I saved my favorite article for last. It is a largely fictionalized account of the attack on Mitchell Gallagher. I tried researching the International Gazette to see if it was perhaps the National Enquirer of its day. I couldn't find much about it. The article is partially my favorite because there is a drawing of the scene were supposedly my great-grandfather is calling for a duel. It shows a well-dressed man standing in the doorway of a lovely room where there is a swanky party going on with equally well-dressed people. Mitchell Gallagher was working as a mechanic at the time and James Hills was the janitor in the tenement where they both lived. I doubt either of them owned clothes like those depicted. Also, by all other accounts, the attack took place after the party.
Instead of a man being hit so hard at the back of the neck that he either fell or was thrown down a flight of stairs in the hallway, this tale tells of gas lit windows, honor being defended, and men taking their positions in the yard. The article also calls Mitchell by the name Michael and in this version it is Gallagher who insults Hills' wife instead of the other way around. It is also states that Hills and Douglas called for the ambulance and the police when other articles state that it was Gallagher's wife and son (my grandfather) who made the call. Again all typos are from the article itself.
CALLED FROM DANCE TO FIGHT A DUEL
______________________
Host, Unknown to Guests, Leaves Gay Party and Does His Enemy to Death.
______________________
While half a hundred guests made merry at his home in Brooklyn James Hills fought a duel to the death with Michael Gallagher by the light which streamed from the gas lit windows.
The home of both men was at 176 Melrose street, and they were enemies, the police say, ever since Hills first accused Gallagher of insulting his wife. That was several years ago, but friends had kept the two feudists apart.
Hills gave a party in his flat on the ground floor. About fifty friends, men and women, were there to help him celebrate a family anniversary. The company was eating and drinking at the height of the merrymaking, about 10 o'clock, when there came a knock at the door. Gallagher, who had come downstairs, called Hills outside.
"I don't want to spoil your little party," he said, "but we have something between us that nothing but a fight can settle, and I want to settle it now. Come out in the courtyard quietly, and we will finish this feud."
Hills was agreeable. The host went quietly back to his parlor and chose James Douglass to act as referee.
Douglass raised the shades of the rear windows so that there might be light enough to fight by. Then without a word to the assembled company and followed by the two principles he left the house and repaired to the courtyard at the back. Hills and Gallagher took their positions within the glare of the light blazing from the windows, and while the guests within, unconscious of the duel without, danced and laughed in their pleasure making the fight began.
Neither man had a weapon. Both used clinched hands, and the fight lasted but a minute. Hills, it is said by the police, swung a vicious blow, striking Gallagher full upon the chin and the latter fell to the ground.
The victor and the referee stood over the fallen man several minutes waiting for him to rise. Then, frightened, they summoned an ambulance and the police.
Dr. Holzman, who was the first to reach the scene, said that Gallagher in falling had struck his head such a crushing blow upon the stone which lay beneath that his skull was fractured. He died almost instantly.
Hills was arrested and charged with murder, and the referee was held as witness.
International Gazette. Sat, Dec 22, 1906. Page 2.
https://newscomwc.newspapers.com/image/326489116 Downloaded May 21, 2019.
Instead of a man being hit so hard at the back of the neck that he either fell or was thrown down a flight of stairs in the hallway, this tale tells of gas lit windows, honor being defended, and men taking their positions in the yard. The article also calls Mitchell by the name Michael and in this version it is Gallagher who insults Hills' wife instead of the other way around. It is also states that Hills and Douglas called for the ambulance and the police when other articles state that it was Gallagher's wife and son (my grandfather) who made the call. Again all typos are from the article itself.
CALLED FROM DANCE TO FIGHT A DUEL
______________________
Host, Unknown to Guests, Leaves Gay Party and Does His Enemy to Death.
______________________
While half a hundred guests made merry at his home in Brooklyn James Hills fought a duel to the death with Michael Gallagher by the light which streamed from the gas lit windows.
The home of both men was at 176 Melrose street, and they were enemies, the police say, ever since Hills first accused Gallagher of insulting his wife. That was several years ago, but friends had kept the two feudists apart.
Hills gave a party in his flat on the ground floor. About fifty friends, men and women, were there to help him celebrate a family anniversary. The company was eating and drinking at the height of the merrymaking, about 10 o'clock, when there came a knock at the door. Gallagher, who had come downstairs, called Hills outside.
"I don't want to spoil your little party," he said, "but we have something between us that nothing but a fight can settle, and I want to settle it now. Come out in the courtyard quietly, and we will finish this feud."
Hills was agreeable. The host went quietly back to his parlor and chose James Douglass to act as referee.
Douglass raised the shades of the rear windows so that there might be light enough to fight by. Then without a word to the assembled company and followed by the two principles he left the house and repaired to the courtyard at the back. Hills and Gallagher took their positions within the glare of the light blazing from the windows, and while the guests within, unconscious of the duel without, danced and laughed in their pleasure making the fight began.
Neither man had a weapon. Both used clinched hands, and the fight lasted but a minute. Hills, it is said by the police, swung a vicious blow, striking Gallagher full upon the chin and the latter fell to the ground.
The victor and the referee stood over the fallen man several minutes waiting for him to rise. Then, frightened, they summoned an ambulance and the police.
Dr. Holzman, who was the first to reach the scene, said that Gallagher in falling had struck his head such a crushing blow upon the stone which lay beneath that his skull was fractured. He died almost instantly.
Hills was arrested and charged with murder, and the referee was held as witness.
International Gazette. Sat, Dec 22, 1906. Page 2.
https://newscomwc.newspapers.com/image/326489116 Downloaded May 21, 2019.