The record-union., 1891-11-14

he may have mistaken my company for
his. At any rate he came up to me and
made some insulting remark. l rose and
said: Tom Marshall, we may as well
settle our feud, and now is as good a time
as any Get down from your horse and
we viii fight it out He replied: Not
now. Some other time; ! here drew
my sword and said: The time for men
who wear swords is now. Y ou chose your
own time to mob me at Lexington, and
you are coward if you refrain on ac-
count of your surroundings Marshall
hereupon rode over to his tent. In a few
moments he came back with his pistol.
| saw him and went into my tent and got
mine. / came out with one in each hand.
They were cooked, and | said: L am
ready for you.' He was a coward, and
he was afraid to ire He turned his
horse and rode back to his tent. That
same evening he tried to drown himself
IN the Rio Grande River, but the men
saw him and prevented him. He was
afraid to fight, but he was not afraid to
commit suicide. Had we fought with
swords | would have carved him like
pancake.''
CLAY's FIGHT WITH SAM BROWN.
"Do you remember any other in
stances?''
YES" replied General Clay. ST sup
pose I could give others. It is curious
that even a brave man when he is once
beaten hates to encounter the same man
again. | can only explain the fact that |
was not challenged by Sam Brown after
our terrible fight on these grounds"
what was the fight, GeneralY'
1T arose out of Congressional con-
test, replied General Clay. II was cam
didate against man named Wicklitfe,
and Wicklitfe introduced my wife's name
into one Of his speeches. | challenged
him, and we fired at ten PAGES. Both Of
! us missed and | raised my pistol up into
the air ana demanded a second fire. The
seconds would not permit this, and we
left the ground without reconciliation or
an apology on either side. AS l look
over the matter now | don't believe that
our seconds had loaded our pistols with
| balls, and did not see how | could have
missed. | was an excellent shot, and
was accustomed to shooting with rifle
and revolver. One of my tavOrite
amusements was squirrel shooting, and
/ could shoot the heads off of eleven out
of twelve squirrels when out hunting.
\ on know If squirrel sees you and
runs up a tree, and you remain quiet, as
soon as he gets into whatever he consid-
ers a safe place, he will poke his head out
and look to see where you are, and the
skill in squirrel shooting is to shoot off
! the head Of the squirrel
THE BowIE-KNIFE VS.. THE PISTOL.
"Well, Wickliffe here had the worst of
the fight, and during the CANVASS for Con-
! gresS | was making a very good OppoSi-
! ton to him, much to the disgust of the
! pro-slaYery party. He had hand bill
! which he read during his speech. We
/ had our speeches together and when he
! brought this bill | always rose and asked
| if l might interrupt him. He would po-
! litely consent, and I would then say the
! hand-bill he had read was untrue and had
! been proven so. The prEslavery men
| got tired of this, and they decided to kill
| me. They sent for Sam Brown, who was
one of the most noted bullies of Ken
| lucky. 1t is said that he had had forty
! fights, and had never lost a battle. Brown
came, and he and Wickliffe, a fellow
named Jacob Ashton and Ben Wood, q
| police bully, held a consultation, at which
they loaded a pistol which Brown was to
use upon me the next day l knew
nothing of this and / had not my dueling
pistols with me. I interrupted Wick
life, as usual, and as l did so Brown
struck we with his umbrella, and told
me that my statement was a damned lie.
l saw at once that it meant fight and
when | recognized Brown I knew it
meant fight to the death. | had a long,
sharp bowie-knife in the breast of my
coat, and jerked this out, and before [
could strike Browns friends grabbed my
arms from behind and hauled me about
! fifteen feet from Brown. Brown now
! pulled his revolver and told them to get
! out of the way and to let him kill me.
! The crowd got back and | stood alone.
| Brown had his pistol pointed at me, and
l started toward him. | could see him
| looking along the barrellof the revolver.
| He took aim and waited until he thought
| was close enough to give him a sure
! shot, and then fired. | felt the ball strike
| me in the breast, and | thought it had
gone through me, and 1 determined to
| lii IL E I Il lNof1 I
| down on his head with a tremendous
blow with the bowie-knife, but did not
! split open his skull. [ struck again and
again, and stunned him so that he was
not able to fire. With one cut of the
knife l sliced his nose right in two, SO
that it separated right in the middle and
came out as flat as a pancake. With an
other blow cut off his ear SO that it hung
! by shred, and with third put out his
! eye. The cOnspiratorS now seized me,
and l was struck with hickory sticks and
! chairs, some of the blows of which / still
! feel. l broke loose from my captors and
again made for Brown, and they, to keep
him out Of my way, picked him up and
! threw him over stone fence about seven
| feet high, and thus ended the fight.
! Though / was the assaulted party, they
! atterward tried me for mayhem, and at
! this trial Brown confessed the conspi-
racy, and Henry Clay defended me- OF
course l was not convicted, but I felt
! very friendly to Brown, and wrote him a
note thanking him for his evidence and
| telling him | was willing to be friends
with him if he cared to be so. He re-
fused, however, to bury the hatchet, and
when l remembered his condition / did
not wonder at it. The doctors had
patched him up pretty well, but he was a
! horrible looking object, and I expected
| that he would insist upon q duel with
me, or would attack me and have his re-
Yenge. l met him several times after
ward, however, and he never touched
me. [ have no doubt that he staid in
Lexington intending to kill me, but the
| probability is that he had not the courage
| to attack me-"
Where did Browns ball strike you,
| General?" said I.
1T struck me just over the heart" re-
! piled General Clay, land l would have
| been killed but for one thing The
! Scabbard of nv bowie-knife was tipped
with silver, and in jerking the knife I
pulled this scabbard up SO that it was
just over my heart. Browns bullet
| struck the scabbard and imbedded itself
| in the silver, and we found the ball
| there. There was a red spot just over my
| heart, and the whole seemed almost
| proVidential.'
WITHIN AN ACE OF DEATH.
After General Clay said this he leaned
| his head on his hand and looked for soma
moments into the fire in deep thought.
| He was apparently living the fight over
! again, and L interrupted him and asked
him if he had ever been so close to death
since that time. He replied:
i don't know, but think 1 have been
| within an ace of death half dozen times
since my fight with Brown. / was nearly
! killed within mile of this house at Fox
town, the cross roads where you turned
off from the pike to come into White
Hall. This was during one of the politi-
! cal campaigns in 1919. and when I Voc