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They Fight It Out

They Fight It Out image
Parent Issue
Day
12
Month
November
Year
1897
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

In view of the disgraceful duel between the Duke of Orleans and the Count of Turin we publish the following article which shows the marnier in which British officers settle disputes : Offlcers have tkeir disagreements, of course, like other men, and they have to be settled. Dueling is forbidden by law as well as by modern ideas and common sense. Complaints respecting infractions of mess etiquette or of nngentlemanly or unsoldierly conduct may be submitted to the messcommittee, the punitive powers of which are extremely farreaching. The life of an ofïicer "sent to Coventry" by his fellows is uuendurable, and nis only chance is to exchange. But all this is ruoral suasion only, and in the end disputes are frequently settled by a resort to flrst principies - the rule of flst - while redress is sometimes obtained in ways as drastic as they are novel. A gentleman joined a crack cavalry regiment. He had no pedigree or family to recommend him. In fact, his father was a retired brewer, and by the scions of nobilify among his comrades he was rather coldly received. "Are you the sou of Dash, the brewer?" inquired one of these. "I am. ' "Tlien why didn't your father brlng you up to his trade?' ' "Oh, well, you 're the son of Lord Blank, aren't you?" "Yes." "Then why didn't he bring you up a gentleman?" The upshot of thiswas a rongh and tminble, wherein was demonstrated tha' in the army a plebeian is the equal of a peer - if hè can box as well. Another gentleman from the ranks of trade came home one day to flnd all the crockery and breakable articles in his rooms smashed, the same being intended by the wreckers as a delicate hint that his presence among them was objectionable. He was late for dinner that evening and apologized to the president of the mess for it, explaiuing what had happened - that he had been to the rooms of the three he suspeoted and returned the compliment; if he had wronged any, he would apologize and restore the articlea; if he had hit on the right ones, they could have satisfaction in the riding school after dinner. Accordiugly, alter dinner, two of them received satisfaction in f uil, a la Corbett. in drill time, bnt the third ived a tougher nut to crack, and the is uearted plebeian (who, by the bye, is now a general), weakened by his exertious, was getting worsted, so another of the same social status who was an expert boxer took up the running. He soon finished off the third man and obligingly offered to take on any one who sympathized with the trio. By this means - appropriate to their profession - these two officers opened the door in that regiment to others than offshoots of the peerage, by whom it had previously been regarded as a preserve. Among officers exchanging from one regiment to another is common. One little man, a lieutenant, incurred the enmity of the men of his troop by continually flnding fault and rubbing it in by contrasting them unfavorably with his late corps till they hated the very name of the "Pinks, " as we'll cali them. Not only the rank and file, bnt the noncommissioned offlcers, came in for his animadversión till it got unbearable, and at last the troop sergeant major told the captain quietly that there would be a mutiny in the troop before long if it continued. It so happeued that he had also carried his insulting comparisons into the mess, and as he wouldn't take advice and "drop it" his brother officers took the matter into their own hands, with the result that one cold night in February there was a hubbub within the officers' qarters, a window was presently opened, and little "Joey, " ciad only in his nightshirt, was handed out, seized, placed and held down in a handbarrow, wheeled off to the manure heap and there shot out, to rnake his way back to bed as best he could. He soon after left the regiment. The antipodes of this gentleman was an offlcer in the same regiment, an [rishmán, 6 feet 2 and big in proportion, but his "go" was not propörtionate to his size. He was too big and apathetic for a cavalry captain. In fact, bis uickname, "Molly," well describes him. One "cheeky" youngster appeared to think he could take any liberties with such an easy going mountaiu of Besh, and in the billiardroomoue night b.o carried his impudence beyond all reason. "Molly" said nothing. He simply flropped his cue, picked the offender up and sat him violently down on a side table, ignorant or heedless of the fact that upou it were standing glasses and iecanters. It was some time before the surgeons picked the last piece of glass out of the impertinent one and weeks before he could appear in the saddle again. It is scarcely necessary to say that he gave 'Molly" Maguire a wide berth after tbat. -

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Subjects
Ann Arbor Argus
Old News