Sketcher.

Waikato Times, Volume XXIII, Issue 1890, 16 August 1884, Page 2 (Supplement)

Sketcher.

Duelling Sketches.

nUJIOES AND PLEASANTRIES OF THE ETELD. In 1776 Captain Talbut and Lieutenant Dunworth, of the Bevolutionary Army, quarrelled, and fixed a time and place for a duel, which circumstance was communicated to General Washington by General Greene, who wrote, curiously: " I did not wish to know anything about the affair, but many of my officers know that I lenow all about _ it, which perplexes me a little, knowing to be against all civil and military law." A good many stories are told at the expense of Judge Dooly, of Georgia. He laughed out of duels with as audacious wit, says an Atlanta paper, that compelled even the admiration of the enemies. On one occasion, when a number of them threatened that if he didn't fight his name would fill the column of a newspaper, he declared, laughingly, that be would rather fill ten newspapers than one coffin. Once he went on the field with a man who had St. Vitus' dance. His opponent was standing at his post, his whole frame jerking nervously from his malady. Dooly, in the soberest manner, left his post, and, cutting a forked stick, stuck it in the ground in, front of his opponent. " What does this mean ?" asked his opponent. " Why," says Dooly, " I want you to rest your postol in that fork so that you can steady your aim. If you shoot at me with that hand shaking so, you'll pepper me full of holes at the first fire 1" Then there was a laugh all around, and the duel was put I off without a day. During the years 1815-16 John Randolph, of Virginia, attended St. John's Church, in Georgetown, near Washington (D. C), and was believed to have become under the influence of religious impressions, ocoupying, generally, a pew with Franois Barton Key, the author of the " Star Spangled Banner." It was during this time that Mr. Randolph, losing control of himself one day, and seeing a good opportunity of striking at Henry Clay (then Speaker of the House of Representatives), let loose a flight of invectives at Mr. Boiling Robinson (a member from Louisiana), but remained silent thereafter when Clay dwelt upon the gravity of the occasion, and " hoped that, if the honorable gentleman from Virginia intended no insult, he would recall the offensive and misaplied words." His silence brought out a challenge from Mr. Robinson, which Randolph declined to accept, on the ground of religious scruples, such action being urged py Parson Addison (of St. John's Church], Mr. Key, and Charles Fenton Mercer, M. C. from the Loudon (Virginia) district. This course led to so much imputation on Mr. Randolph's chivalry that he became deeply wounded, and soon after gave up his devotional exercises altogether, and declared that he would "never again take refuge under the communion table." When Randolph entered Congress, in 1799, he arrived in Washington with a oase of duelling pistols, which,|it was said, he had carried with him to keep Robert Goodloe Harper —a Congressman from South Carolina (although a native of Virginia), and leader of the Federal party in tho House—in order. The trouble, however, in those days, was to keep Randolph in order, who was noted for his exasperating wit and eccentricity, as well as for his eloquence, independence and incorruptibility. He was at peace, really, with but few men, and was, the recipient, during his eventful life, of many challenges; all of which he treated with contempt, except that from Robinson, just alluded to, and the one which he accepted from Clay. In December, 1773, in England, Mr. Temple and Mr. Whately fought a duel—which was brought about by the transmission from England to Boston, through the agency of Benjamin Franklin, the celebrated correspondence known at that time as the "Hutchinson and Oliver Letters" —in which Mr. Whately was severely wounded. The humorous side of this affair consists of a letter, written by Lord Walpole to a friend, upon the eve of the disturbance, in which he said: " We are now picking a duel between a Mr. Temple and a Mr. Whately, the latter of whom has been drilled with as many holes as Julius Crasar or a cullender." Walpole also writes of the duel between Captain Winnington and Augustus Townsend, which took place in Hyde Park, London (England), in 174JL, and of which he says that, after meeting in the Park, " thay scratched one another's fingers, tumbled into two ditches—that is, Augustus did—kissed and then walked home together." In 1816 Admiral de la Susse was challenged by a German for " waltzing against him," at a residence in the Faubourg St. Honore, Paris; and the parties met in the Bois de Boulogne, where the German fired first without effeot, after which La Susse hit the German at the place about where the heart ought to have been located, and the latter dropped as if dead; but, upon examination, it was found that the fellow was not only alive, but unhurt—thanks to the well-padded cuirass which he wore. But the vigorous kicking subsequently administered to the obese Teuton by the indignant Admiral compelled him to give up waltzing for many a day; and a certain salon in the Faubourg St. Honore was never graced by his Dutch presence thereafter. An officer under Ney one day informed that great Marshal that he had challenged a brother officer. "What for?" interrogated Ney. " For slapping me in the face." " Go to him and say you have washed your face, as it was easier to get rid of the effects of blackguardism that way than by fighting; and also say that I have command, ed you to withdraw your challenge." Upon another occasion a gentleman informed Talleyrand that he had sent a challenge to an officer of the Army, who had thrown him out of a two-story window. " Thrown you out of a two-story window 1 What for ?" exclaimed Tallyrand, with much amazement. " Because, sir, he says he caught me cheating at cards." " Let me advise you," said the other, pleasantly : " Don't fight on account of so small an affair ; and don't play cards ' again with that particular person, excepting on the ground floor." A Frenchman, named Madailan, once sent a challenge to Marquis de Rivard, who had lost a leg in the service of his country. The old soldier replied: "I accept your challenge on one condition—that you cut off one of your legs, so that we may meet on an equal footing." As might have been expected, it was all laugh and no fight after that, Saint Foix, one of the most noted duelists of France, once laughed at St. Evremont, his rival, while the latter was eating a bavoraise at the Cafe Procope, in Paris, and remarked that it was a mighty small dinner for a gentleman. A duel was the consequence,, and Saint Foix received quite a wound, while bandaging which, he said : " Even if you had killed me I should have stuck to it that a bavoraise is a mighty small dinner for a gentleman." Two gentleman (one a Spaniard and the other a German), who had been recommended, by their birth and services, to the Emperor Maximilian 11., both fell in love with, and paid court to, the fair Helene, the Emperor's daughter, Scharf equina, whom each sought in marriage. After a long delay Maximilian one day informed the two lovers that, esteeming them equally, and not being able to bestow a preference, he should leave it to the force and address of the 'claimants to decide the question. He did not mean, however,. to risk the loss of the one or the other, or, perhaps, of both; and could not, therefore, permit them to encounter with offensive weapons; but had ordered a large bag to be produoed, and had decreed that whichever succeeded in

