Springfield daily republic. [volume] (Springfield, O. [Ohio]) 1887-1888, 1888-08-22
DUELS AND DUELTSTS.
AN OLD MASTER AT ARMS COMMENT
ON BOuLANGER.

There is no man living who has fought
more real, hard. to the death duels than
Col. Monastery, the veteran disciple of the
art of running ones fellow man through
the ribs Col Monastery has fought duels
in Europe. in Mexico, South and Central
America and other countries where the
sword is the arbiter of the quarrel.
To reporter who enjoyed chat with
him the other day, the colonel explained
why Gen. Boulanger's course in his recent
encounter had damaged his (Boulangers)
reputation as great soldier
Gen. Boulanger," said he, In his brisk
way, from what learn by the papers.
brought about his defeat by his lack of
coolness and consequent fury of attack
He rushed blindly on his foe, losing all
sight of prudence and skill in the desire
to iniict injury. For an expert swords
man to overcome such an attack is an
easy matter. He has only to wait coolly
for his antagonist to leave an opening and
then sail in. BouIanger's fatal impetuosity
in this instance is the best possible proof,
to the view of any soldier, of his lack of
ability to command. Such man makes
good fighter in ordinary warfare, but no
commander. He is fitted to obey orders;
to give them-neverl | have admired
Boulanger until now, and looked for
great things from him as general But
In my judgment he has no discretion His
conduct in this duel justifies the supposi
tion that in a great conflict, in which two
great armies were engaged, he would act
in precisely the same way as he did in his
fight with Floquet; he would hazard all
on one desperate move, and as result
lose. This, mind you. is the view of an
old soldier, and | tell you it can't he
wrong A hot head makes agood fighter.
but no general.
Passing on to general commentary on
dueling, past. and present, Col Monastery
expressed the keenest contempt for the
average French duel of the day 1t is the
explicit understanding, he said. that when
two Parisian gentlemen of today decide to
settle a quarrel with the rapier. the first
| flow of blood, no matter by which re
ceived, shall end the combat. He thought
the existence of this understanding was
the French governments pretext for its
recognition of dueling as national in
stitution.
There are. of course, occasional excep-
tions to this rule" he added. "and there
is nearly always an exception when one Of
the combatants is foreigner A French.
man will always kill a foreigner in duel
if he can, particularly if it is an English
man. This was the case in the famous
| duel between Mr.. Dillon, an English jour
nalist, and the Duke de Grammont de
Chartreuset, which took place in Paris
eighteen or twenty years ago, The duke
was q thorough master of the rapier, and
the Englishman knew nothing of the
weapon. At the very first assault the
duke, by skillful play, sent his adver
| sary's sword flying from his hand He
then sprang like lightning on his un,
armed adversary and ran him through
As fought today, however, the French
duel with swords is mere child's play and
| Is always ended at the first scratch. 1t is
different, OF course. when the duel Is
fought with pistols. Firearms cannot be
fooled with safely, and are much moro
likely to kill than to main. There was
an instance of this IN Paris few weeks
ago, when an artist shot dead at the first
hre journalist who had too harshly criti
| cised some OF his pictures.
| when Frenchman who is challenged
| to hight a duel chooses pistols as the
weapons, one may know he means bust
ness. His choice OF swords only means q
little theatrical display and reconcilia-
| ton 1t Is evident, though, that the
Floquet- Bouianger affair was serious
enough boulanger plainly meant to kill
| his adversary, and when Floquet saw
what he was at have no doubt but that
| he fought to Kill also. No man can see