Too Dangerous

Down In my neijfhborhood, once upon a time, said Congressman John Allen, of Mississippi, recently, there was bad feelingbetween two lawyers. A challenge was sent and duly acknowledged. The hour wag appointed and the two men met in a secluded spot One of them was a great sufferer from St. Vitus' dance, theother was cool and collected. As they faced each other, the afflicted man began to tremble from head to foot, while his pistol described an are with varying up and down strokes. His opponent stood firm as a rock, waiting for the signal to fire. Before it carne, however, he laid hls pistol on the ground, walked into the woods, and cut a limb off a tree, with a fom in the end of it This he brought baok and stuck in the ground in ffont of his antagonist. Then, turning to the second, he said: "I must request you to aak your principal to rest his pistol in that fork." "What for?" asked his opponent's second. "Well," replied the other, "I have no objeotion to running the risk of one shot, but I certainly do decline having one bullet make a honeycomb of me. If that man was to shoot while his hand was shaking the way it is now, he would fill me full of holes at the firstshot" This was too much for the seoonds, and, by mutual agreement, a truce was patched up and no shots were exchanged.