Audubon County journal. (Exira, Iowa) 1884-1993, 1897-03-11
zszsmsrek's Affair Of Honor with pe.d
Shot Doctor.

1slsmsfok's Ahhir Of Honor with . Dead
Shot Doctor.
In little pamphlet regarding the
visit Of the Wiesbadeners in Fried.
richsruh there has appeared Bis
marck anecdote which shows how
near Germany 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
university degree. He went one
evening to the big dance hall in the
kurhaus ana during a pause be-
tween dances sat on sofa talking
with a friend and looking at the
persons who walked by. He had a
sharp eye and defiant air, even in
his best tempered moods, and sev-
eral men returned his looks with i'll
natured stares. Eventually young
doctor, Gustav Lange of Heidelberg,
walked up to the sofa and, fixing
his eyes on Bismarck, inquired:
why do you stare at met"
Now Lange was very handsome
young man and Bismarck was in a
happy mood. The two facts die
tated Bismarck's answer:
Because I like your appearance. {"
"But I do not like yours, /" was
Lange's reply.
An animated dialogue followed,
Bismarck first seeking to appease
Lange's wrath and Lange trying his
best to make trouble. The upshot
was that cards were exchanged in
order that Lange might wipe out
with blood the deadly affront of be-
ing stared at by Otto Won Bismarck.
The seconds arranged that the meet
ing should take place in the grand
duchy Of Hesse, not far from Bieb-
rich.
Lange was 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 Bis
marck. His seconds undoubtedly
felt that he was about the same as a
dead man from the moment he step
ped into the field, and they labored
hard to find peaceable solution Of
the quarrel. The English captain
whom Bismarck had made one of
his seconds was especially eager to
prevent bloodshed, and he proposed
to Lange at the place Of meeting
that the principals talk the quarrel
!. over before risking their lives for
Such trivial cause. Lange said
eventually that ne would do his best
to settle the affair without 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 Eng
lishman slowly paced off the dis
tance, stretching his legs to make
1t as long as possible, the other Sec
ond argued with Bismarck. Lange
leaned against tree and said moth
ing. Just as his seconds were ex-
pecting the principals to take their
places Bismarck yielded. To the
surprise of his seconds he did not
wait for any preliminary converse
ton. He walked across the field,
stretched out his hand and re-
marked:
well, we will try to live in peace
then"
Lange shook hands and the quar-
rel was at an end. On his way home
from tho field Lange remarked to
his seconds:
''It is better that it ended. II
would have been too bad to blow
daylight through him"
Almost 80 years later Lange cele
brated in Heidelberg the jubilee an
niversary of his graduation. Afte,
he and his friends had reviewed the
stirring events of the last half cen
tury and the slow welding of divided
Germany into one great empire un
der Bismarck's master hand, th,
doctor remarked quantity:
''It is better that it ended. I
would have been too bad to blow
daylight through him"
The Usual Result.
There had Seen row in tn
| N,nowd tnpama0t horlRA and Mr