Sunbury American. [volume] (Sunbury, Pa.) 1848-1879, 1850-09-21

spectral figure, that nobody present remem-
bered ever to have seen before, elbowed his
way through the crowd, and placed him
self within the bar. His appearance was a
problem to puzzle the sphinx herself. His
high, pale brow, and small, nervously-
twtching face seemed alive with the con-
centrated essence and cream Of genius; but
then his infantine blue eyes, hardly visible
beneath their massive arches, looked dim,
dreamy, almost unconscious; and his cloth
ing was so exceedingly shabby that the
court hesitated to let the cause proceed un-
der his management.
"Has your name been entered on the
rolls OF the State 2" demanded the Judge,
suspiciously.
"lt is immaterial about my names being
on your rolls" answered the stranger, his
thin, bloodless lips curling up into fiendlsh
sneer. 81 may be allowed to appear once,
by the courtesy Of the court and bar
Here is my license from the highest tribu-
nal in America and he handed Judge
Mills broad parchment. The trial i'm.
mediately went on. uH lH
In the examination OF witnesses the
stranger evinced but little ingenuity, as
was commonly thought. He suffered each
one to tell his own story without Interrupt
ton, though he contrived to make each
one tell it over two or three times. He
put few cross-questions, which, with keen
witnesses, only serve to correct mistakes
and he made no notes, which, in mighty
memories, always tend TO embarrass. The
examination being ended, as counsel for the
plaintiff he had a right to the opening
speech, as well as the close; but to the as
tonishment of every one he declined the
former, and allowed the defence 10 lead off.
Then shadow might have been observed
to fit across the fine features of Pike, and
to darken even in the bright eyes of Prem
tiss They saw that they had caught a
Tartar but who it was, or how it happen
ed, was impossible to guess.
Col. Ashley spoke first. He dealt the
jury dish OF that close, dry logic, which,
years afterwards, rendered him famous in
the Senate of the Union.
The poet, Albert Pike, followed, with a
rich rain of wit, and hail-torrent of caus.
tic ridicule, in which you may be sure nei-
ther the plaintiff nor the plaintiffs ragged
attorney was either forgotten or spared.
The great Prentiss concluded for the de-
fendant, with glow of gorgeous words
brilliant as showers of falling stars, and with
final burst of oratory that brought the
house down in cheers, IN which the sworn
jury themselves joined, notwithstanding the
stern "orderw "order." of the BENCH
Thus wonderfully susceptible are the south
western people TO the charms of impasson-
ed eloquence!
1t was then the strangers turn. He had
remained apparently distracted during all
the previous speeches. Still, and strait,
and motionless in his seat, his pale smooth
forehead shooting up high like mountain
cone of snow but for that eternal twitch
that came and went perpetually in his sal
low cheeks, you would have taken him for
mere man of marble, or human form
carved in ice. Even his dim, dreamy eyes
were invisible beneath those gray, shaggy
eyebrows.
But now at last he rises-before the bar
railing, not behind it-and so near to the
wondering jury that he might touch the
foreman with his long bony finger. With
eyes still hall shut, and standing rigid as a
pillar of iron, his thin lips curl as if in
measureless scoru, slightly part, and the
voice comes forth. At first, it is low and
sweet, insinuating itself through the brain
as an artess tune, winding its way into the
deepest heart like the melody of magic
incantation; while the speaker proceeds
without a gesture or the least sign Of ex-
citement to tear in pieces the argument of
Ashley, which melts away at his touch as
frost before the sunbeam. Every one look
ed surprised. His logic was at once so brief
and so luminously clear, that the rudest
peasant could comprehend it without effort.
Anon, he came TO the dazzling wit of
the poet-lawyer, Pike. Then the curl of
his lip grew sharper; his sallow face kind.
led up; and his eyes began to open, dim
and dreamy no longer, but vivid as light
ming, red as fires globes, and glaring like
twin meteors. The whole soul was in the
eye-the full heart streamed out on the
face. In five minutes Pixies wit seemed
the foam of folly, and his finest satire hor-
rible profanity, when contrasted with the
inimitable salies and exterminating sar-
casms of the stranger, interspersed with Jest
and anecdote that filled the forum with
roars of laughter. u
Then, without so much as bestowing an
allusion on Prentiss, he turned short on the
perured witnesses of Hopkins, tore their
testimony into atoms, and hurled in their
faces such terrible invective that all tremb-
led as with an ague, and two of them actu-
ally fed dismayed from the courthouse.
The excitement OF the crowd was be-
coming tremendous. Their united life and
soul appeared to hang on the burning tongue
OF the stranger. He inspired them with
the powers of his own passions. He satu-
rated them with the poison of his own ma
licious feelings. He seemed to have stolen
natures long-hidden secret of attraction.--
He was the sun to the sea of all thought
and emotion, which rose and fell and boil
ed in pillows, as be chose. But his great
est triumph was to come.