Los Angeles herald., 1892-04-12
RUDDIGORE AND SOMETHING ABOUT
THE DUELLO.

| THE DUELLO.
When one thinks seriously about the
matter, it really looks like a pity that
Harry Vain Milbank did not remain in
this country and take Greeley's advice
of $50 west, young man, 60 west" In
portions of the west and south this
bloodthirsty gentleman could have found
| men whose thirst for blood is like his
own. There is a man down in Murphy,
North Carolina, named Bill Murphy.
He is now up in the Tellico mountains,
and there are very few people who are
hunting him just now. To
most persons his room is pre-
ferable to his company. The
other day he announced his purpose to
kill ten men. This was seeing Mil
banks record and going him six better.
That Murphy was in earnest he showed
by killing his brother, who had, in his
opinion, committed mesdUiance by
marrying into the family of an enemy.
Frank Medlin, for meddling in the feud,
by giving his brother-in-law a decent
burial, was shot dead by the implacable
Bill. He threatened death to anyone
who should touch the body of Medlin.
When a lot of hungry hogs began to
mutilate the body, Mr.. Morse and wife
approached to guard it, and hav-
ing disobeyed the mighty Murphy,
he killed the lady, and the hus-
band, it is to be presumed, es-
capped by taking leg bail. On the
night OF this eventful day Murphy ap-
peared at the house of one Bailey, and
demanded lodgings. On being refused
he promptly put bullet into Bailey's
right shoulder. Learning that man
named Martin had been criticizing his
sundry playful performances, Murphy
sought him out and shot him through the
heart. He has thus made pretty good
beginning on his proposition to kill ten
men, as he has thus far got away with
five men and one woman. In his fast
ness in the Tellico mountains there
is no telling how many men
he will do for before he is
through with life's ftful fever,
and he himself sleeps we'll. Why he
has hit upon the number ten as satisfy
ing his thiret for gore the telegraph has
not advised us. He crowded his initia-
tory bloody work into the 4th and 9Th
days of April, and the month is yet
young. We thus see that the Italian
families of Montague and Capulet by no
means engrossed all the possibilities of
family feuds. We have our Mercutlos
and Tybalts in this day and generation.
1t will be noted that Murphy, in two
days, has surpassed the self-proclaimed
killing record of H. Vain Millbank.
"But," will exclaim the friends of the
code, "this is butchery." From the
self-complacent way in which Milbank
related the details of the killing of four
men in duels, that would seem to have
been butchery of very deliberate sort.
All the same, from the way Borrowe
avoided duel in France, and both got
out of the country when Col. John A.
Cockerill took Milbank in hand as a
swashbuckler and bully. we are inclined
to think that all four of the Germans
whom Milbank plumes himself on hav-
ing killed, are today devouring their
usual quantity of pumpernickel and
sauerkraut, and guzzling their accus-
toned amount of beer or Rhine wine.
Milbank's offhand way of talking
about his private graveyard recalls some
incidents OF dueling in the United
States. In this country the experiences
reported by Sir Jonah Barring
ton of the doings of the He'll
Fire club of Dublin have been dis.
tanced out of sight. Perhaps the most
famous duelist ever recorded in any
country was Louis T. Wigfall, who was
United States senator from Texas when
the war broke out He is credibly
reported to have killed twenty-one
men in duels. He was never
conspicuously wrong in his fights by the
standard of his times. One of the most
conspicuous of the series OF duels in
which he WAS engaged took place in
South Carolina, when he was a very
young man. He had settled in a small
town in that state to practice law, and
having few or no clients, he amused
himself by writing for the nearest news
paper. One of his articles gave offence
to the high-caste young gentlemen who
composed a social club in the village.
This organization met and resolved that
Wigfall must leave the town or fight the
whole club. On being advised of their
intention, Wigfall replied that he was at
their service, and to send on the chal-
lenges. He killed his two first oppo-
nente, and notified the club OF his read;-