The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1893-10-03
S1,,. 81 80
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THE QUIET MAN.
Why the Subject of Dueling Was
Dists.Steful to Him.

Why the Subject of Dueling Was
Distssteful to Him.
1--WE seen good many strange things
in my time. as you know, but never
yet told you about the strangest Of
them all;t and can promise You that
its story worth hearing"
So spake Gen. R, as we sat side
BY side in the veranda of his snug little
house in dne of the northwestern prov
snces of India. watching the sun sink
behind tlx, endless line of stately palm
trees that stood ranged like plu,ned
soldiers along the opposite bank of the
river.
Suppose you tell it me now. gen.
eral." suggested l, guessing from the
grave tlook on the old heros weather
beaten face that the forthcoming story
must have x1eeper interest than any of
his naryscampaigning anecdotes.
81 don't mind If l do" answered the
veteran, 'for although it is an affair
that have mo- great pleasure in look
ing back upon,4 it taught me good les
son. if only / had the sense to profit
by it.
when Twas quite a young fellow
and hadn't long joinedsthe army" he
resumed after a pause, Il used to De-
long to a,fashionable club in London,
the members OF which were just the
sort of men you read about in Levers
novels-as wild as could be. always in
some scrape or other, and spending
their whole time in riding. shooting,
gambling or'fshing- except one.
THAT one was a small, quiet, pale
faced, gray-haIred man, with very
sad, weary look as if he had once been
crushed by somegreat sorrow and had
never been able to shake it off. He
hardly ever spoke to anyone. and when
he did it was in voice as meek as his
face So, of course, we.made great fun
of him among ourselves, finding these
uuiet ways of his a verysqueer contrast
to our own rackety, harum-scarum
style. and we nicknamed him the
l'Ouietest Man in the Club though, in
deed. we might just assveh have called
him the onlyaquiet man.in'it.
'sWell. one seven1ng when the room
was pretty full and our friend, the
Quiet Man, was sitting. as usual, in"the
FAR corner. away from everybody else,
we begansto misunderstanding, sub
iect with (which we were alrtolerably
familiar. for there WAS hardly man
nmong us,who hadn't been out once.
"'They didssome tidy dueling in the
old times said Lord H, who was
killed afterward in action. You re-
member how those six chulns of Harry
I'LL of France fonghtthree to three till
there was only one left alive out OF
the six
THAT was pretty fair. certainly
cried Charlie Thornton, of the Guards;
sbut. after all, it doesn't beat the great
duel thirty,yez.rs ago between Sir Har-
~ MartingaleSand Col Fortescue.'
''He had hardly spoken when up
dumped the qute man as if somebody
had stuck a pinsinto him.
"tWhat on carth's the ma tier with
himp whispered Thornton. 4 never
paw him like that before"
"'But what twas tho story, then,
Charlie?' asked another man. I've
heard of Fortasrue, of course, for he
was the most famous duelist of his
kind in all England, and I've heard of
his fight with Martingale, too; but
don't think I've ever had any particu-
aars, or at least mono worth speaking
Of
"I can give them to you, then an
swered Thornton; for my uncle was
Martingale's second. I've heard him
tell the story many a time, aud he al
ways said that although he had been
In plenty of duels. he had never seen
pne like that. and never wanted to see
1t again. What they quarreled about 1
don't know, and dare say they didn't
know themselves; but my uncle used
to say he knew by the look in their
nyes when they tookltheir places to fire
that it could not end withoutblood,a and
IT. didn't They fired twice. and every
shot told; and then their seconds see
ing that both men were hard hit and
bleeding fast, wanted to put an end to
st. But Fortescue-who was one of
those grim fellows who are always
most dangerous toward the end of a
Gght-insisted upon third shot. The
third time, by some accident, Martin
gale fred a moment too soon. and gave
him bad wound in the side; but For
tescue pressed his'hand to the wound to
stop the bleeding, and then, almost
bent double with pain though he was,
he fired and brought down his man
"'Killed him?' .u .,
'Rather-shot him slap through the
heart. But il was his last duel. for
from that day he was never heard of
again: and people said he had either
rommitted suicide or died of a broken
heart
"'Well. don't see why he need have
Hone TINT. for after all, it was fair
light struck in Lord H, who had
been looking over the newspapers on
the table: hut if you talk of dueling,
what do you say to this?
misunderstanding Tragedy in Paris.
The notorious Prussian bully ard duel
LIST, Armand de Nilleneuve. has Just
added another wreath to his blood
stained lagrels. the new victim being
Chevalier Henri de Polirnac, a fine
young fellow oftwentv- three, the only
son of a widowed mother Some strong
expressions of disgust used by the
ehevalier with reference to one of De