St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1878-05-24

fered till the answer came. All our
boys-the editors-were in our office
''helping" me in the dismal business,
and telling about duels, and discussing
the code with lot of aged ruffians who
had had experience in such things, and
altogether there was loving interest
taken in the matter, which made me
unspeakably uncomfortable. The ans
wer eame-Mr. Lord declined. Our
boys were furious, and so | was-On the
surface.
sent him another challenge, and
another and the more he did not want
to fight, the blOOdthirstier l became.
But at last the mans tone changed.
He appeared to be waking up. 1t was
becoming apparent that he was going
to fight me, after all. / ought to have
known how it would be-he was man
who never could be depended upon.
Our boys were exultant. | was not,
though | tried hard to be.
1t was now time to go out and prac-
tice. 1t was the custom there to fight
duels with navy six-shooters at fifteen
paces-load and empty till the anne
for the funeral was secured. We went
to little ravine just outside of town,
and borrowed barn door for target
borrowed it of gentleman who was
absent-and we stood this barn-dOOr
up, and stood rail on end to the mid
die of it, to represent Lord, and put a
squash on top of the rail to represent
his head. He was a 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. ExaggeratiOn
aside, the rail was, of course, little
too thin to represent his body accu-
rately, but the squash was all right. If
there was any intellectual difference
between the squash and his head, it
was in favor of the squash.
Well, practised and practised at the
barndoor, and could not hit it; and l
practised at the rail, and could not hit
that; and tried hard for the squash,
and could not hit the squash. / would
have been entirely disheartened, but
that occasionally crippled one of the
boys, and that encouraged me to hope.
At last we began to hear pistol shots
near by ia the next ravine. We knew
what that meant! The other party
were out practising, too. Then | was
in the last degreee distressed; for of
course, those people would hear our
shots and they would send spies over
the ridge, and the spies would find my
barn-dOOr without wound or scratch,
and that would simply be the end OF
me-fOr of course the other men would
Immediately become as blood thirsty as
| was. Just at this moment little
bird, no larger than sparrow, flew by,
and lit on sage bush about thirty
PAGES away and my little second
Steve Gillis, who was matches
marksman with a pistol-much better
than | was-snatched out his revolver
and shot the birds head off We al
ran to pick up the game, and just IA
this moment some of the other duelists
came reconnoitring over the little ridge
They ran to our group to see what the
matter was; and when they saw the
bird, Lords second said:
That was a splendid shot. How fa
) off was it 2"
Steve said, with some Indifference:
"Oh, no great distance. About thirt,
paces."
''Thirty PAGES! Heavens alive, wh'
did it 7"
my man-Twain.n
"The mischief he did Can he de-
that often 2"
"Well,-yes. He can do it about
) well-about four times out of FIVE"
| knew the little rascal was lying
but l never said anything. | neve1
: told him so. He was not of disposi.
tion to invite condolences of that kind
so let the matter rest. But it was /
comfort to see those people look sick
and see their under-jaws drop, wher
Steve made these statements. They
went off and got Lord, and took hin
home and when we got home, half al
hour later, there was note saying tha
Mr.. Lord peremptorily declined tt
fight
1t was a narrow escape. We fOunC
out afterwards that Lord hit his mari
thirteen times in eighteen shots. If he
had put those thirteen bullets through
me, it would have narrowed my sphere
of usefulness a good deal-wOuld hav,
well nigh closed it, in fact. True, they
could put pegs in the holes, and useC
me for a hat-rack; but what is hat
rack to man who feels he has intel
lectual powers | would scorn such
position.
l have written this true incident O
my personal history for one purpose
and one purpose Only-tO warn tn,
youth of the day against it. If the re
marks and suggestions am making Cal
be of any service to Sunday-schoo
teachers, and newspapers interested il
the moral progress of society, they ar
at liberty to use them, and shall evel
be grateful to have them widely dis
seminated; so that they may do a
much good as possible. was youn
and foolish when challenged that gen
tleman, and thought it was very fin
and very grand to be duelist, an,
stand upon the ''field of honor" But
) aIn older and more experienced now
and am infiexibly opposed to the dread
full custom. l am glad indeed, to b
able to lift up my voice against it.
think it is a bad, immoral thing.
think it is every mans duty to d
everything he can to discourage duel
ling. l always do now; / discourage
upon every occasion.
If a man were to challenge me now
, now that | can fully appreciate the in
iquity of that practice-I wOulu go t
that man, and take him by the hand
and lead him to quiet, retired room
and kill him.
A Black Hills Gambler.