The Weekly Messenger

Mounted Duel With Lassos.

How Two South American Rancheros Battled to the Death For a Senorita.

'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 god he is hit hard. He is not satisfied to visit this charmer one evening in the week and give up the rest of the 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 cow punchers assembled to witness the fray. The rivals appeared mounted on mettlesome mustangs, each with a long, powerful lariat of tough bullhide. They were both experts with the lasso, and their 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 side as in a vise. He was jerked headlong out of his saddle. His successful rival drew him to him, hand over hand, half lifting 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.'