Mexico weekly ledger., 1895-07-11

excitement, it being a common phe-
nomenon that seconds are often not
half 80 cool as their principals.
Hardly had the word left his lips,
when a ball left Dickinson's pistol.
Overton's keen eyes noted a tiny puff
of dust on the left breast of Jackson
and saw the left hand 60 slowly to the
breast, but his man stood firm as one
of the neighboring poplars. Dickin-
son recoiled a few steps in amaze
ment and angry despair.
"Great God! Have / missed the
scoundrel?''he calculated vindictively.
Probably that cry of %quenchless hate
cost him his life. Jackson was the
kind of man who often suffers from
the temptation to be magnanimous.
But magnanimity with Dickinson
would have been suicidal. Spared,
he would have forced another fight,
perhaps a street ARRAY.
sBack to the line, SIR" shouted
Gen. Overflow, laying his hand on his
pistol.
Dickinson recovered his courage,
though not his color. Pale as paper,
with naughty, flashing eyes, he walk
ed with facile grace forward to the
line and stood up to be killed like a
gentleman.
P~itifully the torture to his false
pride and his Jared nerves was pro-
longed by the whim of accident, as
| Jackson's unusually tall figure seemed
to tower over that of Dickinson.
When jackson raised his pistol
slowly-it having been agreed at the
start that the weapons should be held
downward-the pistol snapped and
caught at half cock. To readjust it
took, of course, another awful mo-
ment full of murder. Then came the
flash and the crash.
Dickinson's white face grew still
more CHASTITY, shadowy, ghostly. He
reeled and fell backward with a
smothered shrek. Jackson's bullet
had struck him below the ribs, taking
a downward course.
His friends lifted him tenderly and
leaned him againstth the Towering shrub
that was glowing with glad life. Jack
son sent over his surgeon to offer as
sistance to the other one, but Charles
Dickinson was beyond their skill. He
fingered in frightful agony for hours;
and expired before his wife coulo
reach his side.
"The slayer went forth to slay and
he was slain"
Yet Dickinson's aim had been per-
feet, He had meant to hit jackson II
the heart. He did not, however, re-
alize how exceedingly slender was the
Generals body, like that of Charles
Sumner, who in youth was playfully
nicknamed "the line" by Julia Ware
Howe, because he seemed to be length
without breadth and thickness.
The loose frock coat which Jackson
wore increased the error in Dickin
sons ocular calculation by just enough
to save his life. The ball broke tw'
ribs and raked the breastbone;
b severe wound, from which acute pail
arose and, as a false healing occurred
pursued Jackson at intervals to hi
last hour.
/ When the surgeon overlook Overtol
| and Jackson, about a hundred yard
away, his professional eye caught
glimpse of blood on one of the Gen
t erals shoes.
"My God, General, you are hit"
"Hush," was the naughty answer
81 believe he has pinked me a little
f but l prefer he should die without tn
satisfaction of knowing it."
, How this reply exemplifies the saw
age temper of the times! Yet AndreN
f jackson was not cruel by nature. o
v the contrary, he was like Henry Clay
s tender, even to the point that his gra.
iron eyes could easily melt into tear
Q The character of Jackson, indeed,
many respects was far above til
average. He gambled like most ger
tlemen, but not d~evotedly. He VIZ
y very fond of horse racing and nt
averse to whisky, though he rarel
b drank to excess He was quick
n quarrel, but he never used vile lar
Q guage.
If Like Grant, even when in his cup
o never a word came to his lips tn;
g could cause a blush on the cheek of
woman. This purity of language in
:" coarse-tongued time was the outwal
and visible signs in his case, though
is not always, OF a pure heart. Al
l drew Jackson, from earliest boyhoo
was thoroughly chaste, and his ide
of womanhood so high that he hats
ct to suspect evil in any of the sex.
all the transactions of his life his We
d was better than a bond.
In fine, this orphan son of a pc
TO Irish emigrant, with a scanty, pickle
I'd up education, and bred chiefly in t
~ rough college of the camp, was
1r radically fine gentleman. He had fl
~ manners, too, especially iowa
IN women. Lady Hamilton, well vers
in European courts, after an no
spent in his company while Presidel
K referred to him as the finest manner
man she had ever meta very 'ki
ey of courtesy"
d., To recur in closing the final seer
ed of this famous duel, it is worthy
n note, as a slight set-off against t
II, ~barbarity of his first remark about t
lis dying Dickinson, that from the tave
N. where Jackson rested to have
wound dressed he sent a bottle of
- best wine to his enemy. His own pre-
aration for the further pain of
:, surgical operation was a draught
buttermilk.
ith The large majority of Tenneesses
condemned this duel to the death, |
cause it was too real. The fantas
folly of fighting for honor and conn
.oo off with a scratch from a sword o
ihs smell of powder was all right q
'n' proper; it gave the stroke of gra
iu' the accolade of knighthood to a g
nc tleman's character; but a meeting
the express and determined purp
ne of killing, save where the honor c
We woman was the point, reused the d
NJ mant sense of the community t
=, fAmpOrarily intense remembrance