Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1884-07-17
FIGHTING PARSONS.

To those who have never heard OF
such thing the statement that minis
tiers of the gospel have INDUCED in the
polite luxury of killing their fellow
beings in duels will cause surprise,
writes Maj Ben. G. Truman in the
Alta California. But such is the case.
and as late as 1899, the Rev. Henry
Bate, an Episcopal Minister, had fought
and killed three men in duels. He died
In 1924, holding high position in Ely
Cathedral, England. A description OF
this mans life shows him to have been
brilliant but profigate fellow,
although a parson. He was a dead
shot, but YVES winged at last by Capt.
Stoney Robinson, who was also danger
ously wounded by the unclerical parson
"a lady having been the cause of the
trouble. In 1915 the Rev. Mr.. Bate
Tor Dudley, as he had taken the name
OF Dudley in l7S4) was made baronet.
Two of his wrangles and duels were
over actresses, and another on account
of articles he had written besmirching
the character of the Countess of Strath-
more.
In 1882 an Episcopal minister named
Bennett Allen challenged and killed a
Marylander named Floyd Dulany. The
duel took place in Hyde Park, London,
short time before midnight, and was
fought with pistols at eight PAGES.
Dulany fell to the ground and raised
himself almost like flash, and then
tottered backward and fell into the arms
of his second, Henry Delaney, of Ha-
gerstown, Md, mortally wounded. The
difficulty was caused by the publication
of anonymous articles in a London
newspaper rejecting upon Dulany and
other American loyalists, and suisse
quent publication of a card in the same
paper calling the writer of the article
liar, a scoundrel, and coward. Allen
attempted to quit the country the day
following the duel, but was arrested
and convicted of manslaughter, and
sentenced to six months imprisonment
in Newgate. In 1894 the Rev. Thomas
Hill was challenged by Cornet Gardner
of the "Carbineers," for ungentlemanly
conduct, and was killed at the first
shot.
Perhaps one of the most interesting
anecdotes of these Christian fighters
who seem at times to have altogether
forgotten the Sermon on the Mount ia
the one about DIR. Blackburn. who was
in the early part of his life an active
buccaneer in the West Indies-for even
buccaneers could not do without a par
son. And, during one of their cruises,
as the story goes, the First Lieutenant,
having dispute with Blackburn, told
M IL or for HI L
should treat him in different manner.
oh" exclaimed the parson, that need
be no hindrance;" and, stripping off the
garment, he added, "Now, | am your
man!' At this it was agreed that they
should fight on small island near
where the ship lay, and that the one
who fell should be rolled into the sea
by the survivor, that it might seem as
If while walking on the cliff he had lost
his footing and tumbled in. The Lieu
tenant fell, to all appearance, as if shot
dead. Blackburn at once rolled the
PROSTATE man down the cliff; but lust
at the last shelf of the declivity, the
Lieutenant recovered sufficiently to cry
out: For God sake, hold your handl"
Aha. said Blackburn, "you called just
in time, for In another moment you
would have been in the sea-" This
same parson and buccaneer was after
ward made Archbishop of York; and
when Sir Charles Wager heard of the
promotion he said: what! my old
friend, DIR. Blackburn, created Arch
bishop of York? | ought have been
preferred to it before him, for / was the
elder buccaneer of the two"
Notwithstanding the many edicts is
sued by the Catholic Church, Cardinal
de Retz once challenged priest Of high
birth at the altar. 1t is sail of this
holy man" that lie was one Of the most
noted dueliSts If the seventeenth cen
fury, and was The hero of thirteen hos
was a lady in the case" Cardinal
Norris once accepted challenge to
fight noted Jesuit named Macedo, in
the forest of Bou!ogne, but the meeting
was interfered with by the Pope, and
Macedo, it is said, nearly died from
grief in consequence. Joachim Murat,
afterward King of Naples, and one of
the deadest shots that ever lived,
fought his first duel while occupying
high church position as the Able Murat
the cause of the trouble being
pretty maiden of Toulouse
The writer has no knowledge of such
dueling scenes among American clergy
men, although he has met members of
the cloth" who carried pis oils and were
known as excellent shots He call to
mind young Kentuckian, of most
profigate habits, who preached in st.
Athanasius' Church, in Los Angeles, in
1863, who could whip out six-shc otter
and knock the spots out of the six OF
diamonds at twenty yards, or ring the
bell at shooting gallery with a rifle
twelve times in succession. He was a
brilliant young minister, but slave to
intoxicants, and died from the effects of