Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1903-06-11
THE DUEL.
If d Man Fights He Goes to Jail; if
He Refuses, to Coventry.

ne HSTuSeS, TO coventry.
The cold-blooded murder OF Private
Hartmann by his friend and former
playmate, Naval Cadet Hussner, in
Germany, and the recent sentence of
two medical students to four months
Imprisonment for bloodless duel
fought under direction of court of
honor" have called public attention
to the medieval code still persisting
against civilization in Germany.
Herr r. CT. Bachelor Won Echt tells
in the Nineteenth Century of some of
the difficulties of abolishing the duello.
In both countries this incredible alter
native is placed before a man chal-
lenged to a duel or placed in a posi-
ton that makes it incumbent upon
him to challenge: If he fights he
breaks the law and is liable to i'm
prisOnment; if he does not fight he
loses caste and his army commission,
if he has one.
Germany Furnishes those concerned
in a duel with confinement in a for
tress; Austria, with ordinary impris-
onment, and with confinement in a
fortress only in the case of officers.
Ordinary Imprisonment entails the
loss of certain civil and political
rights. For this reason the sentence
in most cases is committed to confine-
ment in a fortress. The survivor Of a
fatal duel is condemned to confine-
ment in a fortress for some years, but
ic
and reinstated in his rank without the
loss of any privilege. The same holds
good with regard to the seconds.
Student duels'' are different mat
ter. In them the participant is pro-
tected against serious injury by pad,
ding; they are practically a test of his
courage and are not continued after
the freshman year-the German fresh
man is called fox by the way.
Duels of obligation have many
grades according to the degree of in
suit. Swords, with first blood ter
minating the affair, are common.
More serious troubles are settled
with pistols, never at less than twelve
PAGES and never with more than three
shots fired. If the three shots miss.
the conflict is sometimes continued
with swords, but this is very rarely
done
In doubtful cases the quarrel is re-
terred to a court of honor. The mem
bers must be not only gentlemen, but
must have a considerable experience.
The court must consist of members
elected by both parties. This is sim
pie if one or both adversaries are of
ficers, and no civilian has the right to
resist the judgment given by a mill
tary court of honor. If both are civil
ians the seconds elect in doubtful
cases fifth person, with whom they
deliberate.
In Austria an officer who refuses a
duel or does not challenge in the case
OF an insult must leave the army with
lgnominy, and is degraded from his
rank, just as in Germany But 4 he
kills or wounds his adversary in a
duel he is imprisoned in a fortress.
Mr.. Won o., an Austrian lawyer and
officer in the reserve, who wrote some
years ago book against duelling
was recently prosecuted for having
challenged another man to a duel. He
was condemned to one months ordi-
nary imprisonment. He conducted his
own defense, and pleaded that. al
though he was an opponent of duel
ling, he was compelled to issue this
challenge under pain of losing his
military rank. The months imprison-
ment, however, entails the loss of
army rank; whether he challenged or
refrained from doing so he was COM
PEELED to lose his rank as an officer in
the reserve