The Ohio organ, of the temperance reform. (Cincinnati, [Ohio]) 1853-1854, 1853-12-30

shooting up high, like a mountain
cone Of snow, but for the eternal
twitch that came and went perpetu.
ally on his sallow cheek, you would
have taken him for a mere man Of
marble, or a human form carved in
ice. Even his dim, dreary eyes were
invisible beneath those gray and shag-
gy eyebrows.
But now, at last, he rises before the
bar railing, not behind-and so near
the astonished jury, that he might
touch the foreman with his long, bony
finger. With his eyes half shut, and
standing rigid as pillar Of iron, his
thin lips curl as if in measureless
scorn, slightly apart, and the voice
comes forth.
AT frstit is low and sweet, in sinuat.
ing itself through the brain, as an art
less tune winding its way into the
deepest heart; like the melody Of
magic incarnation; while the speaker
proceeds without gesture or the least
sign of excitement, to tear in pieces
the argument Of Ashley, which melts
away before his touch, like frost be-
fore the sunbeam. His logic was at
once SO brief, and so UNANIMOUSLY clear,
that the rudest peasant could compre-
hend 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 kindled up; and his eyes began to
open, dim and dreary 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,
horrible profanity, when contrasted
with the inimitable sallies and exter-
minating sarcasms of the stranger, in
terspersed with jest and anecdote, that
filled the forum with roars Of laughter.
Then, without as much as bestow-
ing an allusion on Prentiss, he turned
short on the perjured. Witnesses of
Hopkins, tore their testimony into
atoms, and hurled in their faces such
terrible invective, that all trembIed as
with an ague, and two Of them actual
ly fed dismayed from the courthouse.
The excitement of the crowd was
becoming tremendous. Their life and
soul appeared to hang on the burning
tongue Of the stranger. He inspired
them with the powers of his own mali
cious feelings. He seemed to have
stolen natures long hidden secret at
traction. He was the sun to the sea
of thought and emotion which rose
and fell, or boiled in pillows as he
chose. But his greatest triumph was
to come.
His eyes began to glare furtively at
the assassin Hopkins, and his lean taper
fingers slowly assumed the same direc-
ton. He hemmed the wretch with a
decentralization of strong evidence
and impregnable argument, cutting
off all hopes of escape. He piled up
hinge bastions of insurmountable facts.
He dug beneath the murderer's and
slanderer's feet bitches Of dilemmas,
such as no sophistry could overleap,
and no stretch of ingenuity evade; and
having thus, as one might say, i'm
pounded his victim, and girt him about
like scorpion in a circle of fire, he
stripped himself to the work of mas
sacre.
Oh! then, it was a vision both glo-
rious and dreadful to behold the ora
tor. His actions, before graceful as
the wave of golden willow in the
breeze, grew impetuous as the motion
of the oak in the hurricane. His voice
became trumpet filed with whirl-
pools, deafening the ear with crashes
of power, and yet intermipgled all the
while with sweet undersong of the
softest cadence. His face was as red