table at a restaurant; to be fired after "ready! fire! one, two, three!" At the word "ready" the doctor fired and missed, whereupon the Colonel marched round the table upon his terrified opponent. After a vain attempt to escape by the door which had been barred by the spectators, the doctor crept under tie table and, embracing the legs of Magruder, cried: "Colonel Magruder, for the love of God, spare me for my family's sake." the colonel gave him a kick and left.
John Nugent, editor of the San Francisco Herald, and John Cotter, alderman from the fourth ward, fought with pistols at ten paces the 15th of July, 1852, at Contra Costa. The hour fixed for the meeting was twelve o'clock. The principals crossed to Contra Costa the night previous. About half past eleven the steamboat arrived with the surgeons, seconds, and a crowd of friends and newsmongers. It was very much like going to a horserace. The moment the boat landed a rush was made for conveyance to the ground about two miles distant. Soon upon the road thither was a line of horses and vehicles of every description. Cotter was on the ground and ready at five minutes before twelve, but Nugent by some misunderstanding did not make his appearance until half-past two. Immediately on Nugent's arrival the pistols were loaded, the distance measured, and the combatants placed in position. At the word the first shot was fired simultaneously and without effect. Nugent's pistol snapped and bending to cock it Cotter's ball struck his left thigh, producing a compound fracture. Had he not moved the ball would not have touched him. Nugent fell and was carried off by the surgeons. The ball was extracted, and, with honor repaired, the wound was not slow to heal.
It seemed incumbent on Nugent to shoot aldermen, or rather to be shot by them, for again the following year we find him fighting Alderman Hayes with rifles
