The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1889-08-29
SBY.CLINKSCALEs & LANGSTON
practice with a pist5i at d thatk oh ttee,
r. :. a .t..nHo tt,n1 hou mot, oon h;t


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practice with pist5l at ttiatk oh ttee
It is a strange thing how man can hi
the bulls eye on tree every pop, but
can't hit a man one time out of five ane
yet be perfectly cool and calm and serene
all the time. There must be some pecu
liar difference between the attractions o.
wood and flesh to leaden bullets.
reckon there is, for once t knew a one.
legged man to challenge two.legged
han and the latter, refused to fight him
because he said bis ball might bit the
wooden leg and draw no blood and it
wouldn't be fair. The idea was that the
wood would attract the ball and draw it
from the flesh. And hence these one.
legged men are left out In the cold anu
can't get any satisfaction at all. My
good old friend Mccormick can just 60
about aud be insulted, and inHulted, and
:insulted, and nobody will give him a
fight Allthis shows the exquisite fairness
Of the code but still it seems to me it
ought to go little further, and if 8
small, lean man challenger a big, fat
man, the small man ought to have his
figure marked ont plainly with chalk on
Che big mans corporosity, ,:and if his ball
went outside the mark, it ought not to
count.
The book says that dueling originated
in the superstitious ages when it was be.
lieved that the fates or the gods was on
the side Of truth and justice and always
avenged the man who adbeen yronged.
Some philosophers declared that there
was a mysterious connection between
honor and courage, and between courage
andsthe nefyousfsystem, and chat when a
man mas inthe>Wrong his courage waver.ii
ed .anahi,: nerves became unsteady and.
solhe:couldn't fght;to advantage and was
easily overcome by his adversary. There
may be something in this, but not q
great deal, for ne do know that the pro.
fessional duelist is generally in the
wrong, and as generally whips the dght.
In fact, the wrong man has generally
been killed in ali the fatal iduels of mod.
ern times. During the past century
dueling has had its chief support from
the army and navy where chivalry seems
to have centered. They talk about
chivalry as though they belonged to some
knightly order like unto the olden time
when Dom Qu1iote mounted his aea-bit.
ten gray and. sailed forth with a lance
about twenty feet long and charged a
windmill. The word chivalrY comes
from "cheyal," q horse, and so if man
was not mounted and straddled there was
no chanca to be chivalrous. a seat in a
buggy won't do at all. 1twon't churn up
beroism like the canter of horse. That
was called the fantastic age of famished
honor" for honor Vas said to be- always
hungry for fight, and the knights start
ed out periodically o hunt up and pro-
woke difficulties, Happily for us that
age has passed, but unhappily for us the
. =.
tail of the comet still fingers and ever
and anon some valiant knight looms up
and strikes his breast and exclaims,
"Mine honor, sir, mine honor" Right
there want to rush to his relief and
mount him on some 'rosinaute, and give
him sharpened pole and escort him to
oueo of these modern wind mills and tell
him to chargeit until his homer is salts
fed. Most of these chivalric gentlemen
hare very vague, indefinite idea of what
honor is or where it is located. Hudi-
bras throws some light upon the seat of
honor when he tells Of man who was
kicked in the place where honor is lodged
and he says:
ga kick just there hurts honor more
Than deeper wounds when kicked before.n
This locates the seat of honor in the
back ground where we will leave it.
Honor is like the chameleon that takes
any color that suits its surroundings.
Aaron Burr challenged Hamilton in or:
der to preserve his honor and yet he was
traitor-an enemy Of Washington--a
notorious lihertine-a bully and boasted
Of his armours and his intrigues. If a
man is going to fight for his honor he
should be sure that he has got some and
that he has not tarnished it by his own
dishonorable conduct. If man is
thief, or an extortioner, or libertine, he
has no right to challenge man for call
ing him liar, even though in that case
he was not a liar. His honor was all lost
in other vices, for honor is q very broad
quality, and does not split UP in conve.
nient parcels 1t makes up the complete
gentleman in all his conduct. When q
man can look his fellowmen in the face
and say whom have defrauded, or whom
have I wronged, or from whom have I
taken bribe, then let him fight for his
honor, if he wants to.
Ordinarily, if a man fights duel about
a matter that is personal to himself, he
does it out ofregard for public opinion,
for no two men would fight duel if they
we're living on an island by themselves.
And this proves the duelist to be moral
coward, for he has more regard for other
people than for himself, or his family
or his Maker. He knows that fight
proves nothing, and yet he deliberately
let's the public opinion outweigh his vile
and her children, and puts his soul
within easy reach Of the devil. From
every. point he is fool and coward and
could be convicted of lunacy in any