The Great Egg Duel of Vancouver
An offended soldier challenged a local man to a duel, but the combatants opted for a slightly less lethal choice of weapons.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Vancouver Independent: Last week an employee at Vancouver barracks, who imagined his character assailed, sent a challenge to a young man in town to fight a genuine full-fledged duel, for blood. Upon the receipt of this stunning piece of daring the young town brave fainted away. Upon recovering consciousness he tied himself to one of his confidants to gently break the news of the impending danger, also securing his services as second. After duly contrasting the coming season of gayety and revelry with his chances with the atmosphere of the next degree of social ethics, he chose the former and promptly accepted the challenge. The weapons chosen were the dangerous but deadly soft boiled eggs—a dozen apiece at ten paces. Here the matter rests with no possibilities of a future chronicle of suffering and agony of the genuine sort upon which an over-anxious public might feel. The present age is to be congratulated upon its possessing still the chivalrous warriors of ancient lore.
“The weapons chosen were the dangerous but deadly soft boiled eggs—a dozen apiece at ten paces.”
Dueling was an anachronism even in 1891, used here as satire to mock the perceived melodrama of the era. The story serves as a reminder that local papers often used dry wit to diffuse tensions between military garrisons and civilian townspeople.
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