42 NATHANIEL SOUTHGATE SHALER 



watching bystanders. To my father's office the wounded in 

 these battles were often brought for treatment, and as even in 

 childhood I often acted as his helper, it sometimes fell to me 

 when he was absent to do what I could to mend their hurts. 

 This gave me a sense of what to do in the way of surgical aid 

 which afterward served me well. It also brought me near to 

 human nature in the rough. Many of the incidents of this 

 experience stay by me. Especially lasting are the memories 

 showing the endurance and rude good-nature of these primitive 

 men. At the moment, I recall a certain Sam McLaughlin, who 

 was frequently brought for repairs; finally, he was lugged in on 

 a shutter, with a knife slash across his abdomen which effect- 

 ively disembowelled him. My father being away, I was washing 

 his protruding entrails, which fortunately were not wounded, 

 and returning them to the cavity, while he with his head 

 propped up was scrutinizing the work. I said to him, "Sam, 

 you ought to quit fighting you aren't good at it." "My 

 boy," said he, "I am the best fighter in this here county, but I 

 ain't good at judging men." 



With the people of the better class, fist fights were not un- 

 common; they were looked upon as amusing though perhaps 

 somewhat undignified. These fist fights left no rancor: they 

 seemed to be mere modes of expression. I remember one be- 

 tween an old kinsman, a man over seventy years of age, and his 

 steward of like age, both of them needing spectacles to see at all. 

 The rounds were ended on one side or the other with the cry, 

 "Stop, I've lost my spectacles!" whereupon the man still pro- 

 vided with sight would help right neighborly to find and restore 

 the glasses, and then they would battle again. 



Serious matters between those who esteemed themselves 

 gentlemen were supposed in all cases to be settled by the duel. 

 For this social need much preparation was made in the way of 

 training with arms and careful introduction into the laws and 

 regulations of honor. My father, who thoroughly disbelieved in 

 the business and privately ridiculed it, held, as I found, that it 



