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Duels & Dueling

Mighty_Emperor

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Cousins, Age 70 and 85, Die in Pistol Duel

Thu Mar 11, 2004 08:11 AM ET


MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Two Mexican peasant farmers, cousins age 70 and 85, argued for years over water rights and finally faced off in an old-fashioned pistol duel that killed both, a judicial official said Wednesday.

Manuel Orozco and Candelario Orozco, who were also brothers-in-law, shot each other dead in the middle of a field Monday night in the western state of Jalisco.

Their bodies were found only 11 feet apart with one fatal bullet wound each and two pistols lying nearby.

"Initial investigations are along the lines that it was a duel because of family problems," said Jose Ramirez, spokesman for the Jalisco state prosecutor's office.

Manuel, 70, fired a .45 caliber Colt pistol and his 85-year-old cousin was packing a .22 caliber pistol.

Jalisco is the traditional home of mariachi music and the distilled spirit tequila, and is known in Mexico for its macho culture.

The two men had long debated ownership of a water spring that Candelario used to irrigate a small corn plot near the town of Pihuamo.

The disagreement began to get out of hand when a water pipe broke recently.

"Their relatives had spoken to them to get them to solve it but, as you know, older people are a bit more stubborn and obstinate and they never reached an agreement," Ramirez said.

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=oddlyEnoughNews&storyID=4546792&section=news
 
Vitrius said:
Some people never learn.


To wit, Henri Tragne,another uncertain certainty:

This duelist fought a total of 5 duels between 1861 and 1878. In the first four his opponets all dropped dead before any shot was even fired.

As his fifth and final duel was about to commence Henri himself suddenly died....again...before the firing of a shot.:hmph:

from: Champs d' Honneur Max Jouvenot
 
And a tel from back in the day when men were men and duelling was for pansies:

Kentucky duelists watched each other bleed in bizarre confrontation



EDDYVILLE, Ky. -- Few Kentucky duels were bloodier or more bizarre.

Weapons weren't the usual pistols at dawn. "A scalpel was used," said historian and author Odell Walker, who lives near Eddyville, the Lyon County seat.

"The challenged party named the terms," according to Lewis and Richard Collins 1874 History of Kentucky. "They should meet at Dr. N's office, and be bled. Dr. N. opened a vein for each, and they bled until, becoming extremely weak and looking as pale as a corpse, they pronounced themselves satisfied."

Apparently, nothing else is known of the May 10, 1852, bloodletting in Eddyville.

"Dueling was illegal, which might be why the duelists and the doctor weren't named," Walker said.

He suspects the physician was Dr. William C. Noel.

"The 1850 U.S. census lists him as living in Eddyville, which was then in Caldwell County," Walker said. "Lyon County was created in 1854."

Duelists often hired physicians to render first aid. Bleeding was a common 19th century medical practice for curing patients, not for settling affairs of honor.

Apparently, the Eddyville combatants observed the code duello, a set of rules imported from Europe for gentlemanly one-on-one fighting. "The challenged has the right to choose his own weapon," Rule 16 said.

Kentucky historian Ron Bryant of Frankfort suggests the anonymous Eddyville duelists were doctors themselves, or were otherwise connected with the medical profession.

"Most of the time the weapons of choice had a meaning to one or both of the duelists," he said.

Bryant agreed that the Eddyville duel was "definitely stranger than most," but added, "there have been as many strange duels as strange duelists." He said injured honor was avenged with axes, blunderbusses, bows-and-arrows, crossbows, knives, clubs, pitchforks, rocks, and whips.

"But bleeding yourself dry is indeed a unique way of maintaining one's honor,"
he added.

------------------------
Copyright 2004 Associated Press.

Source

Blunderbusses???

Hardly an art!!

I'm off to oil my duelliing scars!!!
 
The great Japanese swordsman, Mushashi, once took a trip by sea, and on the boat encountered several bullies. One(probably ignorant of who he was dealing with)insisted on provoking a duel. The two men rowed to a small island, the bully jumped off, and Mushashi calmly rowed away, proclaiming, "I call this the 'no-sword method'.
 
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