Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 2, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 January 1893 — Mounted Duel with Lassos. [ARTICLE]

Mounted Duel with Lassos.

“I witnessed a strange duel In Argentine a few years ago,” said Francis M. Wakelee to a Globe-Democrat man. “Two rancheros were enamored of the same dark-eyed senorita. Now when your South American is hit by the blind archer he is hit hard. He is not satisfied to visit his charmer one evening in the week and give up the rest of his time to his rivals. If he catches another admirer hanging around the house of his inamorata there is apt to be trouble and work for the priest and undertaker. The two sighing swains in question had agreed to settle by a duel with the lasso which should wed the damsel. A hundred piratical-looking cowpunchers assembled to witness the fray. The rivals appeared mounted on mettlesome mustangs, each with a long, powerful lariat of tough bullhide. They we're both experts with the lasso, and tlielr horsemanship was a marvel. They approached to within forty or fifty yards of each other, then began to maneuver for a deciding cast. After several feints the lariat of the younger of the rivals went whizzing through the air so swiftly that the eye could scarce follow it. The other sunk his spurs deep into his mustang. The animal shot forward just in time to save his master from the deadly noose, and as he did so the second lasso rose into the air and settled around the shoulders of the man who missed, pinning his arms to his sides as in a vise. Ho was jerked headlong out of his saddle. His successful rival drew him to him, hand over hand, half lifted him from the ground by the tenacious thong and put a bullet squarely between his eyes. He then turned and rode directly to the hacienda, where lived the cause of this barbaric scene. She mounted behind him, and he came galloping back, swinging his sombrero.”