New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1876-05-27

Der. he new up ABOUT some trld0 or other
that said about him-I do not remember
him thief, or q body snatcher, or an idiot,
or something like that. l was obliged to
make the paper readable. and couldn't
fail in my duty to . whole community Of
| subscribers merely to save the exaggerated
sensitiveness of an individual. Mr.. Lord
was offended, and replied vigorously in his
paper. Vigorously means great deal
when it refers to . personal editorial in a
frontier newspaper.
| upper classes in that country, and very few
| gentlemen would throw away the 0ppOrtu-
| nifty of fighting one. To kill one man in a
| duel caused . man to be even more looked
| up to than to kill two men in the ordinary
way. Well, cut there if you abuse man
| and that man did not like it, you had to
call him ont and kill him, otherwise You
would be disgraced. So challenged Mr..
| Lord, and did hope would not accept; but
| fight, and 20 challenged him in the most im-
placable manner. And then / sat down,
and snuffed and snuffed till the answer
| came. All the boys-the editors-were IN
the office, "helping" me in the dismal bust
ness, and telling about duels and discuss
| ing the code with . lot of aged ruffians who
had experience in such matters, and alto
gether there was loving interest taken in
the matter that made me unspeakably un-
comfortable. The answer came-Mr. Lord
declined. Our boys we're furious and 80
was lon the surface.
sent him another challenge, and another,
and another, and the more he did not want
to fight the more bloOdthirsty / became
But at last the mans tone began to change.
He appeared to be waking up. 1t was be-
coming apparent that he was going to fight
me, after all. l ought to have known how
it would be-he was q man who could
jubilant. ! was cot, though tried hard to
be.
1t was now time to 60 ont and practice
1t was the custom then to fight duels with
navy six shooters at fifteen paces-lOad and
empty till the game for the funeral was Sc
cure. We went to little ravine just out
of town and borrowed barn door for a
target-bOrrowed it from gentleman who
was absent-and we stood the barn door
up, and stood rail on end against the
middle of it to represent Lord, and put q
squash on top of the rail to represent his
head. He was very tall, lean creature,
the poorest sort OF material for a DUEL
nothing but line shot could fetch him, and
even then he might split your bullet Ex-
aggeration aside, the rail- was, of course, q
little TOO thin 10 represent the body accu-
rately, but the squash was all right. Ii
there was any intellectual difference be-
favor Of the squash.
Well, / practiced and practiced at the
barn door and could not hit it, and prac-
ticed at the rail and could not hit that; and
tried for the squash and could not hit
that. would have been entirely dishear.-
ened but that occasionally crippled one of
the boys and that gave me hope.
1xNA II
by in the next ravine. We knew what that
meant. The other party was out practioing,
too. Then / was in the last degree dis
tressed, for of course they would hear our
shots and then send over the ridge, and the
spies would find my barn door without q
wound or mark and that would simply be
an end to me; for of course the other man
would Immediately become as bloOdthirsty
as I was.
just at this moment little bird no larger
than q sparrow flew by and Lit on bush
about thirty PAGES away, and nv little Sec
Ond, Steve Gille, who was dead shot with
pistOl-much better than was snatched
out his revolver and shot the birds head off.
We all ran to pick up the game, and sure
enough Just at this moment some of the
other duellists came accommodating over the
ridge. They ran to see what the matter
was, and when they saw the bird, Lords
second said:
"That was a splendid shot. How far off
was it9'
Steve said with some indifference:
"Oh, no great distance. About thirty
PAGES"
Thirty PAGES! Heavens alive! Who did
it,"
"My man-Twain."
THE mischief he did! Can he do it
often:'
"Well, yes. He can do it about four
times out of FIVE"
l knew the little rascal was lying, but l
never said anything. l never told him 80.
He was not of disposition to invite conf
dence of that kind, SO l let the matter rest.
But it was q comfort to see those people
look sick, and see their jaws drop when
Steve made that statement. They went off
and got Lord and took him home. When
we got home, halt an hour later, there was
q note saying that Mr.. Lord peremptorily
declined to fight
We found out afterward that Lord hit his
mark thirteen times in eighteen shots-if
he had put those thirteen bullets into me it
would have narrowed my sphere Of useful
ness good deal. True they could have
put pegs in the holes and used me for hat
rack; but what is hat rack to q man who
feels he has intellectual powers!
have written this true incident of my
youth of to-day against the practice of
duelling and to plead with them to war
against it. l was young and foolish when
challenged the gentleman, and thought it
very fine and grand to be a duellist and
stand upon "the field of honor" But am
older and more experienced now, and am
inflexibly opposed to the dreadful custom.
am glad, indeed, to be enabled to lift up
my voice against it. l think it is bad,
70 D., 4
do all he can to discourage duelIing
If man were to challenge me would 20
to that man and take him by the hand and
lead him to q retired roOm-and kill him.