The mere word duel raises a smile amongst the empty headed. Hardly any one thinks for himself; he takes his thoughts ready made, like his tea when he gets up in the morning.
He opens his paper; in the paper he reads “So-and-so is the wickedest man on earth,” good; in future, whenever he hears of anything So-and-so’s done, it is wrong; and if he sees So-and-so “on the pictures,” he hisses with all his might.
Next, he reads that “such a one is the best and cleverest man on earth,” this is enough. “Such a one” can do no wrong, and if he sees “Such a one” on the cinematograph screen, he stamps and shouts with delight.
In prehistoric times someone wrote a joke in arrow-head characters about duelling; as comic subjects are scarce and have to be used over and over again, duelling became a standard “joke,” and therefore the sort of people I have mentioned grin the moment they hear the word, as they roar with laughter when they see a “comic” actor.
It always amuses me when an actor who is a “comedian” attempts a serious part.
As he walks in with a despairing air, the audience shriek with laughter (because he is labelled as “comic” in their brains). The actor says in a pathetic way “my wife went out starving to beg for bread, and she found the child had fallen in the fire, and was burnt to death when she returned at length with food.”
The audience simply roll with laughter, and gasp “is he not killing?”
I merely make this digression to show how difficult it is to make people think for themselves, especially on the subject of duelling.
Duelling is a “comic subject” to them, and that is the end of it.
Just as war is necessary, so is duelling necessary. Duelling is to the individual, what war is to the nation.