The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-06-25
A DUEL WITH KNIVES.
VICTOR TREvITT's BATTLE WITH
AN INDIAN FOR A BRIDE.


FOUNDER of an Idaho City Wagers
His Wife Against a Miners Rich
claim That Eventually Made Him
Very Wealthy.
From the Baltimore Herald.
Rising from the centre of rocky island
On the midst of the Columbia river, few
miles below the Dalles, white marble shaft
marks the tomb of Victor Trevit, the foun-
dor of Lewiston, Idaho, and one of the most
remarkable characters the history of the
northwest has ever known. Victor Trevit.
vas a half-bred Through his veins coursed
the blood of Nez Perces mother and a
French father, and during the latter half of
the 10 years that he lived he was looked
uron by the Nez Perces with reverence.
When he died at last they accorded his re-
mains the highest tribute i'll their power by
laviog them in specially tomb in
the rocky bosom of tho island, where only
their chieftains and their bravest warriors
had been laid Over the crumbling form
thew granted the citizens of Lewiston liber-
Nv to erect the tombstone that to-day bears
his name. Trevit was hale and hearty to
the day OF his death, and might have been
living now had not an unlucky step one
dark night Is month ago precipitated him
into the Jagged shaft of an abandoned mine,
from which his crushed and lifeless shape
was taken the next morning.
INCIDENTS FROM HIS LIFE.
There are two incidents in the life of this
nioneer well worth the telling, one being the
manner in which he won his wife after a
desperate duel with knives, the other being
the story of how, in game of draw poker
with a miner, he staked his wife against
nrospector's claim that eventually made him
exceedingly wealthy. Among the Nez
Perces was beautiful young squaw, the
daughter of Tall Pine, a noted chief. She
was known as the Blushing Rose and, al
though in the sixties aud still a bachelor,
Trevit conceived passionate love for her,
and intimated to Tall Pine that he desired
to make her his wife. The proposition
pleased the old chief, but when the plan
was laid before Blushing Rose she signified
her displeasure by declaring that she would
wed no man but Leaping Panther, hand
some young brave who had distinguished
himself in the chase and whose intrepidity
and skill in the use of the rifle were the
wonder of the tribe The old chief, with an
eve open to his personal interests, tried to
laugh down the protests of his daughter and
cody informed her that she must throw
aside her silly infatuation and become Ire
or not. She threatened to kill herself if she
we're pressed into the distasteful union, and
Trevit and Tall Pine were in q qnandary as
10 what move to make, when the brave
Young warrior, Leaping Panther, offered q
solution to the difficulty by suggesting that
Trevit and be fight duel with knives, the
girl to become the wife of the winner.
TO FIGHT FOR THE THRONE.
With the firmest confidence in the strength
and bravery of her Indian lover, and be-
leving it impossible for him to suffer de-
feat, Blushing Rose agreed to this manner Of
settling the question of whose chattel she
should become, and it was settled that the
two aspirants for her hand should meet in a
CANYON among the foothills east of the In
dian camp, about 10 miles from Lewiston,
and in the presence of all who cared to be
present, do battle for her. Trevit, though
well along in years, was man Of great
strength. He stood about six feet unshod,
and had breadth of shoulders and girth of
loins that suggested the strength of an OK.
His long life among the Indians and in the
mountains fitted hun splendidly for con-
test like this, and he accepted the challenge
of his young rival, never for a moment
doubling that he would come off victor,
The prospects of duel between the two
men was told throughout the camp, and an
hour before sunset on the evening the men
men and children had gathered in jang-
ling circle among the shadows of the can
yon, anxious for the fray to begin. A little
apart from the crowd, leaning against a
boulder, Bushing Rose, with compressed
lips, waited silently for the appearance of
her two lovers. They came at last from
among the boulders and faced each other in
the center of the living circle. Both looked
determined and confident
STRIPPING FOR THE FRAY.
Two warriors quickly tore the shirts from
the mems bodies and strapped their left
hand behind their backs. Thus naked to the
hips, with cleaning knife in their hands,
the men moved toward each other with the
stealth of the tiger in their movements and
the cunning of the fox in their eyes. The
combat was not of long duration. Trevit
suddenly rose to the full limit OF his splen-
did height and rushed upon his foe with a
force and yell that caused the young squaw
by the boulder to turn pale and tremble,
but a smile of exultation lit up her face as
she saw the massive form OF Irevlt reel and
the blood gush in flood from his side.
Leaping Parther's agility had served him
well and with spring he was on his waver-
Ing antagonist, who, with wild sweep of
his long arm, sent his glittering knife
through the muscles and tendons of the
young braves shoulder, and the two men
Aoll COSeIueT III u6lpltSS uoup. rOl HldHy
days Trevit lay at the point of death, but
his powerful constitution pulled him
through, and he became himself again.
Leaping Panther never recovered the use of
his right arm and was obliged to relinquish
Flushing Rose to Trevit, as the half-bred
had been declared winner in the fight, since
he had rendered forever useless the fighting
arm of mis- antagonist. In due time the
young squaw became the wife of Trevit,
but she never forgot her first love, and
two years after becoming the wife OF the
old pioneer, one morning her remains, to-
gether with those of Leaping Panther, were
found at the bottom Of the Snake river.
They had deliberately gone to their death
clasped in each others arms.
STALKING HIS WIFE AT CARDS.
One of the most desperate games of poker
in which Trevit, a noted player hereabouts,
ever got mixed was played little more
than year after he married Blushing Rose.
Unknown to his Indian bride he staked her
against the claim of a prospecter by the
name of Bill Gooding, miner who had
seen Trevlt's wife and was not slow to express
bis admiration of her charms.
Gooding was gambler as we'll as miner
and good luck seemed always to attend him,
for he seldom stuck his pick into the noun
tain size that he didn't turn up color. "
a Dec aston Ilv ha would drfff into TawiSfou