HOW DUELS ARE CONDUCTED IN PARIS.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XL, Issue 7063, 24 July 1901, Page 4

HOW DUELS ARE CONDUCTED IN PARIS.

SPECTATOEB AND SECONDS

JOIN IN DISPUTE,

A despatch from Paris on June 9 says :•—

The duel which was begun yesterday in the Pare dcs Princes between Max Eegis (the Anti-Semite Mayor of Algiers) _ and M. Laberdesque, an Algerian journalist, and which was adjourned after nineteen rounds were fouglit, was resumed this morning. M. Regis was seriously wounded in the forearm, a copious flow of blood resulting, and the duel was thereforo stopped. The duel lasted only a few seconds today. M. Laberdesque, who is a fine swordsman, yesterday confined himself to the defensive, but this morning, after half a dezen passes, he lunged and pinked M. Regis in the right forearm. The latter wished to continue the duel, but the seconds refused to let the fight continue. A quarrel then broke out among the seconds and several spectators, who included the well-known tencers MM. Thomeguex and Suitzbocher, and M. Malato.

Several challenges were exchanged, and finally friends succeeded in leading away M. Regis, who was.furious over the second's decision. Before he left the ground M. Regis shouted to M. Laberdesque :—' ' ■

"I fought you to show I was not afraid of your sword. You are nevertheless an assassin."

M. Laberdesquo promptly retorted, asking tho seconds to arrange another duel.

Two other duels are also promised in connection with the affair, between M. Malato and a journalist named Leroy, and between M. Laberdesque's secretary, M. Brescher, and another journalist, named Gaucher.

M. Regis wanted to fight M. Laberdesque with fists when the duel was stopped, but the seconds intervened.

A dispute between the seconds then arose over the second's working ot the' official account ot the duel. Cards were exchanged, but these duels wero averted by explanations by M. Thomoguex as a duelling authority. M. Regis, in addition to fighting M. Laberdesque, has to fight a duel with M. Gerault Richard, writer on the Petite Republic.

A Temps reporter, describing the final scenes, says it was lucky tho duel did not last another half-hour, or halt the spectators would have challenged the other half and the duel would have degenerated into a pitched battle.