Europe and elsewhere, by Mark Twain [pseud.] [with an appreciation by Brander Matthews and an introduction by Albert Bigelow Paine]

EUROPE AND ELSEWHERE
me of a penny; I must beggar ten innocent persons
to make good my loss. Surely nobody's "honor" is
worth all that.
Since the duelist's family are the real principals in
a duel, the state ought to compel them to be present
at it. Custom, also, ought to be so amended as to
require it; and without it no duel ought to be
allowed to go on. If that student's unoffending
mother had been present and watching the officer
through her tears as he raised his pistol, he-why,
he would have fired in the air! We know that. For
we know how we are all made. Laws ought to be
based upon the ascertained facts of our nature. It
would be a simple thing to make a dueling law which
would stop dueling.
As things are now, the mother is never invited.
She submits to this; and without outward complaint, for she, too, is the vassal of custom, and
custom requires her to conceal her pain when she
learns the disastrous news that her son must go to
the dueling field, and by the powerful force that is
lodged in habit and custom she is enabled to obey
this trying requirement-a requirement which exacts
a miracle of her, and gets it. In January a neighbor
of ours who has a young son in the army was awakened by this youth at three o'clock one morning, and
she sat up in bed and listened to his message:
"I have come to tell you something, mother,
which will distress you, but you must be good and
brave and bear it. I have been affronted by a fellow
officer and we fight at three this afternoon. Lie
down and sleep, now, and think no more about it."
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