Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1883-11-27
VIRGINIA DIELISTS.

!
"Going down South as far as Richmond,
are you? Well let me give you letter to
nv friend Berne, editor Of the State"
"What Beirne, the fighting editor, who
shot ELAN last summer and who fought
United States Senator Riddleberger? Yes.
give me q letter to this gay dueliSt. want
to see him. / want to ask him just exactly
/ how q man feels when standing face to face
/ with q Christian gentleman only ten steps
/ away. waiting for the word Of death. Twill
make q letter of it, I will publish ii to the
world exactly as he tells it TO me-Word for
word, letter for letter. 1t vii! make good
reading: maybe it will do good. 1t will GER
tainlv do no harm" Finding was really
interested in duelists. my friend gave me a
cordial letter not only to Beirnc, editor Of
the state, at Richmond, but also to Gir. c.,
editor and owner Of the Dispatch, as was his
! father before him. This latter gentleman
has in fact been in even more mortal COM
bats than Nj. Beirne. But they were not
| quite so recent nor so fresh in my mind : in
| fact not nearly so picturesque as the singu-
| lar duel between Beirne and Elan last sum-
mer, in which the latter was thought to be
mortally wounded for the second time. And
so nv heart went out with :. boundless de-
sire to see, to shake hands, if L could do it
safely, with this bloody duelist, who had
/ shot down Elan, gracefully lifted his hat,
| bowed good morning TO him as he lay there
| in his blood on the grass and turned back to
his work al the editorial desk rs if nothing
had happened.
| AsI whirled away on the road TO Rich
mond | recalled the comic as we'll as the Sc
rious incidents Of this Beirne-Elam duel last
summer. You may remember that they went
from Richmond to West Virginia to fight;
| were arrested ut once, released on giving Sc
curity TO keep the peace in that State, and
so agreed to fight somewhere else. You
will also remember that it was afterwards
and finally settled that Beirnc was TO meet
Elan several hundred miles distant il Nir
pinia, but somehow the word did not reach
Beirnc so soon as expected Informing him
of the place Of meeting that he had set out
at midnight and in the midst ofa thunder
storm: that there was no railway and the
Journey had to be made on horseback and
by carriage. You will recall the fact o.. this
| bloodthrsty gentleman III his zeal to reach
the spot in time being washed away by a
mountain stream borne half q mile down in
the freshet, carriage and all, drowning his
horses and barely escaping with bis life.
But he crawled out Of the water and kept
on. Then to add to all this the officers Of
the law were close on his heels and were
only kept back by the dangerous mountain
torrents. You may remember too, that at
one mountain hamlet the officers lodged IN
the house while the duelist. whom they sup
posed still aiead Of them, was costly and
peacefully sleeping in the chicken-coop,
while the seconds kept watch and cleaned
and dried the pistols for the deadly encoun-
ter on the morrow. Well, you see, did
| it, but what wanted was to get right the
heart of the mans heart, if you will pardon
the expression. | wanted candid, square
man to tell me just precisely how he felt,
whether angry still whether bitter at heart
or kind and forgiving; whether he did not
wish he hadn't come after all and let the
other fellow have his say and his way, rath-
er than have at the last to plug an ounce
bullet in his breast and send him home
bleeding corpse to his wife and babes.
The dav after my arrival in Richmond |
sent nv letters of introduction to the news
paper offices and waited the result. About
noon the cards of the two famous duelists
came up together. This was delicious. Now
| indeed should know all about the singular
sensation of standing before Christian gem
tleman and looking down the muzze OF his
pistol is the moments swelled into hours
while waiting the words, "One, two, three
Firen The handsome young editor Of the
Dispatch put me at ease at once BY his quiet
and graceful way OF bidding me welcome to
Richmond. But the other man absorbed an Al
nv attention instantly. Desperate? Tall,
gaunt. bony and bloodthirsty? Why, God
bless YOUR soul, he is the sleekest, sleepest,
best.fed fattest, best-natured looking editor
in the United States His blue eyes are
mild as a childs. He looks and acts in fact
like great, big green boy just out of school.
And. intellectually, he looks as if, like my
self, he had never been quite able to enter
into. familiar relations with the multlplca-
ton table, or even any high degree OF men
raj arithmetic Permit me to say here, by
way of parenthesis, so that my friends in
California may not be uneasy on my account
that before this sketch is published | shall
be on lpy way either to London or San
Francisco.
Well after the ordinary salutations we
sat down and | ordered cigars. No; they
would not smoke, these young tire-eaters.
"I never smoke but one cigar day and that
is at night" calmly said the editor OF the
Dispatch as he toyed with his cane and
glasses. Then l had brandy brought up, as
had been taught to believe that these
bloody duelists and Southerners lived on
brandy when they could not get blood to
: drink. No. they would not drink at all
The big, green schoolboy who had stretched
go many of his enemies on the grass said he
never drank anything stronger than beer
and only glass or two of that toward the
close of the day, when his work was done
; I did not see just then any good opportunity
to wedge in an inquiry directly about duels
as the conversation led over the ordinary
,, route of congratulation and inquiry as te
the various features of the South, and so fell