Lemons vs. Birds

Sebastiani Rondi is a Sicilian lawyer, a resident of Palermo, where the lemons come from. Maurice Maeterlinck* is a Belgian poet, whose symbol is The Blue Bird, and whose greatest work is The Life of the Bee. The poet took a trip through Sicily a short time ago and then wrote about it. Avvocato Rondi read Maeterlinck's opinion of Rondi's home town. Result: Rondi challenged the poet to a duello.

With true Oriental courtesy, Rondi's challenge read: "I read with indignation and disgust your infamous articles on your recent trip to Sicily. As a citizen of Glorious Palermo, famed for its courtesy, I notify you herewith that I consider your ears boxed."

Maeterlinck is well-known as an amateur boxer and it was suggested that instead of pistols and coffee, he would insist on ten rounds and bare knuckles.

*Born 1862 at Ghent of pious Roman Catholic parents who educated him in the Law. However, his love of silence and "poor elocution" soon induced him to abandon that career. For many a year he lived and wrote in the ruins of the Benedictine Abbey of St. Wandville, Normandy. Except for "an original look expressing his inner field of serene vision," he is in appearance a prosperous, healthy burgher of Ghent. Tall, thickset, he boxes, cycles, shoots, rows. He has been variously called "the Edison of the immaterial world" and "the Belgian Shakespeare."