A Reminiscence

The prominence given Oen. Shields in the late Oongressional gquabble over the Doorkeeper's place, says the Chicago Ocean, has brought to mind the fact that he was one of the principáis in the celebrated Shields duel in 1842. Shields was then Auditor of this State, though quite a young man. In that year the Springfield Journal published a number of letters over the signature of "Aunt Becca," ridiculing Shields, and declaring that he was a dandy who went "floatin' about in the air, without heft or earthly substance, just like a lock of cat-fur whare cats had been fightin'." Shields was greatly enraged over these letters, and announced that, if the author was discovered, he would have to settle it with pistols. After this announceinent another letter appeared, in which "Aunt Becca" apologized for her former communicatioü, and offered to let the General squeeze her hand if he'd say no more about it. She closed her letter thus : "If this should not answer, there is one thing more I would do rather than get a liokin'. I have all along expected to die a widow ; but, as Mr. S. is rather good-looking than otherwise, I must say I don't care if we compromiso the matter by- really, Mr. Printer, I can't help blushin' - but I - it must come out - I - but widowed modesty - weü, if I must, I must - wouldn't he - maybe sorter, let the old grudge drap if I was to consent to be - be h-i-s w-i-f-e? I know he is a fightin' man, and would rather ñght than eat ; but isn't marryin' better than flghtin', though it does sometimes run into it ? And I don't think, upon the whole, I'd be sich a bad match, neither ; I'm not over 80, and am just fonr f eet three in my bare f eet, and not much more round the girth ; and for color, I wouldn't turn my back to nary a gal in the Lost Townships. But, af ter all, maybe I'm countin' my chickens before thye're hatched, and dreamin' of matrimonial bliss when the only alternativo reserved for mo may be a liukin'. Jeff tells me the way theso flre-eaters do is to give the challenged party choice of weapons, etc., which bemg the case, I'll teil you in confidence that I never fight with anything but broomsticks or hot water, or a shovelful of coals or some such thing, the former of which, beiag somewhat like a shillalah, may not be so very objectionable to him. I will give him choice, however, in one thing, and that is, whether, when we fight, I shall wear breeohes or lie petticoats, tor I presume this change is suffioieut to place us on an equality." The author of the letters is said to have been Miss Todd, afterward Mrs. Lincoln, and then engaged to the future President. Whether Shields knew this or not the result was a challenge to Lincoln, which the latter accepted. There was a great deal of traveling abont negotiating, etc, Lincoln stubbornly refusing to make any explanation or deny the authorship of the letters until the challenge was withdrawn. Finally, however, the matter wns settled without any j shed, and the principáis went on their life journey, one to the leadership of a nation and a martyr's death, the other to a Major General's commispion, and a noble military record in two wars.