DUELLING DOCTOR

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 121, 16 February 1937, Page 9

DUELLING DOCTOR

Hungarian Vanquishes Opponent

TWO MORE MEN TO BE

FOUGHT

By Telegraph.—Press Assu.—Copyright,

Budapest, February 14,

“.I want to get them off my chest,” said Dr. Francis Sarga, referring to three remaining duels, one of which he fought to-day witli a former suitor of bis wife, M. Vitez de Vazsony, a bank official. This leaves one duel against a civil servant and another against an opponent who was wounded in a previous duel when police intervened.

M. de Vazsony recently testified against Dr. Sarga in a lawsuit by the latter against his wife’s family. Dr. Sarga subsequently refused to acknowledge M. de Vazsony’s salutation, declaring that lie replied to greetings only from gentlemen. The result was a duel of 14 rounds with sterilised Italian sabres at a fencing school, lasting for 90 minutes. The contestants stripped to the waist and wore neck bandages. Dr. Sarga, with his customary gorilla yell, in the seventh round evaded a thrust by M. de Vazsony and seriously wounded him in the hip. A surgeon bandaged the wound. The seconds vainly urged a reconciliation, and the duel was resumed. M. de Vazsony was wounded in the neck in the eighth round, and in the fourteenth broke his knee. The doctors then stopped the contest.

A Budapest message ,on November 24 stated that, seeking to vindicate the honour of his wife, which had allegedly been aspersed, Dr. Francis Sarga challenged nine men to duels. He fought the first two duels with pistols secretly in a stubble field on the outskirts of the city. His first opponent was wounded in the arm and taken to hospital. In the second duel both parties missed and became reconciled,. A third duel was stopped by the police after Dr. Sarga had inflicted a four-inch wound in his opponent’s head. Subsequently Dr. Sarga’s wife gave birth to a daughter, and Dr. Sarga offered, in the spirit of Christmas and in celebration of his first-born, to forgive hie wife’s traducers and to withdraw the remaining duelling challenges if apologies were offered, SCARS OF HONOUR Prussian Visitor Who Fought 21 Duels

A tall, distinguished-looking and courteous foreigner landed yesterday from the" liner Wanganella when she berthed at the Queen’s Wharf, Wellington, on arrival from Sydney. When lie raised his hat the stranger showed a quadruple array of long slight parallel scars on his right cheek and temple, such as a razor might have made. Now a scar often signifies that its bearer is a man with a story —a war veteran perhaps, or a motorist or airman who has met mischance, it huntsman who lias taken a toss, a lion-tamer whose pets have mutinied or a retired gangster—but what that story is they rarely indicate. In this case, however, their appearance left no doubt of how their owner acquired (hem. They were scars of honour, such as are left by razor-edged swords in tlie student 'duels of old Heidelberg. "Yes, I have fought with the schlager—you know about it?” said Dr. H. Nobbe, of Prussia, who had come- to New Zealand on a business visit. “I was two semesters at Heidelberg, in 1920 and 1921. While I was there I fought 21 duels. There was a good deal of duelling then; it was just after the war and we who had fought in it did not care to work too hard—we wanted sport and relaxation. To-day it is different. The young people have no time to spend on such things; they cannot afford to waste a year in doing nothing. It takes too much time to be skilled with the schlager. I used to practise for two hours every morning. To-day the young folk have examinations to pass, and their way to make in the world, so there is not much duelling. “It is just a sport, you know. Very few who take part in it are seriously hurt, fewer than at football, for example. When the Government opposed duelling we went into the figures so as to be able to argue the case for the game. It had almost the lowest average of fatalities of all sports. Only one man in 50.000 is fatally injured at it.” Student Duelling. A cable message published last week stated (hat the German Government had again legalised the schlager duels of the university students. This form of duelling has become so greatly modified that its name is inclined to create a false impression: there is actually little of the duel about it. As recently as 50 years ago the duels were a more serious matter, caused by some reasonable pretext, such as at any rate a slight affront, or a student quarrel. Even then only certain persons, members of duelling corps, were allowed to participate, and they had to have sufficient standing in their corps to be unlikely to disgrace it before they were permitted to take the field. Gradually, however, it became more openly recognised that these duels took place purely for the love of schlagerflghting, and the words likely to lead to a combat became more formalised until the duels were finally arranged entirely by the corps, without any actual pretext other than sport. The decision was no 'longer a question of beating one’s opponent but of showing a fine martial bearing in the face of danger. The duel became a question of courage rather than of skill and in consequence fhe degree of swordsman ship required to succeed in “tnensuren’’ was comparatively slight. A certain German student duellist, who enjoyed a high reputation as a schlager expon ent. afterward failed to show sufficient ability with the sabre to qualify for the team of the English university af which lie was later a stpdent The weapon used by the German st it dents is a greatly modified sabre, with flexible blade perhaps Jin. wide lacking a point, and used solely for slashing. Its terminal 6in. are razor-sharp. Its hilt is of great size and affords almost complete protection for the duellist who is, in addition, equipped with clothes and goggles to protect him from serious harm. He is. however, exposed to slashes on the cheeks and forehead, and the scars resulting from such cuts are regarded with esteem as the badge of a varsity man. Indeed, even to-day. it is a source of great prestige to be a noted duellist and corresponds with the possession of a rowing, cricket or football “Bine” at one of the great English universities. When the “tnensuren” was most in vogue In the German universities, the desire to obtain scars of combat was so

great that there were many doctors willing a fake such trophies for students unwilling or unable to take part in the regular duels. The meetings of the corps were very prolonged, and were an e-xcust for a great deal of beerdrinking. Contests lasted for perhaps a - quarter of an hour, and were distinctly strenuous. Judges and referees were heavily masked to prevent accidents, and a doctor was always in attendance to disinfect the weapons and succour the wounded. Sabre Combats. Much more serious affairs are the sabre duels fought in many parts of Europe even to-day. They seldom terminate without one party, at any rate, being severely injured. But even so, fatalities are rare as the duelling sabre is primarily a cutting weapon, too light to sever a limb. Such duels are .conducted under strict fencing conditions, with all the formality of the old duelling days. The seconds arrange the meeting, and discuss the conditions: whether the duel shall continue until one of the principals is unable to continue, or shall be merely a matter of “first blood.” The actual combat is usually a fairly long one because, if the swordsmen are at all evenly matched, any disparity in their skill will not become evident until their first caution has been dissipated by the excitement of battle. As soon as either duellist is seen to be wounded tlie fight is stopped while bis hurt is dressed and the doctor has pronounced him able to fight on. After 20 minutes or so most fencers become exhausted and comparatively clumsy, and the fighting becomes spasmodic and eventful.

When one fencer is completely incapacitated. and the duel therefore concluded. the seconds sign a “processverbal” describing the full circumstances of the duel and a copy Is hancled to each of the combatants as evidence in case they are ctilled in question For. although it goes on. duelling is nominally banned in most Eurdpean countries and, as in England or New Zealand, it is an offence even to challenge an enemy.