DUE ALINA WITH POTATOES.

Wairoa Bell, Volume V, Issue 274, 23 November 1894, Page 9

DUE ALINA WITH POTATOES.

Duelling-is not only wicked, but absurd, and the man who by his own example makes it contemptible does a sterling service + o his generation Forty years ago 1 Bill Bowman ’ was a noted preacher and ‘muscular Christian’ of Kentucky in the United States, At one of his meetings a local desperado raised a disturbance, and, on being publicly rebuked by Bowman, seat him a challenge to fight. Bowman, as the challenged party, had the choice of weapons* He selected a half-bushel of Irish potatoes as big as his fist, for each man, • and stipulated that his opponent must stand fifteen paces distant, and that only one potato at a time should be taken from the measure. The desperado was furious at being thus freshly insulted, and made an indignant protest, but Bowman insisted that he was the challenged man and had a, right to choose his own weapons and threatened to denounce the desperado as a coward if be failed to come, to time. As there was no way out of the wood but to fight, the desperado consented. The fight took place on the outskirts of the town. Everybody was present to see the fun. The seconds arranged the two men in position, by the side of each being a balf-bnshel measure tilled with large Irish potatoes, as hard as bricks. Bill Bowman threw the first potato. It struck his opponent on the nose, and flew into a thousand pieces. A yell of delight went up from the crowd, which enraged the desperado, and his potato flew wide of the mark. Bowman watched his chance, and every time his opponent stooped for a potato another one hit him on the side, leaving a wet mark and then scattering to the four winds of heaven. He hit the desperado about five times, and tlieu the sixth potato struck him in the short ribs, knocking the wind completely out of him, and doubling him up on the Mass. The people were almost crazy with laughter, hut Bill Bowman looked as sober as a judge. The desperado was taken homo and put go bed, and there lie stayed for more than a week before he recovered from the effects of the Irish potato duel. That was the end of duelling in that region.