The Cincinnati Daily Star

In Connecticut, where people are supposed to be conservative, cool and collected, a queer fight took place a few days ago. The combatants were a member of Congress and an editor—Hon. L. P. Warner, member from the Norwalk District, and Mr. Byington, editor of the Norwalk Gazette.

The trouble of course grew out of an article in the paper, in which Mr. Warner was mildly mentioned as a "complete illustration of a blackguard," a "skulker," a "salary grabber," and a "colossal back-pay extractor."

The trouble is very neatly described by Mr. Byington in an extra which tells the whole story. Of course he had no idea that the article would invite trouble. The editor thus describes the row: "Going to the Post-office I met Warner. I was entirely thrown off my guard by his pleasant manner of speaking. 'How are you, Byington?' he said. 'How are you, Warner?' I said. Then he began: 'When you published your statement that I made oath to my mileage you knew that you were publishing a lie.' Said I: 'I guess it was not a lie, I got it from the official records.'" Then the mill began, each whacking mildly at the other till Byington fell down, and in getting up snatched Warner's cane from him.

Then came the funniest part of the fight. Byington describes it in his own way as follows: "I had hold of the cane by the ferrule. With both hands I brought it down plump on the top of his new silk hat. You have heard a paper bag burst when a boy has filled it with wind, and pounded it? Well, the Congressman's hat exploded just like that, with a loud report, as if it had been filled with gas. The hat was knocked down over his head, and was only stopped by his ears. You couldn't see his face at all, and he was really a very funny sight. I had to laugh."

The report brought out the people and the combatants were separated. The moral of this is that, if you are attacked by a Congressman you may end the trouble speedily by striking hard enough to explode him. An exploded Congressman with the wind all out of him would be a funnier sight than Warner's dilapidated hat.