The Kootenai herald. [volume] (Kootenai, Idaho) 1891-1904, 1892-08-26


81 TRUST YOU ARE UNTOUCHED"
over are engaged in sneering at two men,
old enough to know better, who, by mon
keying with an obsolete custom which nei-
Their of them understood anything about,
have succeeded in fixing the stigma of
tomfoolery upon themselves and the stain
of disgrace on n woman who comes of one
of the proudest families in America.
q 1t matters not that the family may have
little but money to be proud of, or whether
the disgrace that has befallen the woman
is or is not deserved. The mischief is done,
and all the men can do is to share the ridi-
Guile and let the woman suffer. Had they
understood the code to which they APP
pealed, such a result could not have hap
pened. They would have been condemned
but would not have been laughed at.
For, since the Middle Ages when the
settlement of all serious disputes among
gentlemen was by mortal combat, and the
church and the state recognized the result
OF the combat aus the Judgment of human
and divine law, fighting men have main
tanned the rules of such combats in way
TO divest them of ridiculous features. They
may be criminal, but they are not funny.
Within the memory of living men var
ious codes have been recognized as bind
ing, and it is interesting to Americans to
recall that the latest of these was drawn
up and published by the governor of a
state of the Union. While it was almost
identical in spirit, it differed from the
French code in being more exacting, from
the Irish in being less drastic, and from
the old En%lish code in being more po-
ltely ceremOnious. If any code can be
considered binding in any sense among
~ mericans, as the two men referred TO are
it is that compiled by Governor John
Lynde Wilson, of South Carolina, in lS45
Governor Wilson himself fought eighteen
duels and married six wives, so that his
gallantry ut least can hardly be question
ed. Moreover his code was accepted as
authoritative.
In less than fifty years, however, it has
passed into such 'innocuous desuetude"
that actual encounters according to its
provisions are almost unknown. Men
who appeal to it seem almost invariably to
be ignorant of it's provisions, and by failing
TO maintain it's punctilio, succeed only in
making themselves laughing stocks-seI-
dom or never in shedding each others
bleod
''What could be more comical," said
well known naval officer in speaking about
the DraytOn-Borrowe episode, than for a
man to write cartel and sign it yours
truly'S That is what Mr.. Drayton did,
and then, as if to show that he could be
even more comical, be sends the letter by
a messenger boy. Only one thing could be
imagined more out of keeping with the
character of duelist, and that would be
to write a challenge on postal card and
send il. as the first part of this correspond
ence in question was sent, that is, through
the public mail. Again. for a man who
really seeks gore, it is irresistibly comical
to continue a correspondence with his enc
my and declare his respect and his i'm
screased respect for him.
,'"Then," continued this critic, laughing,
1.-THE seconds prove themselves to be as ig-
norant of etiquette as their principals
They certainly make a fight impossible,
and shat is praisewOrthy in a second, but
they do it by bungling. One primary rule
in all codes is that after the challenge is
delivered the principals can have nothing
TO say. Their seconds act for them in
every particular until the quarrel is set
tied in one way on another. But Mr.. Bor-
rowe's seconds ignore Mr.. Drayton's sec
Onds and write to Mr.. Drayton after the
two principals have written to each other
several times. Then Mr.. Drayton ignores
his own seconds and writes back to Bor-
Eowe's seconds. It's not blood he wants
toshed-it's ink. Then, a month afterward,
they make faces at each other like two
scbOOlboys. The whole affair is too pre-
pOsterOus to consider in any serious light"
Mr.. Borrowe and Mr.. Drayton, however,
are not alone as objects of criticism. It
Is not many years ago that James Gordon
Bennett and young New Yorker named
May were talked about in just the same
way. They agreed to fight, and it is said
went out of town to do So Nobody knows
whether or not they did, but neither was
hurt.
Henry Clay and John Randolph had
similar experience, though they were not
laughed at so much. 1t was in 1926. when