The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1916-10-11
A Duel Which
Became a Farce
By M. QUAD
Copyright, 1916, by the Mcclure
Newspaper Syndicate.

/ newspaper OS udiSotS' III
II have told you. SUBJ said Colonel
Bunker, that solemn thing could
easily be turned into farce. A duel is
very solemn thing-very solemn,
And yet ! have seen one or two or
them turned into farce by a slight
incident. l will illustrate, sub.
"At the battle of Chantilly l 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 ! was back with my command.
In fact, sub. that bullet did not give
me much Inconvenience until after the
wah. Then l felt that the surgeons
must dig it out. went to one ia our
own town. His name was Richards,
! and he was not only good surgeon.
| but a thorough gentleman. He found
the bullet and extracted it without any
! difficulty.
81 have been told said the sur
geop. 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
81 have it 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
"Well. he was cool hand, suah
enough. 1t looked as If he had intend
ed to pick a quarrel with me. | sent
q friend to him, and duel was quick
~ 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.
I'VE had to go about two miles to
find a spot where the affair could be
brought of. 1t was within 300 feet
Of a farmhouse. and the grove which
hid US from the highway was an open
| one. The farmer was In 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 pas
| ture. In which five or six mules were
| grazing As we were on the other side
Of the garden no one knew what took
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 as 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 section
Of 1t 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 bee
hives. One Of them got sting on the
/ hOoCs anu uC w hCSiCu anu hiN hSd thC
hive over. OF co'se there was a row
on at once. thousand bees. mo- or
less, came flying out. and they made
it very unhappy for the mules.
There was no fence on our side of
the house, and the mules came gallop-
ing in 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.
ITO our left and forty rods away
was a field of growing cotton. The
stalks were high and offered US
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
$50 to settle with the farmer and that
he had no mo- use of any of the mules
for month to come
when we finally climbed the fence
and got back to the spot on which we
had been standing when the riot com.
menced. my antagonist and myself
were so blind that we could scarcely
see to pick up our rapiers Our Sec
onds were still worse off. | did not
look for the duel to be resumed. but
the doctor was hot for it.
Colonel Bunker he said, Won i'm.
pugned my honah. You denied. sub,
In the face of my assertion that you
! killed seventeen men at the battle of
t. Chantilly. and this affair must GO on
to its legitimate end
But ! only killed eleven, subj re.
piled. I counted them as they fell and
put the number down in my notebook
befo' left the spot
Then, colonel. you have that note
book stillT
81 have. subj