THE DUEL.

Te Aroha News, Volume III, Issue 127, 7 November 1885, Page 6

THE DUEL.

BY JOHN R OORYBLL.

Walkin<} along the street one day, I heard a small boy vehemently demanding of another boy that he should knock a chip off bis shoulder, I knew the meaning of it. It took me back to the days of my childhood. The other little boy accepted the challenge, knocked the chip off the first boy's shoulder, and was, to use the language of the small boy, at once "punched in the moot." In its own way that was a duel, and certainly must have been a much more satisfactory one than where the combatants stand up to kill each other. The law is very hard on the duel, and calls it criminal ; and yet the law brought the duel into existence. In the year 501 the King of the Burgundiana passed a law authorising the dnel as a means of settling almost any sort of dispute between men or women or priests. Of course, women and priests were not expected to tight, but if they had disputes they must find champions to fight for them. - It seems an odd sort of law, and it doesn t lose its oddity when we find, upon examination, that the reason for its existence lay in the fact thatnobody could be believed on oath, and so Heaven was appealed to to make victory perch on the arms of the innocent. We are bright enough now to know that victory would be pretty likely to perch on the stronger of the combatants, but in those good old times the people had a charming faith, which we call superstition. For a great many centuries strong men and good fighters continued to call on Heaven to prove their innocence, and no body dared gainsay the verdict. But, in the fourteenth century, trial by battle, with Heaven for judge, received a shock. A man who was accused of crime fought with his accuser and was killed. Not long after a criminal, about to bo hanged, confessed to the crime for which the other man had been killed. Here was a dilemma. Had Heaven made a mistake, or had not Heaven had nothing to do with it 1 Most persons took the latter view of it, and henceforward men did not appeal to Heaven when they wanted to fight, but said it was a matter of honour. You see, they wanted some excuse for fight ing, which is, after all, better thin the wild beasts, who fight without excuse. Still, however, the law continued to sanction the fighting, and magistrates always gave a tone to the affairs of honour by being on hand to see that they were properly conducted. In France this went on until the middle of the sixteenth century, when a particularly villainous legal murder took place. The vanquished umn had beeu the king's favourite, and so tho king issued an edict that duels were no more legal. Men continued to fight all the same, and kings went on issuing edicts, and occasionally hanging a man for disobeying them. In most countries the practice seemed to die out, though occasionally the best of them will now and then havo a duel to show, but in La Belle, France, the duel so increased in favour that at one time not only the principals but the seconds were expected to fight. One writer tells of how a caallenge was taken to a man while he was dining with a party of friends. They all proposed to be seconds, and begged the bearer of the challenge to find an equal number of seconds to oppose them. This was gladly acceded to, and, as the writer says, "then was there goodlie fighting, and merrie shedding of much blocd " 1 In the early days men fought in armour, but when armour went out of use, and the heavy sword gave place to the light rapier, duellists met on foot and ran each other pleasantly through the body. In France, where duelling is still in vogue, the code of 1 honour requires only that blood shall be drawn. This is very satisfactory, for now a man can acquire a reputation for courage without dying for it. Pistols are now used as well as the small ' sword, but real gentlemen will not use the vulgar and noisy pistol. The gentle and blood-letting sword is much more aristocratic. In this country it is different, and a - duellist may really enjoy himself and exercise his ingenuity if he wish. You know 1 how General. Putnam offered to fight the • British officer who had challenged him. [ Being the challenged party, he had the p right to choose tho weapons. He rolled out a barrel of powder, put a fuse in the bung- ' hole, asked the officer to sit on the barrel with him, and lighted the fuse, i The general sat there quietly but sternly, i eating an apple, while the Englishman, > more and more uneasy all the time, at last ! k sprang up and declared he wouldn't bo such a fool as to sit still and be blown up The ! general laughed uproariously, knocked in the head of the barrel, and showed the dis , gusted Englishman that it contained only i potatoes. : Out in our wild, romantic Western coun- • try the duel is a delightful affair. A pack of cards and a cup of poison. Who loses l the game drinks the poison. Two pistols . One is loaded, the other empty. Draw lots. Neither can tell whioh has the loaded pistol. t Bang ! One man falls. i Again. Each holds the end of a handkerchief in his left hand, a pistol in his right They feel each other's breath. Bang! Bang! Both dead. Rifles at ten paces. Bowie-knives tied to the hands. And po on, and so on. In the German army a short time ago— a few weeks- an officer who had proved his courage in battle was disgracefully discharged for refusing to fight a duel with an officer of the worst possible moral character. The duels of the German students are as brutal and foolish encounters as even wild beasts could engage in. They result seldom in death, but always in scarred and mutilated faces. ... In these days a man proves nothing by fighting a duel, unless it be that he lacks moral courage, and has a great deal of the brute in him.

Imports' and exports for September quarter show a decrease as compared with

1884. „ . . Dunedin Chamber of Commerce complain that the returns furnished to the Customs Department of the exports from that.port are utterly, unreliable. > *