be frank to say, do not appeal to me as do
the picturesque old stories which cling about such a town.

There is, for instance, the story of Alexander Keith McClung, famous
about the middle of the last century as a duellist and dandy. McClung
was a Virginian by birth, but while still a young man took up his
residence in Columbus. His father studied law under Thomas Jefferson and
was later conspicuous in Kentucky politics, and his mother was a sister
of Chief Justice John Marshall. In 1828, at the age of seventeen,
McClung became a midshipman in the navy, and though he remained in the
service but a year, he managed during that time to fight a duel with
another midshipman, who wounded him in the arm. At eighteen he fought a
duel near Frankfort, Kentucky, with his cousin James W. Marshall. His
third duel was with a lawyer named Allen, who resided in Jackson,
Mississippi. Allen was the challenger--as it is said McClung took pains
to see that his adversaries usually were, so that he might have the
choice of weapons, for he was very skillful with the pistol. In his duel
with Allen he specified that each was to be armed with four pistols and
a bowie knife, that they were to start eighty paces apart, and upon
signal were to advance, firing at will. At about thirty paces he shot
Allen through the brain. His fourth duel was with John Menifee, of
Vicksburg, and was fought in 1839, on the river bank, near that city,
with rifles at thirty yards. Some idea of the spirit in which duelling
was taken in those days may be gathered from the fact that the Vicksburg
Rifles, of which Menifee was an officer, turned out in full uniform to
see the fight. However they were doubly disappointed, for it was Menifee
and not McClung who died. It is said that a short time after this, one
of Menifee's brothers challenged McClung, who killed this brother, and
so on until he had killed all seven male members of the Menifee family.

McClung fought gallantly in the Mexican War, as lieutenant-colonel of
the First Mississippi Regiment, of which Jefferson Davis was colonel.
Though he remained always a bachelor it is said that he had many love
affairs. He was a hard drinker, a flowery speaker, and a writer of
sentimental verse. It is said that in his later life he was exceedingly
unhappy, brooding over the lives he had taken in duels--fourteen in all.
His last poem was an "Invocation to Death," ending with the line:

"Oh, Death, come soon! Come soon!"

S