66 WILD SPOET8 IN THE SOUTH. 



and the duel puts the feeble gentleman on an equality 

 with the greatest bully." 



" No," said the Doctor, his impassible nature grad- 

 ually warming, "it lowers the gentleman to a bully. 

 If he gets shot, his honor dies with him ; if he kills, he 

 is a broken man either way the wrong is doubled ; and 

 it is, after all, the bully that supports the institu- 

 tion." 



" No, sir ; it is the gentleman that supports the sys- 

 tem, and is supported by it. What else gives the navy 

 and army its character, and holds it together what pro- 

 tects the weak, and cowers the laboring poor whose 

 strength would make him over-reaching what gives a 

 tone to the gallantry of the South but a power that pun- 

 ishes insult ?" 



" And murders its own children !" added the Doctor. 



' Murder ! do you call it murder ? My own father 

 was shot in a duel, but he died like a man. Where's the 

 poltroon that don't resent an injury ? as he lives, I'd 

 spit on him ; every woman would despise him. There is 

 not a girl in Florida that would dance with Alexander 

 Pell after he got slapped in the face without killing the 

 man that struck him. Is man a dog that he should 

 suffer this ?" 



Jackson's manner was wild, and he gesticulated with 

 his long arms like a phantom. The Doctor's blue eye 

 was kindling in the fire-light. We looked for a war of 

 words that might even amount to a specimen of the bat- 

 tle they were discussing, when the Doctor, with one of 



