Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1892-01-27
A SERIOUS JOKE.
The Peculiar Termination of q Mock Duel
in Lawrence. Kansas.

The Peculiar Termination of q Mock Duel
in Lawrence, Kansas.
speaking of duels," said the big man
OF the crowd, recalls to my mind a
mock duel that had hand in some
eight or nine years ago There was a
serious ending to this one that has never
allowed the affair to escape my memory.
ut was in Lawrence, nan. One day
new man came to town. He put on
more airs than the fellows considered
the proper thing, and as a consequence
job was put up on him. He was to be
Initiated into the old time worn game
called snipe-hunting, and from the
earnestness with which the victim en-
tered into the spirit of the proposition
many of the conspirators believed that
he was up to the trick, and that it would
be a failure.
However, as the sequel proved, the
poor fellow had never been on a snipe
hunt, and the result was that at 8
o'clock in the morning he was left at
fence corner about ten miles from town,
calmly holding a sack and a candle and
waiting for the snipe to come up and be
lighted into the bag.
THE conspirators rushed back to
town, and when the morning newspaper
came out it contained an account of the
whole affair, dished up in true western
style.
THE victim held his bag and candle
until the latter had burned up and then
he began to wonder if job had not
been put up on him. He called to his
companions but there was no answer.
Finally he wandered about the prairie
until he found farm house. After
some trouble in convincing the honest
occupants that he was not horse thief
he was taken inside and cared for until
daylight when, for consideration, the
farmer drove him into Lawrence
"Of course he got quite a reception.
The conspirators had arranged that
part of it, which made the victim very
angry. He thought the matter over
and concluded that the proper thing to
do would be for him to challenge the
chief conspirator to a duel. This was
just what was wanted. The challenge
was carefully accepted and double-bar-
relied shotguns selected as weapons
The affair was to eliminate at a grove
near the town the same afternoon and
when the time came there was a crowd
there that would have done credit to
any event.
"Of course the seconds were careful
about their preparations. They put
only small charges of powder into the
gun barrels, and, after being searched
for breast plates or knives or revolvers,
the combatants took their positions.
Meantime, the victim was in the
dark. He meant business. There was
no joke about it to him. He meant to
kill his antagonist and when he looked
at the doctors with their instruments
and lint and bandages, it only served to
screw his courage still higher.
THE signal was fpally given Two
loud reports rang out, and both men
stood still Then they raised their guns
again, took careful aim and blazed
away once more.
Then came an unlooked-for occur
renee. The young conspirator staggered
back, dropped his weapon, threw one
hand to his forehead, and as he fell the
horror stricken spectators saw thin
stream of blood pour over his face and
down on his white shirt-front.
Men looked at each other and
gasped. They were completely para
lyzed, Unkpown to the seconds, some
body had slipped in a charge of shot
into the gun of the snipe-hunter, and
what had been planned as a farce was
turned into a horrible tragedy.
Finally some of the crowd sum
moned up courage enough to go to
where the body lay. As they bent over
the PROSTATE form they were shocked
once more, for very distinctly it could
be seen that the supposed corpse was
really convulsed with laughter
"An explanation followed. The
young man had planned and executed
a neat little surprise of his own. He
had secreted in the palm of his hand a
small rubber sack, filed with aniline
dye, and when the second shot was
fred, he had done the rest
when the truth dRwned upon the
crowd that the whole matter was a
well-planned joke, there was good
laugh, and someone looked for the snipe
hunter, to whom it was considered full
explanation was due.