PARIS SEASON OF DUELS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2430, 10 October 1900, Page 63

PARIS SEASON OF DUELS.

A BUSINESS SIDE TO THE SETTLING

OF AFFAIRS OF HONOUR

This is early summer, and is the duelling season in Peris. Whatever the reason may be, it is always in the spring and early summer that the Gaelic propensity for finding deliberate insult in a chance Avord of disagreement and aA-enging it with sAvord or pistol brings most custom to the field of honour. The Avoid "custom may seem a little strange. But il is the light Avord all the same. The maintenance and letting out of duelling grounds is a regular trade in Paris, or rather m the near neighbourhood of the great city. Beyond the fortifications, in the green suburbs, Avhcre the bourgeoisie goes to amuse itself on Sunday, there are nvmy cafps and pleasure gaidens, AA'hose proprietors look upon their share of the year's duelling bouts as an important element in their prosperity.

At the move famous °f th^e places. AA'hero really fashionable people meet to go through the pretence of living to kill each other, the hire of the field of honour is rather expensive, according to Flench A"iews oi moneys Arorth.

About £10 is UMiallv giA'en to the proprietor for the u>c of his ground's, and it is understood ihat the incidental "cou<oinmations'" — drinks and incidentals — cost about three times the usual prices. The Avail crs get sdol to divide among themselves. Not infrequently, vilao, when no accident more

gr&A r e than the usual wrist scratch has marred the joy of the proceedings, the Avhole crowd — combatants, seconds, doctors, and invited guests — take breakfast on the ground, ,and

THE POPPING OF CHAMPAGNE CORKS

celebrates the reconciliation of the high contending parties. Then the proprietor is content ; lie repays himselt in one morning's takings for all the expenditure of time and labour and thought Avhich his giound has cost him.

The due maintenance of a duelling ground is not so easy at it might seem at first vieAv. The inclosure of turf is laid out and kepi Iji order Avith the same minute care that an English cricketing club expends upon its crease. The greatest caie is taken to ensure an absolute level. The surface is Avatered and rolled regularly ail the year round, the grass kept thick, but short, so that the surface shall be perfectly film all the AVtiy along to giA^e a secuie footing, and enable each oi the combatants in a sword duel to lunge and retreat Avith perfect ease und without danger of slipping. Generally the ground is sheiteied from prying eyes by dense foliage, and the trees are an endless, source of trouble and thought. Their groAvth has to be kept in due bounds so that the shade is not too heavy, neither must they stand in such a Avay that either end of the fighting line offers an undue adA-anlage in point of light and ihade.

The more favoured duelling resorts, such as Moulin Tour, the Moulin of La Grande Jatte, and the Tour de Villebore, are laid out like

PLtAST;RE GARDENS. There arc little Avooden summer-houses of rustic aspect Avhere the doctor store their medicine cases, where the combatants strip for the fray, Avhere the seconds make the final arrangements, examining the Aveapons, tapping the combatant's chests. — to see that theie is no protective armour under the soft phut-, and Avhere lots are draAA'u for position. Under the trees Avhich surround the arena theie are little tables Avhere spectators Avho may be invited smoke their cigarettes und sip their coffee or bock Avhile they Avaloh the lighting. As eA'eryonc kno'vs, the duel to the death of the old day* i,s almost unknown to the modem, and eiery season the duelling parly becomes more and more a mere early morning picnic, with ju&t the faintest apice of danger throAvn m to giA'e it interest. Theie i& scarcely ever a duel in these days A'.hidi docs not collect round the little tables under the trees a I least some tAvo score spectators, chosea fiom among the intimate friends of both. ptU'lies. Cards of invitation aie not uiiVefjuently issued, just as to afternoon receptions or cA r ening musicale^. EA'cn v. omen appear in fresh morning toilette to make the scene still more festive. At a recent affaire d'honneur at LfcA"»llois Perret there ai ere 300 people of the best society present, and the return home- to the cit;* in c-UTidges,, cabs, automobiles, and bicycles uiaoc

A LONG AXD JOYOTJS PROCESSION, Avhich caured AviadoAA s to be throAvn up, and m ondering faces to project from them, in all the villages en route. Of course, tne general public is, as a rule, rigorously excluded from these amusements. Only the invited guests, be they a dozen or 300, kiiOAV Adhere the encounter Avill take place. If an iiwited guest should giA r e aAvay the rendezA-ous, he would mort certainly be called out by one of the seconds chosen by lot fi'Gin among the four. Not long ago a, well-knoAvn society Aroman, invited to attend an encounter, blabbed to some friends. Her husband Avas immediately called to account for her indiscretion, and Avithin a Avcek had to make the central figure on the turf.

At the duel Avhich took place in the second Aveek of April between the Marquis de Lubarsac and the Comto de Dion, even the reporters of the society journals, after tracking the seconds day and night like detsctiA-es, so r«s to discoA-er the meetingplace, found themselves barred from the arena. They had to hire ladders at preposterous prices from enterprising peasants, and nvnml a Avail topped Avith broken gtas-. Sitting straddlewise on this sad eminence vlth their field glasses and note-books and crrmeras £»bout them, they got, through the trees, a precarious A r ieAv of the encounter. Their articles the next day Avere

PITIFULLY COMIC. Sometime*?, oil the other hand, the combatants desire nothing more than notoriety. The journals announce the meeting ph?ce a Aveek 'before the cA T ent. and all the aa orld may go 'and ses the fun from whatever point of vantage may be available. Even in these cases, though the general public is not admitted to the actual arena, aa here an applauding or derisiA~e crowd Avould certainly emba"\i?s the gladiators, the curious take pot-luck, so to speak, going in vehicles of any and every description, Avhich they moor against the outer Avails or fences Avherever they can find a good view.

At Saint Oven the other day a cinematograph A'-as brought into play, and the duel was reproduced nightlj a! a music hall for the delectation of the populace.

Occasionally encounters take place in private properties even Avithin the fortifications. Thus, for example, there is the garden of Aurelieu Scholl, the writer and Avit, who, in his giecn old age, does his best to keep up the tradition of THE PARISIAN JOURNALIST 03? BALZAC'S BAYS. Tn Scholl's garden, in the Rue de Clichy, half the Avriters of Paris at one time or another stripped off their coats and lunged at their man. And, 'better than anybody else, Scholl luioaa & lioav to reconcile his quarrelling friends once the swords haA r e played. The invariable end to an encounter at Scholl's is a slight scratch, a joA'iol breakfast, and the arm-in-arm departure of the belligerents for the bouleA r ard and the offices of their respective journals. The only kind of duel which i& barred in the gardens of the Rue de Clichy is a duel to the death, as a duel Avith pistols might turn out to be. Pistols are forbidden, because the marter of the house was once threatened Avith expulsion if ever again.

THE SOUNDS OP SHOT Arere heard from his garden. And Scholl is fond of his house t which, through the

reunions of politicians, journalists, artists, poets, and foreign celebrities Avhich have taken place there, has become, as it Avere, ■a part of the history of Paris. There are one or tAvo cafes in the very heart of the city Avhose propritfcois for a consideration alloAV an encounter in a long, bare*, upper room on an emergency. But such impromptu affairs are not looked upon favourably. — Paris Letter.