SERIALIZATION OF “REBEL WITH A CAUSE: MARK TWAIN’S HIDDEN MEMOIRS” -- CHAPTER 31 (of 78)
Aborted Duel and Absquatulation (1864)
Chapter 31
Aborted Duel and Absquatulation (1864)
In those early days dueling suddenly became a fashion in the new territory of Nevada, and by 1864 everybody was anxious to have a chance in the new sport, mainly for the reason that he was not able to thoroughly respect himself so long as he had not killed or crippled somebody in a duel or been killed or crippled in one himself. I was ambitious in several ways but I had entirely escaped the seductions of that particular craze. I had had no desire to fight a duel. I had no intention of provoking one. I did not feel respectable, but I got a certain amount of satisfaction out of feeling safe. I was ashamed of myself … but I got along well enough. I had always been accustomed to feeling ashamed of myself, for one thing or another, so there was no novelty for me in the situation. I bore it very well.
Despite all that, before too long, I found myself in a position where I needed to leave Nevada for California to avoid the consequences of an aborted duel.
This man I was supposed to challenge to a duel got touched at something I wrote about him. I don’t know what it was now—I may have called him a thief or a grave robber, or an idiot or something. He fought very shy of me at first, and so I plied him with bloodthirsty challenges all the more. Finally he began to take an interest in this thing.
You can read all about it in my book Roughing It, but in a nutshell let it suffice that the duel came close enough to being consummated that I felt the need to take quarters elsewhere after we received word that a law had just passed in Washoe making dueling, or even challenging someone to a duel, a penitentiary offense for both principals and the seconds, that it was to be strictly enforced, and unless we got out of town in a limited number of hours, an example was to be made of us—by “us” I mean my friend Steve Gillis, who was to serve as my “second” in the duel, and myself.
So, just as my piloting days had ended because of outbreak of war, my Nevada days ended because of an aborted duel. Steve and I left on the stage for San Francisco, an outrageous and rollicking city full of bohemians. I soon found work as a reporter on a paper there—the Morning Call, to be specific.
EDITOR’S NOTES: “Washoe” was a nickname for Nevada in Territorial times. Nevada became a State in late 1864, five months after Twain left.
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Blackbird Crow Raven’s “Rebel With A Cause: Mark Twain’s Hidden Memoirs” is being serialized in this space on substack every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday; it is also available in its entirety from here.