The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1892-03-23
VENGEANCE IS NINE

Just at this time, when great part oil
| the Journalistic complement OF guns is
turned on popular lynching parties and
| other iIl-advised outiawry, for which our
| country seems wofully and deplorably
prominent, u particular source Of gratifica-
| ton is brought to mind by some hall
| dozen duels in France, within the past two
weeks.
DuellIng has almost ceased IN this couu-
| try and it behooves rs as citizens to offer
devout thanks for the deliverance. We
| are well rid of it.
The sequestered spot with twenty PAGES
and leyeled pistols; the barred forearm and
| the giistening foil; the pioneers in speech
| less rivalry with bowiekniyes, blade TO
blade, and wrist to wrist; these are longer
seen only on the melodramatic stage;
where the audience. no matter how fierce
and sanguinary the combat, feel perfectly
| assured that the end of the last act will
see the enemies walk away into the real
world, sound aud untouched, probably
arm i'll arm and the best of friends.
The personal encounter of two men in
this country was formerly common and
constituted q great evil. As high body
as our national congress was full OF it. We
are told that in the thirties case OF duel
ling pistols was part of the outfit Of the
southern and western congressman, who
used to spend in addition several hours
regularly in SCATTERING the Adams apple
OF some imaginary foe Imported pistols,
furthermore, were highly priced, but the
favorite weapon of full fedged, gilt-edged
gentleman of honor, was made by a noted
Philadelphia gunsmith named Derringer,
who gave his name TO short pistol OF his
invention, to be carried in the trousers
pocket, expressly for use in street fights.
This WAS just before the decline of dueliDg,
which had fourished, off and on, since
Achilles and Agamemnon distinguished
themselves in knightly monomachy.
Happily, those days are gone. Ever
since the days of modern enlightenment, d
constant war has been waged Oh the code
duello; laws have been enacted against it,
and mOralists have derogated it-all IN
vain. The jealous lovers soul rankles with
a sting that no philosophy can assuage; the
soldiers wounded pride suffers hurt that
no sleep can heal and forbearance aggra-
Yates; the wronged husbands honor burns
with an insult that no grim stoicism can
quench. There are times when the higher
modes of combat, as with the pen, or de-
bate by word of mouth, prove of no avail
and sicken weakly in their inavaiability-
There are men whom it is useless to assail
by honorable means; there are men who
are invulnerable, in their degradation, to
the sharpest pasquinade, aud men who
will remain insensible to the most scath-
ing Philippe.
1t is such an event or with such an in
sidious enemy that the aggrieved person,
throwing aside his moral teachings, and
fretting under the knowledge of the slow
ness of retributive justice of scriptural
promise, awakes the savage i'll his bosom
and longs to be at his opponents throat.
1t would be idle to expect total exemp-
ton of personal encounters this side the
millennium. We have the blood of the
ancestral savage in our veins-the instinct
i've posture of defense; the desire of re-
turn blow dormant, in our muscles. The
most amiable of men, in stumbling over
chair in the dark and barking his shin,
cannot resist, though he realizes the object
to be inanimate, an irresistible desire to
kick it in return for its injury.
But despite so many pardonable provo
cations, daelling is declining. 1t is beyond
dispute that the man with patience and
Christian fortitude who can await the full.
fllment of Vengeance is Mine, I will re-
pay, saith the Lord, realizes at last over
his enemy the greatest and most glorious
triumDh