Image: Library of Congress
In the first decade of the 20th century, the age-old custom of pistol dueling was briefly resurrected as a non-lethal sport, even making it into the 1908 Olympics as a side event.
To accurately simulate the conditions of a duel, opponents would use real dueling pistols and gunpowder. The bullets, however, were wax
Duelists were dressed like fencers in heavy canvas clothes with wire-and-glass face masks, their pistols augmented with metal hand guards.
Even with those precautions, the occasional injury was to be expected. Read more…
When I first tried it several years ago, I shot out the soft piece of flesh connecting the thumb and forefinger of the right hand of M. Gustave Voulquin, the well-known sports writer; and he tells me it still pains him when he has a lot of writing to do.
