Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-07-09
SAYS EAGAN BACKED DOWN.
Col. w. p. Harlow Chose Shotguns at
Twenty Feet.

From the New York Tribune.
Colonel w. P. Harlow, the Mexican and
Arizona rancher and miner who was chal-
lenged by General Charles P. Eagan, for
mer commissary general of the United
States army, to fight a duel at Guaymas,
Mexico, a month ago, has come to New
York in connection with mining interests.
His suite of offices is at No. $40 Broadway,
where he was seen yesterday by Tribune
reporter. His version of the duel is sub
stantially follows:
General Eagan is trying to secure a valid
title to a tract of coal land IN the state OF
Guaymas that is claimed by Colonel Har-
low for the Pacific Coast Coal Company.
General Eagan, in the absence of Colonel
Harlow from the mines. elected the Harlow
men from the premises. News does not
travel as fast there it does in some other
places, and it was four days before word
reached Colonel Harlow that Eagan had
ousted his men. Then Colonel Harlow ap
peared on the scene and ran off all of Gen
eral Eagans men. A week later the colo
mel appeared at the hotel in Guaymas.
where Eagan was a guest. The men had
been introduced a month before, and had
met socially a number of times.
How are you. general?' said Colonel
Harlow, bowling politely.
Who the devil are you, sir?' asked Gen
eral Eagan, hotly.
Colonel Harlow is about six feet two
inches tall and weighs more than 223
pounds. He confesses that he has the
Arizona way OF getting angry in a hurry.
I'm not the embalmed beef hero" said
he, shaking his fist under the nose of Cen
eral Eagan.
General Eagan that night sent Colonel
Harlow a challenge to fight a duel. Mr..
Croker, the United States consul at Quay
mas, resigned his position by telegraph in
order to act as second for Colonel Harlow.
General Eagans second was a Mexican
judge. There is a law against duellng in
Mexico, but whenever men want to fight
there is a way found for them to crafty
their desire. AS the challenged party. Col
onel Harlow had the choice of weapons.
When Mr. Crocker asked him what he was
going to do he said
I'm going to fight. I'm too nearsighted
to stand any sort of a show with pistols at
long range, and you know that my title as
colonel is of the tin soldier variety, as l
never had sword in my hand half a dozen
times. Write Colonel Eagan a note saying
that my choice of weapons is shotguns, and
that the distance apart for US will be not
to exceed twenty feet
This acceptance of the challenge was
taken to General Eagan by Mr.. Crocker.
When General Eagan heard the terms i'm
posed by Harlow he refused, Colonel Har-
low says, to go on with the duel. The
night afterward Colonel Harlow and his
friends dined at a Guaymas hotel and in
minute of hilarity it occurred to Harlow
that he ought to play the role of chal-
lenger. He challenged General Eagan to
fight a duel, and told him that he (Eagan}
might use a 13-inch gun. but that as for
himself he (Harlow) would be content with
a can of embalmed beef as a weapon.
To Colonel Harlow was shown the MARIA
tive giving his side of the case. He said
for publication:
The foregoing are the facts, and I am
ready to stand by them. l can prove every
one of the statements by affidavit of half
dozen men. General Eagan will not deny
them. I thought Eagan would fight a re-
volving buZZsaw, but he doubled up in a
hurry To be perfectly honest, / am
ashamed of the whole transa elton. but Cen
eral Eagan was the aggressor, and his re-
fusal to fight after he sent a challenge has
excited unfavorable comment in Mexico