ot by his brother-in-law during the sitting of
court."

"And why did _he_ kill _him_?"

"Self-defence!" I answered. "And in Versailles a man down in the
street was assassinated with a rifle fired from the garret of a tavern.
Self-defence. And in Lexington a young man shot and killed another for
drawing his handkerchief from his pocket. Self-defence!--the sense of
the court being that whatever such an action might mean in other
civilized, countries, in Kentucky and under the circumstances--the
young fellows were quarrelling--it naturally betokened the reaching for
a revolver. Thus in Kentucky, Georgiana, and during a heated
discussion, a man cannot blow his nose but at the risk of his life."

"I'll see that you never carry a handkerchief," said Georgiana. "So
remember--don't you ever reach for one!"

"And the other day in Eddysville," I went on, "two men fought a duel by
going to a doctor's shop and having him open a vein in the arm of each.
Just before they fainted from exhaustion they made signs that their
honor was satisfied, so the doctor tied up the veins. I see that you
don't believe it, but it's true."

"And why did they fight a duel in that way?"

"I give it up," I said, "unless it was in self-defence. We are a most
remarkable society of self-defenders. But if every man who fights in
Kentucky is merely engaged in warding off a murderous attack upon his
life, who does all the murderous attacking? You know the seal of our
commonwealth: two gentlemen in evening dress shaking hands and with one
voice declaring, 'United we stand, divided we fall.' So far as the
temper of our time goes, these two gentlemen might well be represented
as twenty paces apart, and as calling out, 'United, we stood; divided,
_you_ fall!' Killings and duels! Killings and duels! Do you think we
need these as proofs of courage? Do you suppose that the Kentuckians
of our day are braver than the pioneers? Do you suppose that any
people ever elevated its ideal of courage in the eyes of the world by
all the homicides and all the duels that it could count? There is only
one way in which any civilized people has ever done that, there is only
one way in which any civilized people has ever been able to impress the
world very deeply with a belief in the reality and the nobility of its
ideal of courage: it is by the warlike spirit of its men in times of
war, and by the peaceful spirit of its men in times of peace. Only,
you must ad