The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1899-01-26
OLD DUELING RULES.
SMuch usGFuL ADVICE" FROM AN
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II the ComEatant Dies ~ Rssult Of
the EneosNtsr. He II Told to Go Oh
with ~ Good Grace a. Possible
IrisAnen Not Good Seconds.
To Englishmen dueling Is happily q
Lost art, but thres-quarters Of q century
ago dueling was sufficiently in vogue tt
induce an anonymous writer to publish
Q book Containing much useful infor'
mation. +" ironically dedicated to DAME
O'Connell. Esq. NJ p. and James Sill
Buckingham, Esq, M. P. as center
tanning the opinion first promulgated
by the immortal Falstaff Of happy
memory that discretion is the bette,
part Of valor."
The author advises "all my country.
men who 60 abroad to use the pistol In
stead Of the sword when they have the
choice Of. the weapon, as the balance Of
killed and wounded is now much in IA.
vor Of the French, who. upon the ter
mination Of the late war, amused them
selves by occasionally splitting some hall
dozen Of our travelling young fashion
ables before breakfast. He recon-
mends "Purdey. in Oxford street, az
the maker Of the best dueling pistol
locks" care in the selection Of stock
which fits the hand comfortably and to
eschew "saw handles. Barrels should
be ten inches long and half rided.
which, considering that throughout his
volume he poses as q man Of the strict
est honor. is pulling for he admits
that wholly riAed pistol Is considered
an unfair weapon, therefore one not ap-
pearing to be rided should be substi-
tuted.
On "the chances" he writes: "Many
q poor. long armed, struggling fellow
has received the coup di (sic) csur Tor
fatal stroke) who might still have been
in existence had he known how to pro-
tect his person in the field" the neces-
sary projection consisting in standing
sideways and drawing in the stomach.
''Should the party be hit'-presumably
because he could not draw in his ston-
ach-''he must not feel alarmed. F" This
seems difficult, IS man with bullet
in his stomach can hardly be expected
not to display some little natural anxie-
ty, for. as Is admitted later. "a shot in
the digestive organs must be particu-
lsrly annoying to q bon vivant. " To
aldermen his advice is "the old method
Of fighting--the back to the adversary
and discharging over the shoulder. I"
1.-THE chances Of mans being killed
are about IA to 1, and Of his being
hit about Q TO l." He arrives at
this conclusion BY dividing a mans
body, when opposed to his adversary,
into nine parts Therefore he says, "As
in only three Of these wound would
prove mortal the chances are to
1 against his being killed. and to
against his being hit-that is. how
ever. he hastens to add, provided his
antagonist has never read my work If
he has, the case may be Different"
The combatant is told mot to allow
tho idea of becoming target to make
him uneasy. but to treat the matter
loosely" He is to laugh away the
evening over a bottle Of port, and play
q rubber Of whist, but he must avoid
drinking to excess, or taking "any food
that tends to create bile. because "bil-
ious objects are not seen either distinct
ly or correctly" This would rather be
q valid reason for getting as bilious as
possible A man with an attack Of
jaundice should be invisible, and able
to blaze at his antagonist in perfect
safety. II he cannot sleep on retiring
to rest, he Is to read Byron's "Childe
Harold. His servant is to call him at s
and give him Q strong cup Of coffee
Then he lie to smoke Q cigar, and ION
his way to the scene Of action he is to
take brandy and soda. as most
grateful stimulsnt and corrective. "
No wonder our author recommends
him at this point to draw In his stom-
aoh. ''If he dies. he is to 80 off with as
good grace as possibler' On the other
hand, if he hits his antagonist. he is to
take off his hat to him and express re-
greet.
A challenge IL not to be in rhyme.
such as "a certain poetical, brandy low
ing major general of marines wrote
to brother officer who ran off with his
wife
Wounds on the flesh . surgeons skill may
heal,
But wounded honor's only cured with steel.
An Irishman Is not to be chosen as
second, for nine ont of ten have such an
innate love Of fighting they cannot
bring an affair to an smicable adjust
ment, and the first duty of second is
to prevent the affair coming to seri-
GUS issue. Other advice Is for the Sec
ond to take care his principal is not in
by the sun, and to get his
with something dark behind
him, when it will be much more easy
to hit him
As may be inferred, the author holds
by dueling, for 1.-THE man who falls
in duel and the individual who is
killed by the overturn Of stagecoach
are both unfortunate victims to a prac-
tice from which we derive great advan-
tages 1t would be absurd to prohibit
stage travelling because occasionally
few lives are lost by an overturn, and
unless men endeavored to destroy each
other they might live to patriarchsl
age and multiply so rapidly that the
soil would soon be insufficient to sup.
ply them with nourishment," with
which reductio ad absurdum the vol
ume may well be put back on the shelf.
Navy and Army Illustrated