Any number of stories are told of "Old Put," as the soldiers called him, of his adventures, and his odd humor. It is said that once "a British officer challenged him to fight [a duel]; and Putnam, having the choice of weapons, chose that they should sit together over a keg of powder to which a slow match was applied. The officer sat till the match drew near the hole, when he ran for his life, Putnam calling after him that it was only a keg of onions with a few grains of powder sprinkled upon it." We have several descriptions of his personal appearance. He "was of medium height, of a strong, athletic figure, and in the time of the Revolutionary War weighed about two hundred pounds. His hair was dark, his eyes light blue, and his broad, good-humored face was marked with deep scars received in his encounters with French and Indians," "Putnam, scored with ancient scars, The living record of his country's wars," as a poet of those days expressed it. [Illustration: GENERAL PUTNAM--A drawing from life by John Trumbull] There were greater generals in the Revolution than Israel Putnam, men who, partly because they were better educated, were better fitted than he to plan and carry out large operations. But he excelled as a pioneer, as a bold leader, and a brave, independent fighter. As a well-known historian says, "He was brave and generous, rough and ready, thought not of himself in time of danger, but was ready to serve in any way the good of the cause. His name has long been a favorite one with young and old; one of the talismanic names of the Revolution, the very mention of which is like the sound of a trumpet." REFERENCES 1. Humphreys, Colonel David. _Essay on the Life of the Hon. Major-General Israel Putnam_. Boston, 1818. 2. Livingston, William Garrand. _Israel Putnam. Pioneer, Ranger, and Major-General_. G. P. Putnam's Sons. New York and London, 1901. 3. Tarbox, Increase N. _Life of Israel Putnam_ ("Old Put"). Lockwood, Brooks & Co. Boston, 1876. 4. Fiske, John. "Israel Putnam," in Appleton's _Encyclopaedia of American Biography_. Boston, 1891. THE BULLET-MAKERS OF LITCHFIELD In the Museum of the New York Historical Society there is a large flat stone with an inscription cut into one side of it, and in the other, three deep holes for three legs of a horse. Lying on a table near it are several large pieces of heavy metal with the old gilding almost worn off. One piece looks like the tail of a horse and another like a part of his saddle. These fragments of metal and the stone slab are nearly all that is left of a statue of King George the Third on horseback that stood on Bowling Green, at the lower end of Broadway in New York City, before the Revolutionary War.