The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1898-07-07

British partisans, well-armed and dis
guised as highwaymen, came gallop-
| ing toward them. As it happened,
the Englishman was riding thor
oughbred animal and the American
| lieutenant worthless scrub.
Seeing the mob coming the Eng
lishman's face paled with anger.
They are coming to kill YOU" he
said to the American lieutenant. You
take my horse and you can escape
| them, and we will settle this affair at
another time.
Convinced by both the English
principal and bis second that the mob
was really bent on murder, the Amerl-
can accepted the horse and by hard
riding did escape. Bat after that he
did not have the heart to kill the one
who had shown himself to be SO much
of man. The Englishman was will
ing to apologize. and so was the re-
maiLing one who had been challeng-
ed, and the American, with hearty
good will, accepted their explanations.
OF very different nature from a
moralist's point of view at the present
time were the duels the American
naval officers fought among them
selves. The story of the tirst-prob-
ably the only one fought by the Ia
mented Somers. who lost his life be
fore Tripoli, will serve better than any
other to show the spirit of the naval
officers of the day
Chronicle, SOmers and Decatur, who
were intimate friends. were one day
chatling one another III the presence
of some other young officers, and in
the course Of the remarks Decatur
called Somers fool. Somers, of
course, paid no attention to the epi-
thet, for it was said in mere play. But
| the other youngsters, five in number,
took the matter seriously, and the
next day refused to accept Somers'
invitation to join him in bottle of
wine
Somers, very greatly astonished,
asked why, aud they explained franz
ly that they thought he had failed to
show spirit proper for q naval otli-
Ger when he was called fool.
immediately Somer5 went to Deca
tur ana related the facts. Decatur
said at once that he would give din
| ner at which he would explain the
whole matter. and place Somers right
| before his fellow officers, but Somers
said:
They have allowed themselves to
| suspect my courage. lmust convince
| them that they are mistaken, and my
only course is to fight them ALL
Decatur acted as second for Solners
| delivered the five challenges, and it
was arranged that Somers should
meet them in succession during one
hour. 50 they gathered at conven
| lent place aud Somers faced his first
man. At the word both fired, and
Somer missed but got his own right
| arm pierced with the bullet of his an
! tagonlst.
At this Decatur wanted to take his
| place, bnt SOmers refused, and stood
up and fired at the second man, using
his wounded arm. Again he missed
and again was himself struck this
time IN the hip, the wound bleeding
SO profusely that Somers was soon too
weak to stand. Nevertheless he in
sisted on having the third man come
| on
When the third man took his stand
Somers was unable either to stand
erect OF to hold a pistol steadily. SO
| Decatur sat down on Somers' left side
put his right arm around Somers'
body until he could help support the
weight of Somers' right arm, and in
this position the word was given. At
this shot Somers managed to wound
his antagonist.
The whole five were by this time
SO much impressed by the pluck and
persistence of the young fellow that
they made ample apology for having
| misiudged him.