The semi-weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1882-1886, 1884-06-25
REMORSE OF DUELISTS.
The Shadows That Shadnwed
benton, Frentiss and
Others.
fSau Francisco CALI

| On sunday last, the CuN. lii Tue
| article descriptive Of the great grief
which Swallowed the lite Of the other
wise pleasant and coDgeDisi George
Pen Johnston for nearly tweuty-sIx
| wears. declared that ''he was a
| changed man ever after, and the
sbadow Of that tragic event was 10
his soul like that rypifed by Poe's
Raven, The midnight dark an0
dreary' of its coming was to him the
| Anniversary of the duel, when the
| shadows invariably dee;ened On bis
brsx ding heart" While few Amen
| cans or E%agIishmen this caunot be
| said 20 truthfuliy Of others, unless II
he said Of irishmen) who have sur
yjy.d fatal duels during the past
; century and a half, are strangers to
either grief or yemorse, there have
lived and died many like the gentle,
humane. chivairous and ahectionate
Johnston, whose perfect peace OF
mind bad been forever afterward
shattered or destroyed.
As vigorously and as humaueiy as
O'Conneii deprecated dueiipg, and as
reluctantly as he ne. D'Esterre,
whom be killed, he never got rii OF
his remorse OF conscience from the
dav of that fatal meeting in the coun-
ty Of Kildare. The dying groan OF
U'E.terre made a wound in O'Con
uell's heart which nc physician could
heal. He oEced declared in the house
Of COMMONS that, having blood upon
his hands, he had registered q VOW in
heaven. And it has also been written
of O'Connell that he never attended
church after the killing Of D'EsterIe
without first wrapping up IN q hand~
serchief 1.-The guilty hand" declaring
that be could not approach his Re-
d+eIler with the rand exposed
which Lad taken the life of q fellow.
man.
senator Thomas Hart Benton, OF
Missouri, although it has often been
stated that the duel was forced upon
him deeply regretted his meeting
with Lucas. in which the latter was
killed, and some time previous = his
death Colonel Benton destroyed all
the papers he had in his possession or
that he could obtain concerning the
affair. Colonel John NJ. McCarty,
who killed General Armstead L. Ma
SOD. suffered great rem0rse up to the
time Of his death over the remem-
trance of the unnatural encounter.
Mason and McCarty were Virginlans
and cousins, and quarrelled over pol
itics, which ran high at that time
1910.
Henry Phillips. who slew his for
lner friend, Benjamin Woodbridge,
one night in 1928. on Boston Com
mon. and escaped, died from great
grief IN France / n less than a year
afterward.
The brilliant S. s. Prentiss, of Mis-
sissippi, a New Highlander by birth
ana education, who fought a mum
Der of dueIs in Difference to pubic
opinion, admitted great remorse.
His moral and religious training and
scruples were antsgOnistic to the GUS
tom; yet he Orce went into the field
alter he had become possessed of
wife and children. Probably nOgen-
tIeman of as much natural wit and
sunshine walked so much in the
valley Of the shadow of death He
once wrote to a friend concerning
one Of his meetings that he did nolh-
ing but 'read the Bible and weep
and pray" 1.-The possibility of leav-
ing my own family unprotected"
said Pre- miss, scr of killing a fellow
being, haunted me SO that / could
not sleep. and | tottered round in the
daytime like a WORKOUT old man."
Undoubtedly Mr.. Graves, who
killed Mr. CiIley, suffered much from
remorse. Just before be died he said
it required a higher order of courage
to decline than to accept a challenge,
and he declared that, if ever he be-
came involved in another difficulty
his moral obligations and not fear of
public opinion, should guide him in
all his actions in the premises.