2 August 1863
“A Duel Prevented” was published in the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise on 2 August 1863. The Enterprise printing is not extant, but the sketch survives in the Sacramento Union of August 4, which attributed it to the Enterprise of August 2. In his History of Nevada Myron Angel also reprinted the latter third of the piece in a somewhat garbled form, and he attributed it to Clemens, who in August 1863 was still handling the local news for the Enterprise in Dan De Quille's continued absence.
Clemens' authorship is established by a brief telegram about the duel which he sent the San Francisco Morning Call on August 2, as well as by the straightforward news story he included in his signed Call letter, written on the same day:
a duel ruined.
The Virginia Union and the Territorial Enterprise have been sparring at each other for some time, and I watched the contest with great satisfaction, because I felt within me a presentiment that somebody was going to get into trouble. On the 30th of July, the thing culminated in an article in the Enterprise, headed “The Virginia Union—not the Federal,” which was extremely personal towards Thomas Fitch, Esq., editor of the Union. Mr. Fitch immediately challenged Mr. Goodman, the author of it, naming John ChurchⒺexplanatory note, Esq., as his “friend.” Mr. Goodman accepted, and appointed Thomas Peasley, Esq., to act with Mr. Church in arranging the preliminaries and bossing the funerals. Yesterday morning, I followed the parties to the foot of the cañon below the Gould & Curry mill, to see them destroy each other with navy revolvers at fifteen paces, but the officers of the law arrived in time to spoil the sport. They arrested the principals, and brought them [begin page 263] back to town, where they were placed under bonds in the sum of five thousand dollars each, to keep the peace.1
The quarrel between Joseph T. Goodman and the fiery Thomas Fitch presumably grew out of factional differences within the Union party in Nevada, but its precise origin and nature are not known. As Clemens said in his letter to the Call, the papers had been “sparring at each other for some time,” but the implication is that Goodman's July 30 editorial, “The Virginia Union—not the Federal” (not extant), struck a more personal tone than usual. The Virginia City Evening Bulletin of July 30 also noted the change: “The Enterprise this morning smelt of blood. In fact it was red all over. . . . While perusing the leading article we imagined we saw pistols, bowieknives, blunderbusses, and bludgeons issue from the face of every type.”2
Fitch's powerful command of the English language may have contributed to the heat of this quarrel. A month earlier Clemens had described Fitch's technique in his Fourth of July oration at Virginia City in glowing, albeit humorous, terms: “He lulls you into a treacherous repose, with a few mild and graceful sentences, and then suddenly explodes in your midst with a bomb-shell of eloquence which shakes you to your very foundations.” A native of New York State, Fitch came to California from Wisconsin. He worked as a journalist in San Francisco and Placerville, was admitted to the bar, and in 1862 won a seat in the California Legislature. He migrated to Virginia City in 1863 and that same year founded the Occidental, the literary weekly described in chapter 51 of Roughing It. He continued to be active in Nevada politics and journalism and was elected to Congress in 1868. On at least two occasions in the 1860s Clemens expressed a dislike for Fitch, but in later years the two men occasionally corresponded in a friendly way.3
Although Fitch's challenge on July 30 did not end in a duel the next day, two months later, on September 28, the men did fight in California, and Fitch was wounded in the right leg below the knee. Clemens may have written the September 29 report of this event in the Enterprise—a perfectly straightforward news account—since forty-five years later he recalled the [begin page 264] event with great clarity and some embellishment in his autobiographical dictation.4 By contrast, “A Duel Prevented” is an instructive example of Clemens' capacity for elaborating on a nearly insignificant news item, for inflating the circumstances surrounding a nonevent: “a duel that did not come off,” as the Sacramento Union said in introducing the Enterprise story. Less a news report than a story with ironic and burlesque overtones, “A Duel Prevented” is a personal account of much ado about nothing, a tale of comic frustration. The newsmen fail to get their bloody item and the “two desperadoes” tamely submit to “miserable meddling” lawmen, who return to a city left at “the mercy of thieves and incendiaries.” Especially in contrast with the factual report in the Call, “A Duel Prevented” reveals the incipient writer of fiction in the guise of the reporter.
