A JUVENILE DUEL.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIII, Issue 990, 11 May 1911, Page 4

A JUVENILE DUEL.

HONOUR SATISFIED. Pakis, March 17. Two schoolboys in the lycee, or public school, of Foix, lought a desperate duel with swords and pistols yesterday alternoon in the ILrc de Pelissens outside the town. The cause of the quarrel was a particularly foolish one. The elder of the two boys was standing up in class reciting a lesson, and the younger boy shot little javelins of paper into the seams of his coat and in the back of his coat collar. The elder boy knew that he was being made to look ridiculous, but he could not resent it in classImmediately the class was released, however, he rushed at his tormentor and knocked him down. The other, who was much the smaller of the two, called his assailant a coward and challenged him to a duel. The challenge was at ouce acaccepted, and one can picture the tremendous excitement with which the preparations were made by the class-mates of the principals. A medical student, a friend of one of the boys, was found; and he consented to act as doctor. As tor the seconds, so many of the lads were anxious lor this post of honour that there were several lights before the weighty matter was decided,

Yesterday afternoon, profiting by the weekly half-holiday, the boys went out to the park. Practically the whole school went with them, and numbers of the townspeople who had got wind of the affair were also present, so that when the two duellists, whose joint ages are thirty-five, faced one another, d large and excited crowd had gathered about them. Pistols and swords had been obtained through the “ doctor.’’ It is possible that he was careful in his choice of the pistols and ammunition, for an exchange of bullets resulted in nothing more serious than a little damage to the branches of one of the trees in the park. Then the two fire-eaters stripped and began to fight with swords with all the vigour and enthusiasm ol two of the Musketeers, The fight was not a very long one, and almost at the start of the engagement the elder boy was wounded in the forearm. He was wounded seriously, too, and lost a good deal of blood. The “doctor” tied up the wound, and the crowd cheered lustily and congratulated the two boys on their daring. The duellists fell on one another’s necks, embraced, and leit the ground together smoking cigarettes like real grown-up duellists. Honour was satisfied.

The most extraordinary part of this extraordinary affair was that the school authorities appeared to have no knowledge of the duel in time to prevent it, although the whole school and the whole town knew that it was going to take place.