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PHILADELPHIA, Wednesday, Oct. 16, 1963

In Our Town .
By James Smart ALEXANDER HAMILTON was killed in a duel in 1804. James Cochran was killed in a duel in 1803. And Hamilton Cochran, descended from bothfamilies and therefore interested in duels, has written a book about dueling in 1963. When dueling is the subject, the pen is safer than the sword. The title of the book is "Noted American Duels and Hostile Encounters." It tells about the history, theory and practice of dueling in the days when a gentleman wasn't really a gentleman unless he was willing to risk becoming a dead gentleman to prove it. I visited Cochran in his study in his Wallingford home, and found dueling weapons hung all over the walls. "These weapons range in age from the 1600's up to modern weapons," said Cochran, retired Curtis Circulation Co. executive and author of six historj,4 novels and three non-fiction books HE POINTED TO empty hooks on the wall. "That one's away being repaired,' he said, "a Remington army .44 given to me by a Cousin whose father used it in the Civil War. When I got it, it was loaded." He slipped off his shoes, stood on a chair and took down a sword hanging over the fireplace. "Here's an interesting Spanish broadsword," he said. He translated an inscription on the blade: "Do not draw me without cause, do not sheath me without honor." "This was hand forged in Toledo, Spain, about 1640," he said, Lc'xing the blade. "This is a rapier SL :h as "hran D'Artagnan used in 'The Three Musketeers,'" he said', brandishing another blade. was made in Solingen, Germany, still a center of fine cutlery." HE BROUGHT OUT wooden cases containing pairs of matched dueling pistols. "Every gentleman of quality was supposed to own dueling pistols," he said. "The man who was challenged could choose the weapons. One man once chose kegs of dynamite. Each sat on one with the fuses lit, to see who would sit longest without running." One set, made in France and never fired, had hand carved designs on the walnut handles and engraving on the side lock and hammer. All were set in cloth, with accessories for making and loading bullets, each in its place in the case. Cochran showed me dozens of pistols of all sizes and types. He demonstrated drawing a small gambler's pistol from his sleeve, and operated a naval boarding pistol which flicled out a sort of switch-blade bayonet after its single snot was fired. "Would you like to know the most common reason for duels?" Cochran asked. "Not love, not money. Politics was the biggest cause. "The second most frequent group of duelists were newspapermen." I was careful what I wrote about Cochran. He been practicing.