The American Duel.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXII, Issue 6919, 18 June 1897, Page 1

The American Duel.

The American duel (unknown in America, by the way) plays a great part in German iife. Two men have a deadly quarrel and draw locs to see which of them shali commit suicide before the end of the year. When a student at Heidelberg, I remember such a duel between a German and a Pole. They drew lots : and the German was the one to lose. As he fell deeply in love a little later with a girl he wished to marry, he wrote to the Pole, statc-d the c:\se to him, and asked permission to live, now that he had something to live for. So answer was returned. The Pole had gone away on a journey. On the last day of the year the German blew his brains out. Count 8., an officer I knew, killed himself in the train between Cologne and Aix-la Chapelle as the outcome, ic is supposed, of a similar duel. His body was found in the railway carriage when the train arrived at Aix. A man who happened to be in the same compartment with him was put on trial for his life, but was acquitted. He testified that at the station, just before the long tunnel, two gentlemen oaio to the window and exchanged a few words in a low voice with the officer. He heard a shot while the train was in the tunnel, and when it emerged at the other end s a .w Count B. lying in a pool of blood on the floor. Thar the suicide took place as the result of an American duel was buc but a surmise, but was generally believed in Count B.'s regiment.

JSTo matter what fines or imprisonment; or other penalties short of death or dishonor may be meted out to German duellists, the duel will continue to exist in Germany until the temper of the upper classes undergoes a change, and they come to believe that duelling is a method of settling a dispute is not only wrong but silly.—"The CornhilV