Whereas, Thomas Fitch, editor of the Union, having taken umbrage at an article headed “The Virginia Union—not the Federal,” written by Joseph T. Goodman, our chief editor, and published in these columns; and whereas said Fitch having challenged said Goodman to mortal combat, naming John Church as his “friend;” and whereas the said Goodman having accepted said challenge, and chosen Thos. Peasley to appoint the means of death—
Therefore, on Friday afternoon it was agreed between the two seconds that the battle should transpire at nine o'clock yesterday morning (which would have been late in the day for most duelists, but it was fearfully early for newspaper men to have to get up)—place, the foot of the cañon below the Gould & Curry mill; weapons, navy six-shooters; distance, fifteen paces; conditions, the first fire to be delivered at the word, the others to follow at the pleasure of the targets, as long as a chamber in their pistols remained loaded. To say that we felt a little proud to think that in our official capacity we were about to rise above the recording of ordinary street broils and the monotonous transactions of the Police Court to delineate the ghastly details of a real duel, would be to use the mildest of language. Much as we deplored the state of things which was about to invest us with a new dignity, we could not help taking much comfort in the reflection that it was out of our power, and also antagonistic to the principles of our class, to prevent the state of things above mentioned. All conscientious scruples—all generous feelings must give way to [begin page 266] our inexorable duty—which is to keep the public mind in a healthy state of excitement, and experience has taught us that blood alone can do this. At midnight, in company with young WilsonⒺexplanatory note, we took a room at the International, to the end that through the vigilance of the watchman we might not be suffered to sleep until past nine o'clock. The policy was good—our strategy was faultless. At six o'clock in the morning we were on the street, feeling as uncomfortable in the gray dawn as many another early bird that founded its faith upon the inevitable worm and beheld too late that that worm had failed to come to time, for the friends of the proposed deceased were interfering to stop the duel, and the officers of the law were seconding their efforts. But the two desperadoes finally gave these meddlers the slip, and drove off with their seconds to the dark and bloody ground.Ⓐemendation WhereuponⒶemendation young WilsonⒶtextual note Ⓐemendation and ourselfⒶemendation at once mounted a couple of Olin's fast horsesⒺexplanatory note Ⓐemendation and followed in their wake at the rate of a mile a minute.
SinceⒶemendation thenⒶemendation we enjoy more real comfort in standing up than sitting down, being neither iron-clad norⒶtextual note Ⓐemendation even half-soledⒶtextual note Ⓐemendation. But we lost our bloody item at lastⒶemendation—for Marshal Perry arrived early with a detachment of constablesⒶemendation, and alsoⒶemendation Deputy Sheriff BlodgettⒺexplanatory note cameⒶemendation withⒶtextual note a lot of blastedⒶtextual note Ⓐemendation Sheriffs, and the battle ground lying and being in Storey county,Ⓐemendation these miserable,Ⓐemendation meddling whelps arrested the whole party and marched them back to town. And at the very moment that we were suffering for a duel. The whole force went off down there and left the city at the mercy of thieves and incendiaries. Now, that is about all the strategy those fellows know. We have only to add that Goodman and Fitch were obliged to give bonds in the sum of $5,000 each to keep the peace, and if anything were lacking to make this robbery of the reporters complete, that last circumstance furnished the necessary material.Ⓐemendation In interfering with our legitimate business, Mr. Perry and Mr. Blodgett probably think they are almighty smart, but we calculate to get even with themⒶtextual note.Ⓐemendation
The first printing in the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise for 2 August 1863 is not extant. The sketch survives in two contemporary reprintings of the Enterprise:
P1 “A Duel Prevented,” Sacramento Union, 4 August 1863, p. 2.P2 Untitled extract of the last part of the original in Myron Angel, ed., History of Nevada (Oakland: Thompson and West, 1881), p. 292.
Copies: PH of P1 and first edition of P2 from Bancroft. The sketch is a radiating text: there is no copy-text. All variants are recorded in a list of emendations and adopted readings. In this case there are no I-C emendations.
P1 is by far the more complete text, and was ostensibly set from the “Virginia Enterprise of August 2d.” P2 reproduces little more than a paragraph from the original text and shows obvious signs of editorial tampering. It begins at 266.14 with three asterisks to indicate the omission of most of the first two paragraphs; it rearranges and conflates two sentences and omits a paragraph break between them; and it omits four sentences without inserting ellipsis points before its concluding sentence.
Despite these deficiencies, both P1 and P2 radiate independently from the lost Enterprise, and each preserves authorial readings among its variants. Printer's copy for P2 may have been an Enterprise clipping, an unidentified reprinting of the Enterprise, or even a handwritten transcript of the original (or a reprinting): it is therefore possible that P2 stands at somewhat greater distance than does P1 from the lost original. We have for these reasons accorded P1 slight preference when the variants are nearly indifferent. Yet P2 clearly does contain two variants that must be preferred on qualitative grounds, as well as one sentence that is manifestly authorial and is not preserved at all in P1.
The diagram of transmission is as follows: