A DUELING TONGUE TWISTER

Some things have to be reprinted because they’re just downright funny!  The following article, probably first printed in Printers Circular in April of 1867, has been reprinted in numerous publications, most recently in the December 2012 (Vol. 25, No. 4) issue of Wild West.  They reprinted it from the January 16, 1878 issue (No. 45, Vol. II) of the weekly humor magazine Puck who, in turn, took it from the Lancaster (Mo.) Excelsior:

A duel was lately fought in Texas by Alexander Shott and John S. Nott.  Nott was shot, and Shott was not.  In this case it is better to be Shott than Nott.  There was a rumor that Nott was shot, and Shott avows that he shot Nott, which proves either that the shot Shott shot at Nott was not shot, or that Nott was shot notwithstanding.  Circumstantial evidence is not always good.    It may be made to appear on trial that the shot Shott shot, shot Nott, or, as accidents with firearms are frequent, it may be possible that the shot Shott shot, Shott shot himself, when the whole affair would resolve itself into its original elements, and Shott would be shot, and Nott would be not.  We think, however, that the shot Shott shot, shot not Shott, but Nott.  Anyway, it is hard not to tell who was shot.