48 NATHANIEL SOUTHGATE SHALER 



the vulgar. There was an interesting old fellow in my town 

 who instructed the younger generation in the code. This Major 

 H. had been an officer in the regular army and was then crip- 

 pled as to his right leg. He had received his wound because of 

 his strict adherence to one of the many peculiar rules which 

 determined the process of duelling. Being second to a man who 

 did not promptly meet his engagement, he took his principal's 

 place at the appointed moment, and the bullet lamed him for 

 life. This, to our modern sense, is something at once for laughter 

 and for tears, but in that vanished time it was otherwise. The 

 incident dignified the man and made him an authority in an 

 important side of life. 



I am glad to say that, even as a youth, the absurdity of the 

 duel was plain enough to my mind; but it was an institution 

 like slavery : when born in it, whatever one's views of the mat- 

 ter, it was not easy to get out without being disclassed. 



The religious people of Kentucky, there, as elsewhere among 

 our folk, the controlling element, shaped laws to make an end 

 of duelling. All who took part in such affairs were disfranchised, 

 unable to hold office, and liable to punishment, as if they were 

 engaged in a conspiracy to commit murder. The result of this 

 drastic legislation was to make an end of duelling and to bring 

 in its place the more serious evil of "street fights," which were 

 far more brutal than the ancient practice of regulated battles, 

 when the friends of the disputants could almost always avoid 

 serious results. In the time of my youth I recall but two deaths 

 in duels ; but since that custom was abolished more than thirty 

 of my kindred and friends have been slain in these brutal en- 

 counters. It is all miserable business, but as a choice of evils, 

 so long as men are bloodthirsty animals, the duel was the least. 



