The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1882-02-11
MARK TWAIN'S DUEL.
r2e"s"S IN TIA" Ho0,r& .1n0Hal.

! The only merit claim for the follow
! ing narrative is that it is a true story. 1t
| has :. moral on the end of it. but | claim
/ nothing on that. as it is merely thrown
! in to carry favor with the religious ele-
meng.
/ After had reported couple of years
on the Virginia City (Nevada) Daily En-
/ tcrpri~c they promoted me TO be editnr-in-
/ chief; and I lasted just week by the
watch. But | made an uncommonly
/ lively newspaper while | did last. and
/ when retired had duel on my hands
! and three horse whippngS promised me.
/ The latter made no attempt to collect:
| however. this story concerns only the
| former. 1t was the old :" flush times ' of
/ the silver excitement. when the p,pula-
ton was wonderfully wild and mixed:
| everybody went armed to the teeth and
/ all Sights and insults had to he atoned
for with the best article of blood your
! system could furnish. In the course of
my editing III tle trouble with Mr.. Lord,
| the editor of a rival paper. He flew up
! about some littl, triile or other that |
said about hin--I d" not remember what
/ it was. | suppose | called him Il thief,
| or budy-Snatcher, or AN idiot, or some
| thing like that: was Obliged to make
| the paper readable. and | couldn't fail IN
my duty to whole community of sub
! ScribcrS merely to save the exaggerated
seuSitivene>S of an individual. Mr. Lord
was offended and replied vigorously in
his paper. Vigorously means a great
deal when it refers to personal editorial
in a frontier newspaper. Dueling was
| all the fashion among the upper classes
| in that country. and very few gentlemen
would throw away the opportunity of
fighting one. To kill one man in a duel
caused IA man to be even more look ed up to
than to kill two men in the ordinary way.
| Well. out there if You abuse a man and
that man did not like it, you had to call
him out and kill him, otherwise you
would be disgraced. So | challenged
Mr.. Lord aud did hope he would not
accept; but knew perfectly well that
he did not want t. fight, and So | chal-
lenred him in the most violent aud i'm
piaraule manner. Aud then | sat down
and snuilrd aud Suulfed till the answer
came. All the boyS-tne editnrS-wer
in the office = helping me in the dismal
I, a. Il, I AZ.
cu>sing the code with a lot of aged ruff
fans. who had experience in such mat
ters. and altogether there was loving
interest taken i'll the matter that made
me unspeakabiy unc comfortable. The
answer came-Mr Lord declined. Our
Boys were furious, aud SCI was |, on the
surface.
I sent him another challenge. and
another. and another, and the more he
did not want to fight the more blood
thir>tier became. But at last the man 5
tone began to change. He appeared to
be waking up. 1t was becoming appar mt
that he was going to fight me after all.
he was a man who ;ould never be de
pended upon. Our boys were jubilant
was not. though tried hard to be.
1t was now time tn 30 ont and practice.
1t was the custom there IT, fight due!S
with navy six->hootsrS at fifteen PAGES
load and empty till the game for the
finn No tn I 10
ravine just ont of town aud borrowed a
baru door for a target-bnrrowcd it from
gentleman who was abSent-and We
stood this barn door up. and stood a rail
on end against the middle of it to repre-
sent Lord. and put a squash on top of
the rail to represent his head. He was
very tall. lean creature. the poorest sort
of material for duel; nothing but line
shot could fetch him, and even then he
might split your bullet. Exaggeration
aside. the rail was, of course, a little too
thin u represent the body accurately.
but The squash was all right. II there
was any intellectual difference between
the squash and his head it was in iav +
OF the squash.
Well practiced and practiced at the
barn door aud could not hit it: and
practiced at the rail aud could not hit
that: and tried for the squash and could
NOT hit that. I would have been entirely
di>hcarttned but that occasionally Grip
Piled ono of the boys and that gave me
hope.
At last we began to hear pistol shots
near by in the next ravine. We knew
what that meant. The other party was
ont prac,icing too. Then Twas in the
last degree distressed. for of course they
would hear our shots and then send over
the ridge. ami the spies would find my
barn door without wound or mark. and
that would simply be an emf to me; for
of course the other man would immedi-
,tcly become as bloodthrsty as | WAS.
lust at this moment little bird no
la er than ii sparrow flew by and lit on a
bash about 30 PAGES AWAY, and my little
second. Steve ellis. who was a dead shot
with a piStol-much better than was
snatrhed ont his revolver and shot the
bids head off. We all ran to pick up the
game. and sure enough, just at this mo
ment. some of the other dueli>ts came
accommodating 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 splendid shot How far
| oil WAS it,
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 lie can do it about four
times out of five"
knew the little rascal was living, but
| never said ANYTHING. never told him
81. He was not of i disposition to invite
confidence of that kind. $" | let the mat
ter rest. But it was comfort tn 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 half an
hour later, there was a note saying that