The Goldfield news and weekly tribune. [volume] (Goldfield, Nev.) 1911-1947, 1916-11-04
A Duel Which
Became a Farce
BY M. QUAD
Copyright. 1916. by the Mcclure
Newspaper Syndicate.


Bunker. that a solemn thing could
easily be turned into a farce. A duel Is
a very solemn thing-very solemn.
And yet ! have seen n or two of
them turned into a farce by a slight
incident. l will illustrate. subj.
AT the battle of Chantilly ] receiv-
ed a pistol bullet in the shoulder. 1t
lies there among the muscles, and the
surgeon advised me to let 1t remain
for awhile. 1t did not bother me long.
and I was back with my command.
In fact, sub. that bullet did not give
me much inconvenience until after the
wah. Then | felt that the surgeons
must dig it out. | went to IL in oui
own town. His name was Richards
and he was not only a good surgeon
but a thorough gentleman. He found
the bullet and extracted it without any
difficulty.
81 have peel told. said the sur.
geon. that you killed seventeen of the
enemy with your own hands at that
battle. don't blame you for feeling
rather proud of that record
but it was only eleven. sub, and
not seventeen.
~ have ii on good authority, colo
mel. that the number was seventeen
This led to high words. and ] de
manded satisfaction. to which the sur
geon replied:
Willingly. colonel. willingly. !
shall esteem 1t a high honor to cross
blades with you
We'll, he was a cool hand. suah
enough. 1t looked as If he had intend
ed to pick a quarrel with me. ! sent
a friend to him. and a duel was quick
ly arranged. He had the choice of the
) weapons. and he chose rapiers. That
suited me all right. The bullet had
been taken from my left shoulder. and
nothing allied my right.
1--WE had to go about two miles to
find a spot where the affair could be
brought off. 1t was within 300 feet
of a farmhouse. md the grove which
hid MS from the highway was an open
one. The farmer was in a distant
field at work. and his wife seemed to
have gone away for the day. In the
gardens surrounding the house were
half a dozen hives of bees. and just
over the fence from them was a pas
ture In which five or six mules were
grazing. AS we were on the other side
Of the garden no one knew what tool
place until after things had happened
The farce. therefore. took us by sur
prise.
Now. sub, here is what happened
on the other side of the house MS a
negro afterward described 1t to us:
One of the mules leaned against the
fence to rub his itching hide. The
fence was old and weak. and a section
of it was pushed down. The mule
that did it led the way into the gar
den, and the others followed him
They did not find much to eat there.
and they began inspecting the pee
hives. One of them got a sting ON the
nose. and he wheeled and kicked the
hive over. OF co'se there was a row
on at once. A thousand bees. mo or
less. came flying out. and they made
it very unhappy for the mules.
There was no fence Oh our side or
the mouse. and the mules came gallop-
ing i'm our direction. There were bees
ahead of them. bees clinging to them
and more bees in chase. Befo we
could understand what had happened
the mules and bees were among us.
Principals and seconds were treated
alike. Each had a score or more OF
the insects In personal attention upon
him. There was nothing to do but
run befo' the storm.
"To our left and forty rods away
was a field of growing cotton. The
stalks were high and offered rs II
chance to brush the insects away. The
four Of us and the surgeon in attend
ance all started for this field. | think,
sub. we destroyed about half an acre
of cotton and the Mules about twice
as much. remember that it cost us
J $40 to settle with the farmer and that
he bad no mo- nse Of any Of the mules
for n month to come.
When we finally climbed the fence
and got back to the spot on which we
had beer standing when the riot COM
menced. my antagonist and myself
were so blind that we could scarcely
see to pick up u rapiers. Our sec
Onds were still worse off. did not
look for the duel to be resumed. hut
The doctor was hot for it.
colonel Bunker, he said. you i'm
pugned my honah. You denied. sub.
i'm the face of my assertion that you
killed seventeen men ut the battle or
Chantilly. and this affair must go on
to it's legitimate end.
But ! only killed eleven. subj ! re-
piled. 4 counted them as they fell and
put the number down in my notebook
befo' ! left the spot
Then. colonel. you have that note
book still?
81 have. sub.
land you can show it to me as
proof that you were right and ! was
wrong?'