The Ripley advertiser. [volume] (Ripley, Miss.) 1843-1897, 1881-02-12

authorized to arrange prelimiH
ries." m
am free TO confess that / NJ
completely paralyzed With fe
when l received this message, al
would have made an honorable
apology, but the bearer refused to
Listen to reason. He demanded
blood; and swore that if ! refused
to fight, thatI was a dead TadpOleI
certain. was about to faint tron
sheer cowardice, when bold young
Tadpole whispered in my ear:
"Pdt ON a bold 'front.'" said hs,
Gen. Frog is humbug and bully.
Accept his challenge, make him
fight with sticks, six inches long
and a halfinch in diameter; let thp
sticks be sharpened at one end. A.
frog always has his mouth open,
and you can run your stick down
his throat, and kill him while he Is
trying to get a fair lick at your
head"
acted on this advice, and being
the challenged party, / had the
right to choose the weapon. Quite
a commotion was caused when it
became known that a duel was to
be fought between Gen. Frog and
Col. Tadpole.
The weapons were prepared, the
space in the water was measured,
an ominous silence pervaded the
pond, "a thing that had never hap
pened betoreG we were placed
eighteen inches apart, and when we
were ordered to take our places, ]
could see plainly that public Sentl-
ment was against me among the
frogs; but every tadpOle in the pond
was on my side. When the word
was given, | made dash forward
and plunged my stick down Gen.
Frogs throat, taking hlm complete
ly by surprise. The Generals
friends carried him off OF the field,
buthe was a dead frog; and when it
was announced that the great Gen
eral Frog was dead, such a heart
rending wall as rent the air then,
never had been heard in the Frog
Kingdom before. The unusual
noise awoke nae, and l was glad to
find it was all a dream, and that |
was not really tadpole. l got up,
lighted the candle, kissed LOttie's
picture q dozen times, looked at
my watch and found that | had only
slept an hour. After pacing the
floor for half an hour, l again threw
myself on the bed, and soon was
dreaming again. While the second
dream was not SO full of nonsense
as the first one, it was pregnant
with unpleasantness. 1t was what
| call business.like dream-shOrt,
to the point. | thought | and Wal
lingfOrd had failed to reach recon
ciliation, and that General Gallo
way announced to me that | must
fight. We fought with pistols at ten
PAGES, and ! was killed at the first
4 fire. | suffered all the agonies OF
death; and as soon as my soul left
the body his Satanic Majesty stood
ready to take me into custody.
remember exactly how he looked
he had his Aide de Camp with him,
They had handouts and chains to
fasten my limbs. They took me
down through a long space Of ex-
ceeding darkness, when all at once
my eyes ware blinded by the bright
flames that broke on my view.
started up and awoke, and saw two
rough looking men standing ovel
melville one held a candle the
other had a pair Of handouts in his
hand.
: sect up, sir, and put on your
clothes as soon as you can; we wan
you to go with u.s."
/ did as l was ordered-asking
no questions. The first thing thai
occurred to me was that the Civi
authority had ordered my arrest, sc
as to prevent the duel; and to be
candid | was very glad Of it. Any
thing to prevent the duel suited me
for hated the idea of being shot al
, merely to crafty foolish whim o
Harry Wallingtord. When ! finish
, ed my toilet, one ofthe men locked
the handouts on my wrists, anC
then commanded me to follow
i them. Under any other circum
stances, dare say, / sho uld have
8 knocked any man down, who at
, tempted to manacle me; but ! wal
} willing to submit to any indignity
J and endure any inconvenience thai
~ u f.H