The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-10-11

,affes6lA NAN lucky as always
Y IN , ssss a n se:.s = sass
is always followed by blow and an insult
has to be wiped out in death. Life is of
less account here than in the North. and
1t was of still less value in the days of
General Clay's youth nearly two genera
lions ago. 1t is sixty years now since he
delivered the Washington Centennial ora
ton at Yale college in which he espoused
the cause of the negro and became the
most hated man in Kentucky among
the slave holders. All his life
he has had to fight for his ideas, and the
stories OF his personal encounters read
like romance. 1t was during the latter
part of my visit at ''White Hall" this
week while we were sitting one evening
before the Goals of his library fire, that |
drew General Clay on to talk of some of
these fights, and 1 could almost see the
combats in the Goals. as in cool but graphic
language he brought them back from the
memories of the past.
Said he: 81 have never courted trouble
with anyone, but have never gone out of
the way to avoid it, have had number
ofencounters and have never been whip
ped in my life. except by my mother and
by my elder brother. / remember the first
and only whipping got from my brother.
He was Older than | was and great deal
stronger and / was accustomed to tease
him and play tricks upon him, until one
day we were out trimming some trees IN
the orchard. The trees were rather high
and my brother had made little ladder
to enable him to get up into them. He
took one row of trees and took another
and / would put away his ladder and take
it over to my row so that he had to jump
down and get it when he wanted to go to
new tree He objected several times. Not
withstanding this, still kept at it and he
caught me and threw me down and whip
ped me with some of the long sprouts or
trimmings of the trees. These sprouts
were very supple and / can almost feel
their stings yet I appreciated, however,
the justice of the whipping and did not
cry. 1 rose laughing, but from that time
did not take my brothers ladder and l
stopped teasing him.
GENERAL CLAY's FIRST DUEL.
"When did you have your first duel,
general?" I asked.
my first duel" replied General CLAW,
Terminated without either party firing
shot. 1t occurred when I was g. fifty
eight years ago. I was engaged to be mar
ried and had rival sutton who, in spite
of my success, wrote a letter to my sweet
hearts mother in which he made a num-
Der of very obnoxious charsye against me.
The letter should never have been shown
me. but the mother of my affianced wife did
hand it to me and asked me to explain it.
l explained it by going to Louisville
on the hunt for the man who had written
it. He was a doctor and his name was
Declarey. A friend of NINE went with me
and as soon as we got to the city went into
a cooper shop and got good tough hickory
cane about as big around as your finger,
| saw DIR. Declarey on the street and went
ND to him and asked him if his name was
Declarey. He replied that it was and then
told him would like to have talk with
him. This was on one of the main streets
of Louisville and, though | intended to
cane him, | did not want to do it where
crowd would rush in and prevent nv CIV
ing him the punishment he deserved, so I
quietly turned our promenade off into
side street. In the meantime nv friend
James s. Rollins, afterwards noted during
the war as General Rollins, walked along
the other side of the street and watched
me- When | had gotten Declarey into a
cross street I said: 'Dr. Declarey. I am
Cassius NJ. CLAW, about whom YOU have
taken the trouble to write in this letter.
and would like to know whether Won can
give me any explanation of your action
/ then showed him the letter, but he said
nothing. l then raised nv cane and be-
gan to cane him. He cried out and a
crowd soon collected, but Rollins. bv
spreading out his arms and running in
again and again, pretending to separate
us, actually kept back the crowd until I
was able to give him good Gaming. ex-
pected that Declarey would chal-
lenge me-, and had brought
second I was not disappointed. A few
hours after the Gaming l got a challenge.
We fixed place in Indiana lust over the
river, and the time was the next -day.
When we got there we found that there
was a great mob of Declarey's friends
on the ground, and General Rollins
refused to allow the fight to 60 on. We
thereupon chose another place. but De-
clareys mob followed us there. The next
day was to have been my wedding day,
and | had to go to meet it. Declarev
wanted me TO come back after was mar
RED but | decidedly objected to breaking
up my honeymoon in this way. He after
ward said that he intended to cowhide me
the next time he saw me- and went to
Louisville to give him chance. | went
TO his hotel but he was not in the
dining-room and had not vet come into
dinner / waited for an hour, but he did
not come. and | then went into the dining
room and leaned against the pillar. intend
ing to wait for him. As | stood there I
heard some one rise behind me- / turned
and saw Declarey. He was pale as death.
and | saw the dominick in him. He did
not hold my eve, but got up and went out.
STAYED for short time longer, and finding
that he did not intend TO fight, went back
home. A man who acted in that way
could not then be respected in Kentucky.
and Declarey committed suicide the next
evening by cutting his arteries"
THE cLAY-MARsHALL FEUp.
at is a curious thing" unused General
Clay, as he poked up the dying embers of
the fire into glow, 'that a man will have
the bravery to commit suicide and still
not have enough physical courage to fight.
/ have had a number of such instances in
my life. 1t was so with Tom Marshall.
who was so famous as an orator in Ken
lucky. There has been for years feud be-
tween the Clays and the Marshals. Henry
Clay, you know, had a duel with Hum
phrey Marshall, and Tom Marshall and
myself were enemies for years. NV first
trouble with him was at the time was
the editor of the True American, and Mar
shall headed the mob to kill me
and demolish the paper. got
two four-pound brass cannon and put
them up in my Office and loaded
them with shot and nails. | had
them on a table and their mouths were
faced the door. If mob attempted TO en-
ter expected to shoot right into it, and
had inside of the office also keg of pow
der which I expeeted To blow up with