putting his rival into this bag should obtain the hand of his daughter. The two gentlemen expressed their willingness to engage in even so ridiculous a contest for so superior a prize, and fought in the presence of the whole court* the contest lasting more than an hour, the Spaniard .finally yielding, having been put fairly, into the bag by the German, Baron Ehberhard, who took it and its Castillian contents upon his back, and very gallantly laid them at the feet of the young lady, to whom he was married the following day. This is the only duel or tournament of the kind on record.

There was once a dwarf named Jeffery Hudson, who was retained in the services of the Duke of Buckingham, and. who was onoe sewed up (when he was eighteen inches high) in a cold pie, upon a visit of Charles I. and his Queen to Buckihghem, at Burleigh-on-the-hill. He was greatly tormented at court, of course, and the King's porter, a man of gigantic stature, once drew Jeffery from his pocket at a masquerade. This dwarf was afterward commissioned a Captain in the Royal Army, and attended the Queen to France in 16(54, where he received a provocation from a Mr. Crofts, which he took so deeply at heart that he issued a challenge to the offender, who appeared on the ground armed with a syringe, to the great merriment of the spectators. Jeffery, however, felt the additional sting, and demanded immediate satisfaction, which Crofts felt compelled to give ; and the two were speedily provided with pistols, and then mounted on horseback, And given the signal to gallop toward each other and fire—which they both did, Crofts falling from his saddle dead, with a bullethole in his heart. In 1682 Jeffery was arrested as an accessory to the Popish Plot, and committed to the gate-house in Westminster, where he died, in tho sixty-fourth year of his age. During the reign of Charles 11. there was a brilliant poet and playwright, named Tom D'Urfey, who often entertained Queen Anne by singing his own songs, and who was an accepted wit at court, and was greatly admired by Addison. His character was much like that of Sheridan. It is said of him that "he was bred to the bar; but with too much wit and too little diligence for the law, and too meagre means to live upon as a gentleman, he experienced the varied fortunes of men with sparkling talents who trust to their pens for their support." "He has made the world merry," Bays Addison, " and I hope they will make him easy as long as he stays among us." D'Urfey had a quarrel with a musician named Bell once, and the two met at Epsom with swords, but exhibited great caution, their meeting having been humorously compared to the rencontre of Clinias and Dametas of Sir Philip Sidney's " Arcadia," as follows:

" I sing of a duel in Epsom befel, 'Twixt Fa sol la D'Urfey and Sol la mi Bell; But why do. I mention the scribbling brother ? For, naming the one, you may guess at the other. Betwixt them there happen'd a terrible clutter; Bell set up the loud pipes, and D'Urfey did sputter—■ ' Draw, Bell, wert thou dragon, I'll spoil thy sweet note;' ' For thy squalling,' said t'other, ' I'll cut thy throat.' With a scratch on the finger the duel's dispatched : Thy Olinias, 0 Sidney, was never so match'd." B. G. T.