St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1886-11-18
MET In THE MOONLIGHT.
dow an Old Grudge Was Amicably
Settled.
At the Lonely Base of Pixies Peak--
Two Odd Tom bstones.

1--WE seen a heap O. fights in my day.
said an old frOntiersman in Canuck jim
place on Madison street, Chicago, the other
night. but the worst of the whole lot was
the one between Avalanche Jem Smith
and Cinnamon River Orion, which oc-
CURED at the base Of Pixies Peak during the
gold fever days vars ago. l remember it
as well as though it was fit last night. You
see the men were natral born enemies
They had fit every time they had met each
other for vars and vars. and each one had
been a-SWearin' round the country that he
would grease his boots with the others
heart. They did not meet however until
one night in September. Each was
pilotin' a train across the plains. Both
came together at the foot of the old peak
Just as it was a-gettin' dark. Orion was
biz. strappin' fellow with long black hair.
He had but one eye, Avalanche having
gouged the other out in fight they had
vars before in tie ArapahOe country.
Smith was a little, wiry devil with eyes no
bigger'n haZelnuts. Orion had knocked
the fellows nose out of joint and some
body else had cut his left cheek from the
eve to the chin. Smith was an Ornery
lookin' cuss, but holy knockkneed Inj unS,
how he could fight.
well. as was a-sayin'. the men met at
the base of Pixies Peak. It didn't take 'em
long to find each other. They were ready
to fight it out then and there; but the rest of
the party objected to havin' any blood spillin'
round the train, for there were heap O.
women in the schoOners who weren't
a-hankerin' to see a fight. 1t was finally
agreed that the men should meet about
midnight in a sort of ravine about half a
mile from camp and fight the old grudge
out, once for all. About twenty of us
went along to see that there was
fair play. Orion wanted to fight with
pistols; but Smith, who was mighty handy
with bowie insisted that the thing must
be done with knives. 1t was finally agreed
that each should fire three rounds with his
Colts, and then, if both were still alive,
knives were to be used until one or both
were dead. When everything was ready
Orion and Smith took off their blouses, and,
stepin' out into little strip of ground where
the moon shOne brightest, paced off twenty
feet and then stood with their backs to each
other 4 moment later 'RattleSnake' Ike
gave the word TO fire. The two men wheeled
around as quick as lightnin' and discharged
their guns with one crack. Orton caught a
ball in his chin, while Smith fell upon his
knees. with hunk o lead in the ShlnS. Ike
again gave the word to Shoot and again the
guns spouted fire simultaneously. Orion
BOW came down on his marrow bones with
a ball in his right knee. Smith was shot in
the left shoulder, and fell over upon his
back. We all thought he was done for,
but he got up on his knees again and
cooked his weapon for the last round. Both
men were covered with blood, and it was
oil 1o To oan in q 1Narppndi0nlor
position on their knees.
Zone, two three,-firer' yelled Ike.
The two men blazed away at each others
head. Both were shot through the neck,
yet neither fell.
6 Draw your knives and close in,'
shouted Ike, jumping around like a Sioux
Indian with the StOmach-ache. The two
men dragged themselves within arms reach
of each other and then begun one of the
most horrible battles | ever saw. Orion
was the first to draw his knife from his belt.
He raised it high above his head and drove
it into his adverSary'S back between the
shoulder blades. Smith staggered for a
minute, but recovered in time to parry a
blow aimed at his breast. Then the two
men fell upon each other, and rolled over
and over, each trying to grab the other
by the throat. Their hands were
red to the wrists. while blood ran off the
blades of their knives and spurted from the
wounds in their necks. Everybody was
sick of the sight 'cept Ike He kept
jumpin' and yellin' round the fighters like
mailman, and c!appin' his hands at every
thrust. For fifteen minutes Orion and
Smith fought like demons in the moonlight
They slashed each other right and left
until they tainted from loss of blood. 1t
was nearly 1 o'clock when We walked in
between them and carried them into camp.
Orion died on the way. and Smith, who
never recovered consciousness, passed in
his checks before sun-up. We stuck two
pine boards at the heads of their graves at
the foot of the hill. The one over OrtOn'S
mound read something like this: