At one of his early stops in life, the famous Mark Twain (Paul Donovan) finds a love interest and runs across a sticky romantic rival named Ganse Taylor (Doug McClure, known for Trampas in The Virginian). As a editorialist in Virginia City, he also elicits hearty laughter and some serious ire.
Words get more insulting between his paper and another until emotions rise and Twain, prodded by colleagues, publicly labels a rival newspaper man named Jim Laird an "abject coward" in his column. Laird doesn't want to fight and a close friend named Tom declines a lucrative offer to fight Twain in his stead because he likes Twain.
Laird feels trapped because he believes his newspaper will be "ruined" if someone doesn't defend its honor against Twain. He tells Tom he will have to fight or leave the country.
Twain receives a letter from Laird announcing that he has accepted the challenge and will be ready for a duel at dawn. Two of Twain's friends help him practice shooting before the duel, but they discover he didn't hit a squash or a rail or even a barn door that was supporting them. Twain believes he has zero chance and his life is about to end.
In typical Death Valley Days fashion, though, there is a twist or two that proves life often is stranger than fiction. Some of the episodes are a little more straight forward and perhaps not as interesting as others, but this episode about Twain's wild adventures in Virginia City is definitely an entertaining one.
Words get more insulting between his paper and another until emotions rise and Twain, prodded by colleagues, publicly labels a rival newspaper man named Jim Laird an "abject coward" in his column. Laird doesn't want to fight and a close friend named Tom declines a lucrative offer to fight Twain in his stead because he likes Twain.
Laird feels trapped because he believes his newspaper will be "ruined" if someone doesn't defend its honor against Twain. He tells Tom he will have to fight or leave the country.
Twain receives a letter from Laird announcing that he has accepted the challenge and will be ready for a duel at dawn. Two of Twain's friends help him practice shooting before the duel, but they discover he didn't hit a squash or a rail or even a barn door that was supporting them. Twain believes he has zero chance and his life is about to end.
In typical Death Valley Days fashion, though, there is a twist or two that proves life often is stranger than fiction. Some of the episodes are a little more straight forward and perhaps not as interesting as others, but this episode about Twain's wild adventures in Virginia City is definitely an entertaining one.
