Wisconsin tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1847-1854, 1852-10-14

In such q case. will not some chival-
rous member of the profession volun
teer 2" asked the Judge, glanc.ng round
the bar.
The thirty lawyers were silent as death.
Judge Mills repeated the question.
Il will, your honor" said voice from
the thickest part of the crowd, situated
behind the bar.
At the tones of that voice many start
ed halfway from their seats and per-
haps there was not heart in the immense
throng which did not beat something
quicker-it was so unearthly sweet, clear,
ringing and mournful.
The first sensation, however, was chang
ed into general laughter, when tall
gaunt, spectral figure, that nobody pres
ent remembered ever to have seen before,
elbowed his way through the crowd, and
placed himself within the bar His ap-
pearance was problem to puzzle the
sphinx himself His high pale brow. and
small, neryously twitching face, seemed
alive with the concentrated essence and
cream of genius but then his infantine
blue eyes, hardly visible beneath their
massive arches, looked dim, dreamy, al
most unconscious and his clothing was
so exceedingly shabby that the court hes
itated to let the cause proceed under his
management.
Has your name been entered on the
rolls of the State ?" demanded the Judge
suspiciously
at is immaterial about my names be-
ing entered on your rolls" answered the
stranger, his thin, bloodless lips curling
up into fendishIsneer. Il may be al
lowed to appear once, by the courtesy of
the court and bar Here is my license
from the highest tribunal in America ~
and he handed Judge Mills broad parch-
ment.
The trial Immediately went OF.
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 inter
ruption, though he contrived to make each
one of them tell it over two or three times
He put few cross questions, which, with
keen witnesses, only serve to correct mis-
takes and he made no notes, which, in
mighty memories, always tend to embar-
rass. 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 astonishment of every one, he
declined the former. and allowed the de-
fence to lead off. Then a shadow might
have been observed to fit across the fine
features of Pike, and to darken even in
the bright eyes of Prentiss They saw
they had caught Tartar ;" but who it
was, or how it happened, it was impossi-
bic 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 United States
The poet, Albert Pike, followed with a
rich rain of wit and a half torrent of caus-
tic ridicule, in which you may be sure
neither the plaintiff, Gor her ragged at
torney, was either forgotten or spared
The great Prentiss concluded for the
defendant, with glow of gorgeous words,
brilliant as showers of falling stars. and
with a final burst of Oratory, that brought
the house down in cheers, in which the
sworn jury themselves Joined, notwith
standing the stern ~order order p' of the
bench, Thus wonderfully susceptible are
the Southwestern people to the charms of
impassioned eloquence.
1t was then the strangers turn He
had remained apparently distracted dur
ing all the previous speeches. Still. and
straight. and mo otionless in his seat, his
pale, smooth forehead, shooting high like
a mountain cone of snow. but for that G.
ternal twitch that came and went perpet-
ually in his sallow cheeks, you would
have taken him for a mere man of marble,
or human form carved in ice. Even
his dim, dreamy eyes, were invisible be-
meath 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 be might touch
the foreman with his long, bony finger
( With his eyes still half shut, and stand
ing rigid as a pillar of iron, his thin lips
curled as if in measureless scorn, slightly
apart. and the voice came forth. At first
/ it is low and sweet, insinuating itself thro'
/ the brain. as an artless tune, winding its
way into the deepest heart, like the melo-
/ DIV of a magic incantation while the
/ speaker proceeds without gesture, or
/ the least sign Of excitement, to tear in
pieces the argument of Ashley, which
melts away at his touch as frost before
/ the sunbeam Every one looked surpris-
ed His logic was at once so brief, aid
so luminously clear that the rudest peas
ant could comprehend it without effort.
Anon, he came to the dazzling wit of
the poet-lawyer, Pike The curl of his lip
grew sharper-his sallow face kindled up
and his eyes began to open, dim and
dreamy no longer, but vivid as lightning,
red as fire 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 horri-
BILE profanity when compared with the In
|imitable sallies and exterminating sar.
casms of the stranger, interspersed with
lest and auecdote that filed the forum
with roars Of laughter.
Then. without so much as bestowing
an allusion on Prentice. be turned short
on the perjured witnesses of Hopkins
tore their testimony into atoms and hurl