otherwise, I must say I don't care if we compromise the matter by--really, Mr. Printer, I can't help blushin'--but I--must come out--I--but widowed modesty--well, if I must, I must--wouldn't he--maybe sorter let the old grudge drap if I was to consent to be--be--his wife.  I know he is fightin' man, and would rather fight than eat; but isn't marryin' better than fightin', though it does sometimes run into it:  And I don't think, upon the whole, I'd be sich a bad match, neither; I'm not over sixty, and am just four feet three in my bare feet, and not much more round the gerth; and for color, I wouldn't turn my back to nary a girl in the Lost Townships.  But, after all, maybe I'm countin' my chickens before they're hatched, and dreamin' of matrimonial bliss when the only alternative reserved for me maybe a lickin'.  Jeff tells me the way these fire-eaters do is to give the challenged party the choice of weapons, which, being the case, I tell you in confidence, I never fight with anything but broomsticks or hot water, or a shovelful of coals or some such thing; the former of which, being somewhat like a shillelah, may not be so very objectionable to him.  I will give him a choice, however, in one thing, and that is whether, when we fight, I shall wear breeches or he petticoats, for I presume this change is sufficient to place us on an equality.'

Of course some one had to shoulder the responsibility of these letters after such  a shot.  The real author was none other than Miss Mary Todd, afterward the wife of Abraham Lincoln, to whom she was engaged, and who was in honor bound to assume, for belligerent purposes, the responsibility of her sharp pen-thrusts.  Mr. Lincoln accepted the situation.  Not long after the two men, with their seconds, were on their way to the field of honor.  But the affair was fixed up without any fighting, and thus ended in a fizzle the Lincoln-Shields duel of the Lost Township.

When the famous challenge was sent by General Shields to Mr. Lincoln, it was at once accepted, and by the advice of his especial friend and second, Dr. Merriman, he chose broadswords as the weapons with which to fight.  Dr. Merriman being a splendid swordsman almost certain that Shields would be killed or discomfited, for he was small, short-armed man, while Lincoln was a tall, sinewy, long-armed man, and as stout as Hercules.

They went to Alton, and were to fight on the neck of land between the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers, near their confluence.  John J. Hardin, hearing of the contemplated duel, determined to prevent it, and hastened to Alton, with all imaginable celerity, where he fell in with the belligerent parties, and aided by some other friends of both Lincoln and Shields, succeeded in effecting a reconciliation. 

After this affair between Lincoln and shields, I met Lincoln at the Danville court, and in a walk we took together, seeing him make passes with a stick, such as are made in the broadsword exercise, I was induced to ask him why he had selected that weapon with which to fight Shields.  He promptly answered in that sharp, ear-splitting voice of his:

"To tell you the truth, Linder, I did not want to kill Shields, and felt sure I could disarm him, having had about a month to learn the broadsword exercise; and furthermore, I didn't want the darned fellow to kill me, which I rather think he would have done if we had selected pistols."

accomplishments of General Shields