Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1900-08-09
DUELING In FRANCE.
THE CUSTOM HAS DEVELOPED A Ma
TlONAL FIGHTING BLADE.

L
Persons other than French are wont
| to maintain in spite of the occasional
| pin pricks that the French duelists in
| fict on one another that French duel
| Ing is French farce. But Frenchmen
and sometimes other persons In SYM
pathy with them insist upon being TAX
en- seriously. They insist that dueling
with swords, which is the real thing in
French duels, is not child's play and
that compared with 1t the old fashion
ed Anglo Saxon resort to pair of
fives'' is brutality not to be thought Of
by the scraping smirker of the boule-
Yards
The French habit of settling disputes
by resort to duels with swords has de-
veloped national dueling weapon, the
epee de combat, a long and strong
blade with three triangular grooves
tapering to keen point, with edges
that never are used save for defense.
The hand Is protected with broad,
round guard shaped like the gong upon
an alarm clock. The handle is straight,
with no other incumbrance, and bal
anced by heavy pommel which pro-
jects beyond the root of the thumb
when the weapon is held ready for a
thrust.
1t Is a modern development Of the
rapier with which Cyrano de Bergerac
fought the DULLES Of Paris. 1t shows
traces of it's descent through the ele-
CANT court sword which was coming
into being when D'Artagnan became q
field marshal in the Duo de Bragg
Tonne" But its hilt makes 1t impossi-
BILE for ordinary wear in its present
shape, and the epee de combat Is the
weapon Of the French duelist and of
him alone.
In 1888 General Boulanger and NJ.
Floquet found it necessary to settle
their differences at the swords point.
The critics had not much difficulty in
picking the winner between a civilian
president of the chamber Of deputies
well advanced in years who had limit
ed his practice to sparrow shooting
with a pistol and 'brav' general in
the full ardor of his life whose sword
was the symbol of his profession. Yet
tney were utterly UllStdken.
If NJ. Floquet was no swordsman, he
was full of quiet pluck and common
sense, and he practiced one stroke only
the night before the fight. A dozen
times, though not too many to make
his old limbs stiff the next day, he
might have been seen in we'll known
sales darmes strengthening his arm
and raising his wrist until he could
only just see the point of his sword
above and beyond the ball of his
thumb. The next day Boulanger made
furious attack, with many stamps
and fourishes. The little president
stiffened his back, threw out his point,
and the unlucky general impaled his
neck upon the blade. Boulanger recov-
cred, to die by his own hand after
''Boulangism" had been discredited.
Harry Ais" of the Debats suffered
much more quickly from the effects of
the epee. His real name was Hippolyte
Percher, and in fighting a captain of
infantry on the lie de la Grande Jalte
about certain scandals connected with
the French KOngo he was hit in the
right armpit and bled to death.
The duel fought by Catulle Mendes
in May of 1899 was almost as serious,
and it was caused while Bernhardt
was playing Hamlet" by some fatu-
Gus quarrel over the physical develop
ment of the prince of Denmark. Nj.
Vanor, Mendes' opponent, was a fine
swordsman and, sportsmanlike enough
to recognize the double advantages he
enjoyed, contented himself with parry
ing correctly. Catulle Mendes threw
himself on his adversary's point and
was severely wounded in the stomach
on almost the same ground where
Percher had been killed several years
before.
1t often is urged outside of France
that French dueling consists in merely
pricking your man in the hand or fore
arm, as the least disablement is held to
satisfy the honor" of the combatants.
But the hand and arm of an adversary
are those parts of him which are near
est to you and which you can reach
with the least exposure of your own
person.
The wound that is produced by trans
fixing hand, which may be protected
only by the ordinary kid glove of social
custom, is not only totally disabling,
but also extremely painful. Soldiers
who have been shot in the palm inva-
riably collapse for time with the
acute agony produced by the rupture
of so many delicate nerve centers. A
thrust in the forearm is equally effect
i've, for it dsables all the muscles and
ligaments that enable man to hold
and manipulate his sword.
But though fine duelist is always
capable of these particular thrusts-
and they are far more various than
would be imagined at first sight-he
has by no means exhausted his strokes
when these have all been parted. At
lacks In what is called the ''lower line"
are frequently successful and invaria-
bly, produce an awkward wound when
they succeed. The throat is as vulner
able and as often attacked as Is the
chest, and it must be remembered that
the entire body of each assallant Is
open to attack and obviously to injury.
Nothing In n Name.
"Where have you been until this
shamefully unreasonable hourY