The Meeker herald., 1917-04-14
A Duel Which
Became a Farce
BY NJ. QUAD
Copyright. 1915. by the Mcclure
Newspaper Syndicate.

n very solemn thing very solemn.
And yrt l have seen one or Two Of
them turned into farce by slight
incident. | will illustrate. siih.
AT the battle of Chantilly ! recelv-
ed a pistol bullet In the shoulder. II
lies there among the muscles. ANA the
surgeon advised me to let II remain
for awhile. 1t did not bother me long,
upd | was back with my command
In fact, sub. that bullet did not give
me much Inconvenience until utter the
wab. Then | 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
but a thorough gentleman. He found
the bullet aud extracted 1t without any
difficulty.
~ have been told said the sur
geon. that you killed seventeen OF the
enemy with your own hands at tnat
battle. ! don't blame you for feeling
rather proud Of that record
"'But 1t was only eleven. sub. and
not seventeen
".l have 1t on good authority. colo
mel. that the number wps seventeen
..This led to high words. and de-
handed satisfaction. TO which the sur
geon replied:
Willingly. colonel. willingly.
shall esteem It high honor TO cross
blades with you
.WelI. he was cool hand. suah
enough. 1t looked as II he had intend
ed to pick a quarrel with me. ! sent
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 bad
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 800 feet
OF a farmhouse. and the grove which
hid us from the highway was an open
one. The farmer WINS In q 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 q PAS
ture In which 1--WE 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 w By sur
prise.
Now. sub, here Is what happened
on the other side of the house ~ Q
negro afterward described 1t to rs:
One OF the mules leaned against the
fence to rub his itching hide. The
fence was old and weak. and Q section
of 1t was pushed down. The mule
that did 1t 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 cose there was a row
on at once. A thousand bees. mo- or
less. came dying 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 ciinging to them
and more bees in chase. Befo' we
could understand what had happened
the mules and bees were among u.
Principals and seconds were treated
alike. Each bad a score or more Of
the insects In personal attention upon
him. There was nothing to do hut
run befo' the storm.
ITO our left and forty rods away
WAS a field Of growing cotton. The
stalks were high and offered % q
chance to brush the insects away. The
four Of us and the surgeon In attend
ance all started for this field. I think.
sub. we destroyed about half an acre
Of cotton and the mules about twice
AZ much I remember that It cost rs
so 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 80 blind that we could scarcely
see to pick up our rapiers- Our Sec
onds were still worse Oh. I did not
look for the duel to be resumed. but
the doctor was hot for IT,
"'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
CbantilIy. and this affair must go on
To Its legitimate end
-'Bui only killed eleven. SUBJ re-
piled. I counted them rs they fell and
put the number down In my notebook
befo' left the spot
Then. colonel. you have that note
book still:
~ have, sub.
land you can show 1t to me a
proof that you were right and I was
wrong?
"'Most certainly. doctor
Then withdraw what seemed Il
be an imputation on your honah. ani
II you will stop at my ONCE on the way
Mama ua EiIl nick tho afin nara nnf a