nately, Mr.. Cloney and Mr. Woodward, in
the great Winnsboro' yellow-dog duel,
had sensible and true hearted men for
seconds, and so the affair ended without
the shedding of human Baltimore
Gazette.
According to the Boston Pilot there
were in 1925, fifty years ago, one Roman
priest in Maine; one in Massa,
chusetts, and one in New Hampshire
with eight churches. There are now in
New England, according to this authori-
~, one Archbishop, five Bishops, AL
priests, 432 churches and Catholic pop
nlation of nearly 1 100000.
If you want to know how giant-pow
der works Just kick in the head of small
keg. The display will be all that any