SORRY FOR LOSER.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 127, 1 June 1938, Page 7

SORRY FOR LOSER.

Winner of Typical French Rapier Duel. THEATRICAL DISPUTE. PARIS, May 27. "Please do not congratulate me," said M. Henri Bernstein, a dramatist, aged 62, to journalists after he had emerged triumphant from a typical French duel. "I hope my opponent is not seriously hurt," added M. Bernstein- sympathetically. "It was only a stage duel," muttered I his opponent, M. Edouard Bourdet, 51, j administrator-general of the Comedie-; Francaise, as he walked shakily from the lawn at Neuilly. M. Bernstein had pinked his arm to the bone in the second bout of a rapier duel, which followed a dispute about a theatre production. They parted unreconciled. Fifty motor cars dashed at top gpeed.l across Paris, trailing M. Bernstein to I the scene. Others followed with doctors. Neuilly police had to deal with a traffic jam. Journalists and photographers watched I the fight from walls and trees. Both duellists retained their hats. Bourdet fought in a white shirt and Bernstein wore a blue sweater. Bourdet, an untried duellist, lunged enthusiastically, but amateurishly. ( Bernstein, who has fought half a I dozen duels, parried the thrust most calmly. The end came in nine minutes, when Bernstein pierced his opponent's biceps.