El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1897-09-01

'DlO YOU ever SeS COu PIC VI hAOh
fight a duel with catfish for weapons?"
ina uired Martin Logan, of Oskaloosa,
Kan, at one of the hotels the other
nipht "Well, did, and it was pref
" serious duel, too, for one of the men
lost the sight of an eye in 1t, and the
other had an ear torn off.
at happened at Leavenworth, my
state, in 1877. The fighters were
couple of fish hucksters who had been
the fish vending territory in the town
for a long time, aud before they came
together in the catfish duel they had
often batted each other about with
their fists over matters of infringe
ment. Although one of the men was a
good deal smaller than the other, he
generally managed to hold his own
ia rly we'll in the alley scraps sLeaven-
worth was shooting town in lS7l-the
James boys used to make 1T their head
quarters, you know, every once in a
while, and their gunplay practices de-
moralized the hero-worshipping youth
of the place. This pair of fish huck-
sters l am telling you about were not
shooters by any means whatever: they
were simply couple OF wrangiers who
would probably have been banging
each other around with their paws yet
if they hadn't met down on the levee
one SaLGEudy ulShts VIGIL OOoh Va SiAA
we're little more than three parts
drunk, and permitted themselves to be
talked into this queer duel.
ga gang of no-accouut devils, who
had recently returned to Leavenworth
from a freighting trip in Colorado
were down on the levee, eating up
QUAR-. bottles of nose paint on this Sat-
turday night, when the two tsh huck-
sters reeled up to the crowd from op-
posite directions. When theyIbegan to
iabber strong talk to each other the
!reighters, disturbed in their enjoy
ment of q peaceful drunk, began to
rear up some. The never-ending rows
and having between the pair had made
all hands in the town weary.
"'You two fellerS has got to quit
chewin' each others manes around
here says one of the freightars. Why
don't you have it out to standstlll,
or else chuck it altogether an drink
your booze PEACEFUL
"'Peaceful,' says the ugl1er ana
bigger of thes hucksters. There ain u
no peace in this game whatever. !'i-
huutin' for trouble tonight, an e
whole lot of it. And biff. he sudden
| ly cracked the smaller chap on the
Jaw and knocked him fat. The gang
wouldn't stand this, and demurred
strongly
That amt no falr snake, says
the man who had pointed out the ne
Gale lated to bring about no white
hinged finish to this here perpetua
blanket-eatin' an hell-roarin' talk
game, nohow. Hey, drop that. he
shouted, pulling up suddenly, for he
noticed, with all the rest, that the
huckster who had been knocked down
had picked himself up, reeled down
| to q .tied-up fishing skiff, picked out
of the boat a big buffalo catfish that
was advancing upon the other Shuck'
ster warily, the fish tightly clutched in
| both his hands by the tail.
| sOh, don't know" says another OF
the freighters. Hold up minute
Every man = his trade, says 1
| What's the matter with both of 'en
havin' bull-head cat and gettin' the
thing over with that-away? 1t 'ud be
a fair deal for both, for they'd both be
handlin' weapons they're used to han
dim
"The suggestion was received with
applause. and it took the fancy of the
hucksters, too.
"'All right, says the bigger of the
hucksters, it's up to me, an l aim
no craw6sh. Waitn get a cat H.
rolled down to the skitf and picked
Tout g. buffalo CathSh ABOUT Ine size U
1.-The one his enemy had already pro
lvided himself with. The big huckstel
Iswuug his fish around his head ,
couple of times to get the heft and fee
of it. When he whiried it around thu
third time by the tail slime on tn
thing caused it to slip out of his hand
and land dozen feet away from wher
7 he stood.
"' The dorned things got to b
made fast before 1 do any tightin' witt
it, says he; and he went back to tn
skiff, cut Off yard orsso of rope froa
net line, tied double knot aroun
his fish's tail, and then had one of tn
freighters fasten the other end of tn
rope around both of his wrists. TIL
smaller huckster watched this proceed
ing saw that it was good thing, an
followed suit. Then thirty-foot cfrcf
was cleared, and they went at it.
'It was rank, evil fight, and n
mistake. Even at a cake-walk gait o
} q smooth path neither of the men wer
sober enough to do any more than t
keep his feet. When they made thei
first swing at each other with biz
'ugly.looking fish, neither OF 'em CON