Hints to the seconds in duels:
With a little water you must make some gunpowder into a fine paste, then roll it into balls, dry them, and rub them over with pencil, to give them the appearance of lead; these you must substitute for those brought for your principles: - Remember, in ramming them down you must break them into dust. You should also take an opportunity of giving the hat of one of the combatants a hard pinch with a bullet mould. After the parties have fired, which will have been as is the custom, together, you must shew the mark and swear you saw the bullet strike, and with great warmth insist upon it, that not only must the wearer have heard the ball, but also have felt his hat shake. You must not allow him to deny it, if he should do so at first, which is very improbably, he will not do so long. The writer having practiced it more than once with happy success, he now recommends it to those gentlemen who may be engaged to see their friends fight, and do not wish them to commit murder.
The Derby Mercury, Thursday 27 October 1803 (v.16, p.230)
- Cox's Fragmenta, edited by Simon Murphy, pp.100-101
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