Omaha daily bee., 1889-07-29

had s dream theiipight before,
which caused him to lear, for my safety
He was on the point-uf telling it, but
interrupted him. "a would rather not
| hear il, ~ said |, "because | do not care
to go into this affair With any forebod-
ings. am no belieyerin dreams, but
they have the power TO, opnnerve me at
times, and for that reason | would
rather hear nothing. The duel must
come off anyhow, dream or no dream;
fere."
"well, I'll swear,n said my second,
with evident admiration. you've got
the finest grit ever saw.n
An interval OF silence succeeded
which was interrupted by me: 81 have
made my will and left fit In my trunk
with some other papers. II 1 should die,
you must tell my parents that L
was game to the last. There are sew
| eral letters from my sweetheart-they
are-tled with-a little red ribbon.
Her name is on the back of one OF them
send them-to her-and tell her-I
died with her name-upon my lips"
My companion was profoundly
touched, and promised TO do as | wished;
but tried to console me with the hope
that the affair would turn out all right.
| We rode the rest Of the way in silence
1
sombre forest to the glade where the
duel was to be fought. 1t was grue-
some dreadful kind of a place, far away
from the sound Of human voices. The
silence was depressing in the extreme.
| We hitched our horses to small trees
and began to survey the ground, my
adversary aud his second not having
arrived. We INDUCED in fragmentary
conversation for few minutes, when
,..1,nN f.,, Nf - n1Nnl Nln
proach OF Douglass. AS the two men
came up my second scanned them
closely. and said to me, HE looks as
cool and resolute as you."
"Yes," said l, indifferently, "he is
evidently brave fellow"
"Neither of you fools Is lacking in
courage"
1 smiled grimly.
Douglass and his second dismounted,
and the usual preliminaries Of a duel
were gone through with. The seconds
examined the pistols and saw that they
were in proper shape. Then they SOL
emnly measured off the correct distance,
while Douglass and Invent through what
little preparation was required OF us.
AT last everything was ready. and there
no further excuse for delay. There
were a few hurried handshakes, a last
glance on my part at the glorious day
l
above us, and we took our places.
1t is hard to describe ones feelings
under such dreadful circumstan ces.
Long years after recall that awfully
quiet meeting in the forest glade, with
the two seconds standing seriously and
anxously at one side like the chroni
clers of doom.
Are Are you ready?" we were asked
zone, two, three-fre!o
Two shots broke sharply on the morn
ing air. Neither of us was hit.
My second approached his colleague
and asked if Douglass was satisfied, and
when the matter was referred to my
brother journalist he replied, with a
violent that he was not. So we again
took our positions. Again we heard
the dreadful "One, two, three-fire!''' -
Again we missed Douglass second
now came to mine, and said that
his principal was satisfied if | was. l
sent word back that the quarre
was not OF my seeking, but that as long
as had gotten into it [ was not aversel
to seeing it through We got into
position for the third time, shot and
missed. The seconds held a nervous
consultation, and came to both Doug
lass and myself and begged to let the
matter drop. '''---
"Both of you,' they said, ''have
proved your grit, and we don't want to
see either of you hurt"
We, however, were obdurate, and ac-
cordingly faced each other for the
fourth time, fired and missed. Again
the seconds made an appeal to us to de-
sist, but we stood firm, and took our
places for the fifth time, with the same
harmless result.
"Can't we persuade you ID fools
to STOP" said one of the seconds to
me.
"No, SIR" 1 replied, with dignity; II
didn't come here for nothing"
Douglass, it seems, took the same
view as l did. The seconds consulted
again sand made an announcement to
each of US: "You have now had five
shots at each other; and, on account of
the limited supply of ammunition, only
one more shot is possible. If you fail
to hit this time we will be compelled to
terminate the duel and decide
that Mr.. Douglass honor has been
indicated"
To this Douglass and reluctantly
agreed. 1t was an awful moment-to
the seconds-just before that last shot;
unmistakable relief when it was fired
with the same old result. The next day
the duel was the talk of the town, and
public opinion decided that we were
. "the gamest fellows and the d-dest
worst shots" in the state.
You don't understand itp Well, you
see, in the long interview 1 had with
. Douglass the night before the duel,
: found that he was frightened to death,
and was as eager to have it postponed
!. sine die as 1 was. 1t was only a question
of how we could get out OF it decently;
and bogus duel, in which we were not
to fire at each other, was agreed upon.
IL was suggested by that sense of humor
which my mother gave me.
Well, let's have another toddy all
around before the daylight catches US.
For disodered liver try Beecham's Pills.
A Petroleum Celebration.
) A centennial to commemorate the