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

NEW STEFF'IAN-KRAKA UER BULL
ing with n yard OF hitting the other,
! the momentum spun them both around
! like tops and carried them to the slOp-
ing levee pavement with hard thuds.
They both struggled to their feet
sized each other up again, got another
! firm clutch on the fish tails, and swung
! again. This time the smaller chap
caught the man square on the back OF
the impact of the blow also sent him to
the grass. The big huckster came up
| a little groggy, but his smaller Oppo-
neut didn't seem to be in any trouble.
| They got to pretty close quarters this
time, both O. having kind of picked up
the style of their tools, and the rain of
blows they piled on each other was
'em hit the other and knocked him
down, the hitter would go down, too,
, by reason of combination of concus-
sion and jag. They were hard looking
sights, tie pair of them, after they got
down to business You see the skin OF
buffalo catfish is like the hide of
shark-smooth as glass when strOked
when rubbed toward the head. Every
time one of the hucksters pasted his
antagonist on the side of the head, the
fish's skin would carry away few
inches of scalp and face cuticle, and
after three minutes you couldn't make
out the features of either of them for
the blood. Finally, when both men
about a dozen times each, they took
five-minute rest by common consent.
Then they came to time, refreshed and
hostile, and it was about even money
in the betting which man would drop
out first.
at was a dead heat. Both men
swung their MISUNDERSTANDING fish
| vaucing at each swing nearer together,
and both ticks landed with thud you
could have heard q mile on a still
night. We could only see that both
| had caught each other on the head,
and both went down. When the gang
| saw that the two hucksters were lying
still where they had fallen, they divid-
men were out and pretty sound
asleep at that. When they were carried
into an abandoned grain elevator that
hung over the Missouri the physician
who was summoned found that the
sharp gill of one fish had torn the big
huckster's right ear from his head as
clean as a whistle, and the freighters
who went out to search for the ear
with lanterns never found it The
so far in his head that it hasn't let the
light of day into the port side of his
skull since.''
81 happened to see duel about as
peculiar as this catfish fight at Ell
Paso, or rather, on the Rio Grande
alongside Ell Paso," said George Phis-
| tie, business man from Dallas, Tex,
i hn of ho rtu w q
bit of CON mixed up in it, whereas the
fish fight appears to have been on the
level. But, then, 1 never knew any
thing that Greasers were mixed up in
to be altogether on the square.
| "a couple of Mexican mule whack-
ers in Ell Paso got to quarreling over
half-hreed girl who kept them both
e1ngling on string for long while,
pretended to be equally enamored of
both. Ramon and Manuel couldn't
stand this division of affection. Their
way of opening hostilities was to jump
from their wheel mules and cut each
other up good deal with their black
snake ticklers. They kept at this for
quite a while, until the hides Of both
of them must have been pretty well
slithered. Then Ramon tried the
|Greaser game of attempting to slice
Mauue's back with dagger one star
light night But Manuel was too quick
for him, and, picking up a mesq ute
cobble, let Ramon have it in the chest
with force that ought to have in
lduced quick consumption. A gang of
soldiers from Fort Bliss discovered the
feud that existed between the two
teamsters from across the border, and
among them they pounded into the
two Greasers' heads that the only way
out of the thing was duel. So the
|, duel was arranged. The teamsters
| Il = \
knives while standing in an uumOOred
skiff in the middle of the Rio Grande.
!. How the soldiers ever got the two
Mexicans to consent to this sort OF
: game I could never make out; but they
probably told each of 'em that such q
test of valor was bound to result in the
winning of the girl, and when a Greas-
err gets his mind tied up with girl
, his natural .cOwardness deserts him on
, that issue and he stands pat 10 win or
, lose.
was that both of the Mexicans declared
2 that thew couldn't swim q stroke, sc
, that in the quite proba BILE event of the
3 skiff's capsizing they both would &c
i II the bottom Of the river even before
/ they had chance to cut each Other
o. up But they stood to the duel bargain
g they had both made when full of mes
9 cal
: The duel came off in the middle O
i a moonlit Sunday night; it was back ii
e the early eighties. One OF the soldier
rode out in the skiff the fight was t,
o take place in from the Texas side,
q couple of miles below the town, anc
e waited for the appearance of the prin
o cipals. Ramon was rowed out in a boa
r to the waiting skiff In the middle Of th,
7, river by another soldier, the boat com
Is ing from the MEXICAN side. a piput,