The Meeker herald., 1917-06-16
A Duel Which
Became a Farce
By M. QUAD
Copyright. 1916. by the Mcclure
Newspaper Syndicate.

| Incident. ! VIII lllustrhte. sun'
AT the battle Of Chantilly | receiv-
ed a pistol bullet IN the shoulder. II
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
wab, Then l felt that the surgeons
must dig 1t out. ! went to one In our
own town. His name was Richards.
and he was not only good surgeon.
bu, a thorough gentleman. He found
the bullet and extracted 1t without any
difficulty.
| ~ have been told said the sur
geon. that you killed seventeen OF the
enemy with your own hands ut that
battle. don't blame you for feeling
rather proud Of that record
| but 1t was only eleven. sub. and
not seventeen
~ have It on good authority. colo
mel. that the number was seventeen
This led to high words. and ! de-
handed satisfaction. to which the sur
geon replied:
Willingly. colonel. willingly.
shall esteem 1t high honor to Cross
blades with you
"Well, he was a cool hand, suah
enough. 1t looked as II he bad intend
ed to pick quarrel with me. ! sent
a friend to him, and duel was quick
iy arranged. He had the choice OF the
weapons, and lie chose rapiers. That
suited me all right. The bullet bad
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 of. 1t was within 800 feet
OF u 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
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 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
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
1t 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 rs.
Principals and seconds were treated
alike. Each had 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 field Of growing cotton. The
stalks were high and offered us a
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 1t cost us
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 of. I did not
look for the duel to be resumed. but
the doctor was hot for 1t.
"'Colonel Bunker he said. you i'm
rugned my honah. You denied. sub.
In the face Of my assertion that You
killed seventeen men at the battle Of
| 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 still"
81 have. subj
| land you can show 1t to me rs
proof that you were right and was
wrong?'
Most certainly. DOCTOR
""Then withdraw what seemed to
be an imputation on your honah. and
II you will stop Mt my office on the way
home we will pick the stingers out of
each other as well as we can and shake
hands and he good friends
"And thus. sub. concluded our az