" Affair of Honour."

Cromwell Argus, Volume IV, Issue 159, 26 November 1872, Page 7

" Affair of Honour."

A New York exchange says : Colonel J. Robinson and John Cornell, local politicians, quarrelled about a Fordham widow, and Cornell suggested recourse to a duel to settle the dispute. "We will," says the Colonel, "mark off the ground, and shoot it out." Cornell accepted the challenge. J. H. Robbins was Cornell's second, and J. D. Armstrong was second for the Colonel ; Dr R. Shea, of Boston, surgeon, and Gen. Lawrence, referee. The weapons chosen were seven-barrel navy revolvers ; the distanceten paces—was arranged, and the hour was 8 a.m. It was agreed that each should draw at the word " fire," and advance, firing until one or the other fell. The seconds loaded the weapons, ar.d paced off the ground in rear of the Fordham Hotel. It so happened that a large willow stood on one side of the ground paced off, and just to the left of each principal. They shook hands, and took their stand. Each man placed his hand on his. revolver, and the referee counted "one," "two." Before "three" could be pronounced both principals simultaneously dodged be-' bind the willow, and fired. Col. Robinson's shot went into the air, and Cornell's went into the ground. After the smoke had disappeared, Cornell stuck his head from behind the tree, and shouted: "Say, Colonel, I don't see any use in you and me having any fuss. If you are a mind to treat the crowd, I would just as soon stop shooting." To this the Colonel returned : " We won't insist on the duel going on if yon don't, but I won't treat. lam willing to leave further proceedings to the seconds." After a few moments' conference, the seconds decided that if each would open a basket of wine, the duel might end there. The duelists stepped from behind the trees, shook hands, iimted their friends into the hotel, and produced the wine.

The Rev. George Sutherland, recently of Dunedin, lias been elected Moderator of the Presbyterian Church, in connection with the Synod of Eastern Australia. A correspondent of the Melbourne Telegraph has been furnishing that journal with an account of a tour made by him in South Australia. In one of his letters he has the following :—" Another hour or so, and we are steaming up the river which leads us into Port Adelaide, a more miserable looking place than which it has been my good fortune never to see. For dust it" stands unrivalled. Everything is covered with it. No one has a clean coat there : and if it is at all hot, and you perspire, yon have not in ten minutes a clean bit of linen on yon. As might be naturally expected, a place so full of sand would be full of lleas, which is a fact, I believe. I was assured that the city people knew the " Portonians" by their scratch, which they are always up to. One of the Adelaide Presbyterian ministers was preaching at the Port one Sunday, on the occasion of some Caledonian festival. He noticed the restlessness of the congregation, especiallv an aged Highlander, who was dressed in full costume, and he thought the sermon had made an imj ression ; so after it was over he took the oiportnnity of walking with the old man part of the way home, and told him he had noticed his attention to the few remarks he had mad" --Low restless he seemed to be—and hoped the word preached that morning had taken effect. To which the Highlander replied—- ' Na>\ nae, mem, i' uvs nae the esnmn, if was the fkas /'"

Waterloo Bridge Mystery Explained. Writing to the Birmingham Gazette, " An Old London Sub-Editor" advances a theory with respect to the "'Waterloo Bridge Mystery," which is scarcely less startling than the discovery of the carpet-bag itself. The "Old London Sub-Editor" boldly declares that the whole " mystery" was neither more nor less than a deliberate hoax perpetrated by a " well-known penny-a-liner," who chanced in the early days of October, 1857, to be more than usually pressed for money, and who in the dearth of sensational news conceived the notable idea of manufacturing some, and writing from the basis of a bag of human remains a glowing account of an imaginary murder, as a painter sketches from a lay figure. After detailing thy n ie~ ; " which the account of the discovery of the famous carpet-bag was brought to him when " sitting in the sub-editorial chair in an office on the Strand, on the night of the 9th of October, 1857," the " Old London Sub-Edi-tor" gives the following as his version of the story:—"The 'liner' who brought me the copy had chambers in an inn now demolished to make way for the new law courts. These chambers were in close proximity to the rear of an hospital. A brother 'liner' was acquainted with one of the officials of this hospital. From this official a bagful of human remains and some human blood were procured from the dissecting room and carried to the ' liner's' chambers in the inn. A suit of clothes was then got; these .were cut about with a knife and smeared here and there with blood. After a full description of everything had been taken by the two 'liners,' the human remains and bloody clothes were placed in the bag. The question of depositing the bag in some outlandish yet conspicuous place, where it could be easily found, next arose. An old man, who had seen better days, who acted as copy carrier for the two 'liners,' was let into the secret, This old man disguised himself as a female, and, with the bag in his hand, in the darkness of night, made for Waterloo Bridge, one of the least frequented bridges over the Thames, from the fact that a toll is demanded from every passenger. Tying a rope to the bag, he carefully swung it over the bridge, and let it gently drop on the shelving mason-work at the foot of one of the pillars. He then moved on a little and watched ; but, no one appearing, he went home, and came again early in the morning. After waiting awhile, he saw a boat being rowed towards the pillar of the bridge, the bag taken into the boat, and the boat again propelled towards the shore. He immediately set off for the inn, and informed the anxious ' liners' how well their plans had so far succeeded. One set off to the river side, the other to Bow-street police station. The river-side l liner' having seen the bag safely in the custody of the police, waited till it was examined, and then sent to the Globe a short paragraph, mentioning the finding of the bag and what it contained, which paragraph was intended as a decoy-duck to the managers of the morning papers. By this time the Bow-street police were on the scent, the terrible discovery was in the hands of the officers of the law', and the 'liner's'triumph was complete." This is really an appalling suggestion, and as an example of "journalistic enterprise," quite puts in the shade that which was recently made the subject of an interchange of diplomatic notes between Lord Granville and the American Minister. —Pall Mall Gazette.