The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1897-09-08
BISMARCK'S MARROW ESCAPE.
His Affair of Honor with n Dead Shot,
Who Was Offended by His stare.

In a little pamphlet regarding the
richsruh there has appeared Bismarck
anecdote, which shows how near Ger
many once was to losing in his youth
her great unifer. The same anecdote
also illustrates how duels are still made
IN Germany.
Bismarck first visited Wiesbaden two
or three years after taking his univer-
sity degree. He went one evening to
the Dig dance hall in the Kurhaus and,
during a pause between dances, sat OH
a sofa talking with a friend and look
ing at the persons who walked by. He
had sharp eye and n defiant air, even
in his best tempered moods, and several
men returned his looks with ill-natured
stares. Eventually young DOCTOR
Gustav Lange, of Heidelberg, walked up
TO the sofa and, fixing his eyes on Bis
marck, inquired:
why do you stare at me-"
Now LANCE was a very handsome
young man and Bismarck was in a hap
py mood. These two facts distated Bis
marcl's answer:
Because l like your appearance"
"But do not like yours" was Lange's
reply.
An animated dialogue followed, Bis
marck at first seeking 10 appease
Lange's wrath and LANCE trying his
best to make trouble. The upshot was
that cards were exchanged in order
that LANCE might wipe out with blood
the deadly affront of being stared at
by Otto Won Bismarck. The seconds ar
ranged that the meeting should take
place in the Grand Duchy of Hesse, not
far from Biebrich.
LANCE was n dead shot with the pistol.
and pistols were the weapons to be used
in the duel. The young physician could
hit the two-mark piece, Tipped in the
air, nine times out of ten. 1t looked
bad for Bismarck. Iiis seconds I'M
doubtedly felt that he was about the
same as a dead man from the moment
he stepped into the field, and they la
bored hard to find peaceable solution
of the quarrel. The English captain,
whom Bismarck had made one Of his
seconds, was especially eager to pre-
vent bloodshed, and he proposed to
LANCE, at the place of meeting, that the
principals talk the quarrel over before
risking their lives for such a trivial
cause. LANCE said eventually that he
would do his best to settle the affair
without a shot if his opponent would
meet him half way. The Englishman
hurried to Bismarck with the doctors
offer of the. olive branch, but Bismarck
would not have it. While the English
man slowly paced off the distance,
stretching his legs TO make it as long
as possible, the other second argued
with Bismarck. LANCE leaned against
tree and said nothing. Just as his sec
onds were expecting the principals to
take their places Bismarck yielded. To
the surprise of his seconds he did not
wait for any preliminary conversation.
He walked across the field. stretched
out his hand, and remarked:
well, we will try to live in peace,
then"
LANCE shook hands and the quarrel
was ut an end. On his way home from
the field LANCE remarked to his sec
onds:
1T is better that it ended; it would
have been too bad to blow daylight
through him"
Almost 80 years later LANCE cele-
brated in Heidelberg the jubilee ami
vcrsary Of his graduation. After he
and his friends had reviewed the stir
ring events of the last half century
and the slow welding of divided Ger
many into one great empire under Dis
marck's master hand, the doctor re-
marked, quantity:
1T is better that it ended; it would
have been too bad TO blow daylight
through him.. Y. Sun.