The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-03-06
A STRANGE DUEL RECALLED.
How n Cigar Settled the Love Affair
of Kampf and PetfovsIi.
From the New York Tribune.

From the New York Tribune.
The chess duel for the hand of an IN
known woman which is said to have TAX
en- place at the Cafe Manhattan during
the evening of Feb. 24-the loser being
bound to commit suicide-recalls a more
serious affair in the year 1882 Otto Kampf,
a German, from Leipsic. came to this
city in 1880 and took lodgings in Bleeck-
er street, near South Fifth avenue, where
he soon fell violently in love with Minna
Wurz, his landlady's daughter Minna
was q handsome, well-buit girl who had
numerous admirers in the neighborhood,
among them q young cigarmaker by
name of Petrovski, whom she had rather
favored in preference to the others until
Kampf arrived.
The feeling between the two men in
creased as time passed until the neigh
bors and the family feared serious trou-
BILE. But Kampf was ordinarily a peacea-
BILE man, and, being much the larger Of
the two, kept his temper pretty well mn
der the insults which Petroysli took ev-
cry occasion to fling at him. Matters
hfnaiiy came to a climax however. when
the two met one evening In neighborine
beer garden The cigarmaker called his
rival a coward dared him to fight, and
finally became so abusive that the big
German bent down and whispered thar
he would fight with him in any way he
pleased, but that it must be between
themselves alone, as he objected 10 ger
ting any one else into trouble
Perovski spent the night in thinking
the matter over, and in the morning. s1i 20
gested one of the strangest duels ever
known. He proposed TO make two large
cigars of the best tobacco in his shon
in one of which should be wrapped a long
22-caliber cartridge, pointing toward the
smokers throat. These were to he niacad
in a cigar case in Kampf's presence. AFT
ter which they were to walk to the beer
garden, sit down at one of the tables as
If to spend the evening, and then each
draw one of the cigars, light it, and smoke
IL clear down to the butt.
This programme was carried out in de-
tail, much to the surprise Of all who knew
of the bad feeling between the men They
came into the beer garden about O'Clock
and sat down to smoke, as IL their differ
ences had been patched up to their Tnu-
tual satisfaction. Whether PetroVski felt
sure of drawing the harmless cigar or
whether he dreaded TO test the experiment
he had himself proposed, no one ever
bic. In about twenty minutes, however
there was a. muffied report, and he fell
back in his chair, dying before a surgeon
could reach the place.
The coroner's verdict was one of the
strangest features of the whole affair; for.
witnesses testified to having heard some
thing like a muffied report, neither the
ambulance surgeon nor the police Thought
of examining the cigar butt. The tiny bull
let had penetrated the back Of the throat
and lodged in the cervical vertebrae. catIs-
ing almost instantaneous death. but the
small wound was not discovered at the
autopsy, and Petrovski was declared 10
have died of either heart disease or ner-
vous shock resulting from the explosion
of sulphur match
Kampf was married to Miss Wurz a
few months later and afterward moved to
Chicago, where he committed suicide In
July 1884