Don’t Often Get Hurt igL
StillFidhtßuels
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Ever since the day when the first
cave man took a dirty look at
the second cave man, picked up
the thigh-bone of a hairy mam
moth and invited his adversary to step
outside the cave and see who was the
better man. the duel has been a cher
ished human institution.
Duels aren’t as common now as they
were when every young spark wore a
sword at his side and went about look
ing for insults to his honor. The era
of coffee and pistols for two, at dawn,
isn’t what it used to be.
But duels are still being fought, in
Europe at least, and bespectacled Franz
Sargas of Budapest has given the world
a spectacular reminder of the fact.
Sargas seems to combine the best
features of D'Artagnan, Cyrano de Ber
gerac and Don Quixote, wrtth a little bit
of John L. Sullivan -thrown in for good
measure.
9 His honor is easily wounded, he will
fight to avenge it, and he never picks
his spots. This much fun-loving Buda
pest learned about him in a few hectic
weeks during which it looked as if
Sargas were going to fight all the males
in Hungary.
The trouble started when Sargas as
pired to, and won, the hand of beautiful
Magda Darko.
She was the granddaughter of Bela
Schober, who was byway of being
Number One citizen.
Sargas, on the other hand, was no
body of importance, as people arc rated
in Budapest. So when he eloped with
the lovely Magda and set up house
keeping with her in a modest two
room flat. Budapest society went into a
fine dither, with Grandfather Schober
displaying his reactions by going into
flae finest dither of all.
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teristic pose.
TVATURALLY enough, people began
•*-* to say that Sargas was a fortune
hunter and that he had married Magda
for money. Sargas heard these things
and became annoyed; so annoyed that
he began hunting up the people who
had said them and challenging them to
duels.
His first encounter was with Szandor
Cowac. It was held with pistols in a
meadow near *a wood at Auwinkel, a
few miles from Budapest. At 15 paces
the contestants fired at one another.
Cowac missed, and was -wounded
slightly in one hand.
Then came an exchange of shots with
Aladar Hosmetl, whom Sargas had
dubbed Public Gossip No. 2. Both men
missed this time. Then Hosmetl apol
ogized, and honor was satisfied again.
But this was only the start. Sargas
announced that he had seven other
traducers, with whom he was going to
duel with cavalry sabers. Furthermore,
he said, new insults were coming in so
fast that he apparently would have to
fight some 50 other duels.
From this side of the Atlantic, it is
impossible to keep track of the number
of duels he actually did fight. Some
people have been unkind enough to
suggest that the whole story wasn’t as
excititig as it looked, claiming that
Budapest duels are mere formalities in
which nobody is ever hurt very badly.
Then, too, Sargas had no job, bills were
mounting—including a charge for the
rent of the dueling pistols—and his
wife was expecting a baby. All of this
tended to put a crimp in his dueling
activities.
But at any rate, Saigas had reminded
the world at large that the duel is by no
means an outmoded institution, espe
cially in Europe. And of all the spots
in Europe, Budapest seems to be the
one where it flourishes the most
strongly.
Budapest still remembers, for in
stance, the fairly recent occasion when
a young lawyer managed to offend a
prominent sportswoman. This lady im
mediately challenged him.
The attorney, of course, refused to
fight the woman but declared his will
ingness to meet any of the lady’s rela
tives. But would the lady yield? Cer
tainly not! She would fight the duel or
no one. So the lawyer consented finally,
but on the condition that he defend
himself only.
the appointed day. The parties
and their seconds met in one of the
fashionable fencing schools of the city.
But what happened? The lawyer, ac
cording to rules, stripped to the waist,
expecting his charming opponent to do
likewise. It was a cruel joke.
Stunned, the sportswoman pleaded
permission to wear hor dress But she
lost her plea. Codes hold in dueling.
Weeping, she rushed from the scene,
later accepting the apologies ot her
opponent.
French history for the most part has
been one long succession of duels Even
today they are fougtn. Georges Ciemen
eeau was one of the most formidable
swordsmen of his day. He was never
wounded and emerged victorious from
every passage-at-arms in which he en
gaged.
Most celebrated and feared duelists
of modern times was I,eon Daudet,
Rabelaisian editor and litterateur, who
ended finally in exile in Brussels.
Daudet’s vitriolic attacks on persons of
prominence who differed with him on
politics or science or medicine got him
into no end of difficulties. A polemist
of renown, Daudet never shirked an
encounter. And he was never iniured
seriously. Master of both the Italian and
French schools of fencing, he possessed
an extraordinary deftness with the
rapier.
Duels played a not inconspicuous part
in American history, in the early days
of the republic. The famous encounter
between Aaron Burr and Alexander
Hamilton, which killed Hamilton and
blighted Burr’s active political career,
is the best known of them all, but
there were many others.
Andrew Jackson fought a number of
duels. Stephen Decatur, famous naval
hero, was killed in a duel. Abraham
Lincoln was challenged once, but he
chose cumbersome cavalry broadswords
as weapons and made the affair look
so ludicrous that hostilities were called
off.