The news and herald. (Winnsboro, S.C.) 1877-1900, 1879-01-25
MARK TWAIN AS A DUELIST.
HE SCREUS G1HHETTA'S COVRA Il
TO THE STITCHING POINT.

Proposes Axos but Compromises on
Toy Pistols at Thirty-flve PAGES in a
Dense Fog -Gambetta's Last Words.
Mark Twain has written u bur.
lesque account of the late duel
between Gambetta and Fourtou,
where the distinguished Frenchmen
exchanged single shot witho out
effect at thirty y-fvo PAGES in dense
fog, one Of the principals being near
sighted and the other mai,,ats m
eye. When he had heard of the
outbreak in tho Assembly he says
that he called on Gambetta, whom
he found "stcoped in profound
French calm" Mr.. Twain, after
boing embraced, began the conver-
sation:
I said 7 supposed he would wish
me to act as his second, and he
said, "Of course" I said I must
bo allowed to act under o French
name, SO that I might be shielded
from obloquy in my country in case
Of fatal results. Tic WINGED here,
probably at the suggestion that
dueling was not regarded with re-
spect in America. However,, he
agreed to my requirement. This
accounts for tho fact that in Ill tho
newspaper reports Nj. Gambetta' S
second was apparently. a French
man. First, VIC drew up my prin-
cipaIs will. I insisted upon this
and stuck to my point. I said 7
never heard of o man in his right
mind going out to fight a duel
without first making his will. He
said he never heard of a man in his
right mind doing anything of the
kind. When he had finished the
will he wished to proceed to q
choice of his 'last words" He
wanted to know how the following
words, as q dying exclamation,
struck me:
81 die for my God, for my coun-
try, for freedom of speech, for
progress and tho universal brother
hood Of mani"
L objected that this would re-
quire too lingering a death it was
Il good speech for =. q consumptive,
but not suited to the exigencies Of
the field of honor. We wrangled
over a good many ante-mortem
outbursts, but I finally got him to
cut his obituary down to this, which
he copied into his memorandum
book, proposing to get it by heart !:
II die that france may live"
I said that this remark seemed
to lack relevancy; but he said
relevancy was q matter of no con-
sequence in last words what YOU
wanted was thrill.
then wrote the following note
and carried it to Nj. Fourtou's
friend:
S1R-M. Gambotta accepts M.
Fourtou's challenge, and authorizes
me to propose Plessis Piquet as the
place of ofmecting; tomorrow morn,
ing at day break as tho time; and
axes as tho weapons. I am, sir,
with great respect, MARK TWAIN.
M. Fourtou's friend read this
note and shrddered. Then he
turned to me, and said, with sug-
gestion of severity in his tone:
"Have you consideretb sir, what
would be the inevitable result Of
such meeting as this 2"
"Well, for instance, what would
it be?"
'Bloodshed
"That's about the size Of it," I
said. "Now, if it is fair question,
what was your side proposing to
shed"
/ had him there; he saw he had
made blunder, so he hastened to
explain it away. He said ho had
spoken jestingly. Then he added
that he and his principal would
enjoy axes, and indeed prefer thom,
but such weapons were barred by
the French code, and so I must
change my proposal.
After proposing Gatling guns,
rifles, navy pistols and brick bats,
I left the choice of weapons to the
other second, who fished out of his
vest pocket couple of little things
which I carried to the light and
1icnnvara1 to ha ,,icto1a Thev