The Dispatch. [volume] (Provo City, Utah) 1891-1895, 1891-01-21
DUELING IN EUROPE.
Trial and Sentence of Successful French
Combatant-DueIinp in GERMANY

Trial and Sentence of a Successful French
Combatant-Dueling in Germany.
The trial of NJ. Belz, alias Villas, in the
criminal court of AK goes to show that
dueling, as it exists in France, is some
thing far more serious than it is gener-
ally believed to be in this country. NJ.
Beiz was the editor of paper called The
Bulletin Officiel du Comite Revisionniste,
and NJ. Louis Pierotti was employed in
The Petit Provencal of Marseilles The
manuscript of a romance intended for
the feuilleton Of The Petit Provencal was
submitted by NJ. Belz TO the editors of
that journal. NJ. Pierotti was charged
with the duty of reading it. He reported
against it, and it was declined as un-
available. The affair was made the sub
Ject of newspaper controversy, in
which NJ. Belz considered himself suffi-
clently wounded to call for a settlement
upon the field. After considering the
case, the seconds decided that there was
no cause of quarrel, and the thing was
believed to have blown over, when NJ.
Belz again came to the attack in an in
suiting article in his paper, ending with
:. - s''a"4',. at NJ Pierotti, alluding to his
nc III Il h9i-. Pierotti, as his name indi-
Inc weaponsbA IN Italy. hut he was
After shPrt and fiere,Frencb rannb-
Pierotti was run through, anu ttss.,
dead in the arms of his seconds. While
his body was lying in the Hospice de La
Conception, where it was taken in the
carriage of his adversary, his wife and
little daughter were waiting for him at
the Hotel de Marseilles, where he had
turn of the troops from the review.
NJ. Belz then went to dinner party,
where he loudly glorified himself on
the result of the combat, which SO en-
ragged the rest of the company that they
forcibly elected him from the dining
room. He then proceeded to banquet
Of Boulangists, after which he was ar
rested and admitted to bail. The other
day he and the four seconds in the duel
appeared before the criminal court of
AK on a charge of homicide and COM
plicity therein.
When Belz came upon the stand to r.
ply to the president of the court he "a
with staggering air the following ;.c-
count of the affair:
'M. Bouge had charge of the combat.
In one hand he held his watch and in
the other cane. Pierotti and were
both naked to the waist He defended
himself very well. In fact he astonished
me. The point of my weapon struck sew
eral times the guard of his, and his sword
pierced my glove, but without wounding
me. At the last moment he rushed at
me with a coup de fouet Then riposted
and ran him through"
The President-You must have used
extraordinary force to.drive your weapon
completely through your adversary.
Belz-Why, not at all. I pushed the
steel quite naturally. Then. seeing that
he was wounded, stepped back and ex-
claimed, ''You are bleedrng!" And he
was dead.
The President-What was then done
with this unfortunate young man?
Belz (in careless tone(-Everybody
seemed to have lost his head. They all
began to cry, and faith, it wasn't anus
ing.
The PRESIDENTIAL not Pierotti re-
ceive several pricks in the arm before he
received his mortal wound?
Belz-No; those scratches were made
after the thrust.
The President-And so for few lines
thoughtlessly written, for a quarrel with
out reason, in which you do not figure as
having had the best of it, We find our
selves in the presence of the corpse of an
intelligent and kind hearted young man,
who was beloved by everybody, and is
now torn forever from his little family.
VOLTA la moralite du duel!
Belz-There might have been two dead
men instead of one.
He received two years imprisonment
But the strangest state of affairs exists
in the German army. A Paris CORE
spondent of Courier des Etat Unis writes:
Among the officers the thing is sim
pie enough, and it follows it's natural
course on one side of the Rhine as well
as on the other But that is not the case
when a civilian becomes mixed up in the
affair. In France the officer insulted by
person outside of the army is inspired
simply by his own feelings in the matter.
He goes to his superior, or chef de corps,
and explains the case. The latter, after
having looked carefully into the
matter, advises him only to fight
or not to fight, as the case may
be. In Germany an officer insulted
under the same conditions is not free to
give to the affair the sequel that he
might desire. There exists in each regi-
ment tribunal of honor to whose de-
cision he must submit. If this tribunal