The daily star-mirror. (Moscow, Idaho) 1911-1939, 1923-12-11
DUELS ARE NOW
OUT OF FASHION
Recent Encounters Show Field
of Honor" Has Lost Its
Romantic Glamour.

| New York.-Just when 1t seemed
that dueling had finally gone out OF
fashion after some fourteen centuries
| Of popularity two gentlemen In Peris,
an Italian nobleman and Jacques
Richepin, a theater manager, started
pokfng at each other with rapfers.
About the same time Norwood Huck-
ably and Charles A. Williams of Tex
as laid hold of a handkerchief with
their left hands and blazed away
across it with revolvers.
A little antiseptic and some court
plaster healed the harm wrought in
the Partisan encounter, but nothing
could be done for the Texans except to
give them a decent burial. The Italian
duke, who lost his battle, could have
been wounded just as badly in sharp
ening a pencil as he was In fencing
with his adversary.
Paris, according to all accounts, did
not take the duel seriously. There
was q time, however, when dueling
ranked well up with cancer and dia-
betes in the mortality tables of the
city. In one decade in the reign of
Henry " 1000 Frenchmen persisted
Italy, Spain and even the United
States have also had their outbreaks
of gentlemanly homicide.
Virtually every country has forbid
den these slashing and shooting par
ties by law, but it is fashion rather
than legislation that has doomed
them. The spectacle of two grown
men trying to kill each other while
their best friends look On has come
ITO be regarded as ludicrous rather
than romantic. r.
War Revived Dueing.
The close of the war witnessed a
brief revival in the settlement of per-
sonal and political differences on the
so-called field of honor. The dueling
of nations appeared to have a natural
sequel in the mortal combats OF indi-
viduals. The theory has been fire.
quently advanced that life was held
so cheaply as result of the blood
shed in the war, the most trivial ex-
cuses were sufficient to send a group
OF men out early in the morning on a
Of mutual granddaughter.
italian nOblemen, politicians and |
Journalists trampled down many acres
OF the good grass around Rome as |
they endeavored to bring home their |
argument on the point of a sword. |
Benito Mussolini, when a Nationalist |
deputy, engaged in four duels within
a few months, winning them all, but
suffering several superficial wounds.
1t was said that little inn just out
side of, Rome and off all the main
highways was supported almost en-
tirely by dueIists. and their seconds.
Hungary seethed with duels. AL
most every debate in the national as
sembly was prolific of a challenge or
,wo. While fatalities were few,
scars and bandages were common
.urb the cutting. |
Russia has banned the duel as being /
sport of aristecrats. Two high Rus {
ian officers of the Red army engaged | {
q fatal passage at arms about q
ear ago, following the discovery that {
10Th were paying court to the same
irl. One of the officers was killed. t
he victor was sentenced to three /
ears imprisonment.Th The girl was ar
ested, charged with completely, and {
ound guilty. e sis 9lt5sa is
The sentence passed upon her was Z
nique. She was termed siren, an | h
angel Of trouble" and was ordered to
emaih away from all cities for twenty n
ears She must grow to old age III &
he country, where her charms cam 81
OF play havoc with impetuous army "