The Toledo chronicle. [volume] (Toledo, Tama County, Iowa) 1873-1924, 1877-04-26
DuelIns In France and Germany.

Dueling in Germany has still its absurd
side; but the affairs of honor at the Ger
man universities are at bottom mere
schoolboy extravagances. Masked, and
padded from neck TO waist, an active lad
can take little harm from blade that is
carefully sWathed for a great part of its
length; and the worst that happens is that
the heroes of the chords have to regret in
their later life thoa, disfguring scars
which are the memorials of their college
days, while, as respectable fathers and
quietgoing men Of business, they would be
the last to renew the ftllies of their youth.
But in France it is the crens de la creme
of politics, literature, journalism and
fashion who are perpetually making them
selves nine days talk and scandalizing
all sensible people There is a late supper
at the Cafe Anglais, the Maison Doree or
Peters, and flushed reveller either by
accident or design touches some sore spot
in the gentleman over against him. There
is burst of party invective from the trib-
une at Versailles or taunting Interrupt
ton from the body of the Assembly
There is a personal allusion or coarse
imputation in the columns of a party
journal. Forthwith the aggrieved person
proceeds to sound flourish of trumpets,
and when he has thoroughly attracted
public attention he demands a public
PREPARATION.
With view to making his affair take a
satisfactory course he selects couple of
seconds who understand their business
that is to say, they are to whisper the
progress of negotiations to a score of peo-
pie under the seal of the strictest secrecy,
and thenceforth the matter becomes the
talk of the cafes and the theaters, and is
freely ventilated in the newspapers. Under
the circumstances it is of course difficult
or impossible for the other side to retract
SO you have all the materials of a pretty
quarrel that can only be settled after
formal combat. The place of meeting is
arranged, either according to the pre-
sumed importance Of the cause of quarrel,
or possibly with referer ce to the purses
of the antagonists. 1t may be at the con-
venient wood Of Vincennes, where there
is no further trouble than is involved in
an early drive to sequestered situation
well within rif1e-shot of the barriere du
Iyone. Or it may be worth while to
travel beyond the Belgian or Luxem-
bourg frontier, in which case the depart
ure of the bloodthirsty heroes is duly
chronicled in the sensational intelligence
of the newspapers.
In either case there is, almost invariably,
similar ending. One of the parties
claims first blood, the points are dropped,
the assistants interpOse, and honor is de-
clared to be amply satisfied. Even when
an obliging surgeon makes the utmost of
the scratch, the sufferer, thanks to Wig.
orous constitution, reappears in wonder
fuIlv short Sp4ra Of time ar hic Familiar
haunts, and resumes his ordinary voca-
tons. Often, in consequence of a mar
velous piece of good luck, he is in posi-
ton to celebrate the vindication of his
honor by heroically appearing with his
arm in sling at the breakfast that had
been prudently ordered before hand. And
if anything can promote his rapid con-
it will be the encomiums he
reads on his chivalrous bearing in the
journals which he buys on his homeward
railway journey, or at his favorite kiosque
on the Observation-Disclosures Saturday Re
oseU.