Morris tribune., 1917-02-16
Of a
Woman Scorn1ed
By F. A. Mitchell

Dale, a Massachusetts Yankee went
to Louisiana to buy sugar for north
ern firm. He met there creole girl,
Louise la Marche, who, not being
especially attractive and there being
few marriageable men in that region,
laid siege to him with view to marry
ing him. Dale did not reciprocate.
Louise persisted, and when she found
that nothing would move the finty
hearted Yankee she appealed to her
brother, Antoine, telling him that Dale
had made love to her and then Tilted
her.
Now, Antoine and his sister, who
was older than he, did not get on very
well together, and he wished that she
would handle her love affairs without
troubling him in the matter. But when
woman makes up her mind to utilize
man he may as well come down at
once, like Davy Crockett's coon. An
tome was weak enough to be ,cajoled
into taking up his sisters cause, and
she laid down for him a plan for do
ing so.
"These Yankees" she said to him,
ARE not fighting men at all. They are
shopkeepers and pumpkin raisers. The
way to impress John Dale with the
enOrmity of his treatment of me is to
insult him. He will be obliged either
to challenge you to fight him or do
justice to me-"
Antoine held out as long as possible
against this method of procedure and
| q oCf Vyio11O6 II To l..
Dale on a street in the village where
the La Marche family lived and, going
up to him, slapped him in the face
But the affair did not turn out as ex-
pected. The Yankee contented himself
with returning the slap
That would have ended the matter
had not Louise been behind it. She
told her brother that he must chal-
lenge Dale or he would be cut by all
his acquaintances. Antoine, who was
not fighter even if he was a south
erner, refused, whereupon Louise per
suaded several of her friends to treat
him sneeringly, and he at last yielded
under duress and sent the challenge
What was her surprise and conster-
nation to find that Dale accepted the
challenge, but as the challenged party
named the conditions under which the
contest was to take place. He chose
pistols in a dark room.
1t is hard lines for a man to be
obliged to risk his life in a cause in
which he takes no interest Antoine
looked with horror on being shut up in
a dark room with a man who was
there to kill him.
Had Antoine not been propped up by
his sister, who by this time, consider
ing herself a woman scorned, desired
vengeance, he would have collapsed
under the appalling situation. But
Louise shamed him into standing up
to his work, and he permitted the ar
rangements to be made for the meet
ing.
There was a vacant house in the
place with two large rooms on each
side of hall on the second story. It
was agreed that the duel should take
place in one of these suits. Both
rooms possessed large open freplaces.
In order that no light should permeate
them, the affair was appointed to come
OIL III III y CLOCK dC u1SuC.
Now, Dale had no more heart for the
affair than his opponent. Had the mat
ter concerned the woman alone who
was at the bottom Of it he would have
fed ingloriously. But he could not
bring himself to fee from a male en-
envy. He accepted the situation, re-
solved that he would not kill Antoine
| hn oa1 ~ o3hhnr Chn11l1
die it would be himself
At 10 o'clock the duelistS were
placed, one in the front room and one
in the rear room. AS soon as they
heard the doors closed and the bolts
shot they were at liberty to fire.
Dale trusted to his ears, which were
very keen, to let him know where his
enemy was, and, hearing a sound as
of one walking on tiptOe, he listened
to it and after awhile fancied that his
enemy was in the same room with him.
Dale at once slipped into the other
room, where he stood stock still for
some time, when he began to move
around the wall, feeling his way as he
went. Presently he struck the FIRE
place.
By this time some twenty minutes
had elapsed, with no prospect Of an
ending of the affair. It had been ar
ranged that the seconds should not
come into the room until after hearing
one shot. If after five minutes they
did not hear a second shot they should
, enter. It occurred to Dale that by fir.
, ing up the chimney he would not risk
killing his enemy and it would prepare
the way for an end to the contest
Thrusting his arm into the fireplace
he fred up the old fashioned large
flue Of former times.
Something dropped.
II am done for" said voice that he
+ Recognized as that of La Marche.
Dale realized at once that the boy
In order to protect himself, had crawl
ed up the chimney. He at once fired
a second shot at random in order tt