Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1892-06-22
SURE DEATH FOR BOTH.
Display of Remarkable Nerve BY Ten.
derfoot in Issuing a Challenge.

Display of Remarkable Nerve BY a Ten.
derfoot in Issuing n Challenge.
Il once saw challenge to duel issued
and accepted and the time, place and
weapons named The affair, however, did
not come to any issue"
The speaker was Dan Quinn, the well
known writer of wild and woolly western
character and dialect stories.
1T was in Deadwood," said he, about
eight years ago, and the two men who
were to have been the participants had
been snarling at each other for many days
One of them was n young, consumptive
looking fellow from somewhere east, and
OF course was held in much contempt by
the old timers. In some indefinable way,
however, many of them seemed to have a
kind of respect for him, as on one or two
occasions he had given evidence that per-
haps after all he was not to be laughed
at. He was, to these semiadmirers an I'M
known quantity, and while they were all
anxious for some opportunity to present
itself in which he would show what he
was made OF, yet not one of them cared to
furnish the looked for chance
The man who did the snarling was per-
haps the only man in the select clique that
hung around the saloon where the quarrel
finally materialiZed who did not believe
that the tenderfoot had any nerve, and he
never missed an opportunity to intimate
as much. On the night in question the
two men had been unusually spiteful and
it was cinch that there would be trouble
before the daylight broke in
FINALLY the old timer made remark to
the other that there was no mstaking 1t
meant business. The young fellow heard
1t, and without moving a hand announced
to the other that he had heard the remark
and that he had a proposition to make
The crowd was in the right humor and the
boy was allowed to go on.
HE said that he was a tenderfoot He
was aware of it, he declared, and he felt
sorry, but he also said that if the other
would give him fair show he would fight
him. Then he made what was considered
remarkable proposition. He asked his
antagonist to lay aside his gear, to make
no plays, but to issue him challenge to
battle royal He had, he said, conscien-
tious scruples against being the aggressor
in a quarrel, but he was perfectly willing
to do the square thing when the show
down came.
We'll, after much parley the big fellow
agreed to the deal and the challenge was
| issued. The boy at once accepted it, named
| guns as the weapons, the place the saloon
and the time right then. But his condi-
| ton under which the duel was to be fought
was the remarkable part of it. Heinsisted
that he and his opponent should stand
face to face, with the toes of their right
boots touching. Their guns were to be in
their belts, and at the word they were to
| draw and fire. There could be only one
result. 1t was daring proposal, but
| whether it was a bluff or not was never
known. The other crawfshed and apollo
| giZed, and the outcome of it was that the
two men became partners. But nobody in
| Deadwood ever intimated again that the
| young fellow was lacking in nerve. He
| showed that he had something about him"
Chicago Inter Ocean.