Minnesota weekly times., 1854-05-30

Anon. he came to the dazzling wit of the poet
pike. Then the curl of his lip grew sharper
shallow face kindled up-and his eyes began to
onen. dim and dreary no longer, but vivid as
lightning, red as fire globes, and glaringlike twin
meteors. The whole soul as in the eye-the
full heart streamed out in the face. In nve
minutes, Pixies wit seemed the foam OF folly,
when contrasted with the inimitable sallies and
exterminating sarcasms of the stranger, inter
spersed with tests and anecdotes that filled the
forum with roars of laughter. :,
Then without so much as bestowng an allusion
on Prentiss, he turned short on the perjured w.t.
nesses of Hopkins, tore their testimony into atoms
and hurled in their face such terrible invectives
that all trembled as with an ague, and two OF
them actually fed dismayed from the court house.
The excitement of the crowd was becoming tre-
mendous. Their life and soul appeared to hang
on the burning tongue of the stranger. tie insplr-
ed them with the power Of his own malicious feel
ings. He seemed to have stolen natures long hid
den secret of attraction. He was the sun to the
sea of emotion which rose and fell as he chose.
But his great triumph was to come.
His eyes began to glare furtively at the assas-
sin Hopkins, and his lean taper fingers slowly as
sumed the same direction. He hemmed the wretch
in with decentralization Of strong evidence and
impregnable argument, cutting off all hope OF es-
cape. He piled up huge bastions OF insurmount'
able facts.
lie aug Deneatn tne lnuruercr diu SiahucIei
feet bitches of dilemmas such as no sophistry
could overleap, andno strength of ingenuity evade
and having thus, as one might say, impounded his
victim, and grt him about like scorpion in
circle of fire, he stripped himself to the massacre
Oh, then! but it was a vision both dreadful
and glorious to behold the orator. His actions
became graceful as the wave of golden wilio"
in the breeze, grew impetuous as the motion OF al
oak in the hurricane. His voice became a trum
lloJ,,
with crashes of power, and yet intermingled al
the while with sweet undersong Of the softes
| cadence. His face read as drunkard's-
his cUuntenance looked haggard, like that OF {
maniac and ever and anon he flung his long bo
nv arms on high, as if grasping after thunder
| bolts He drew picture of murder in such ap
paling colors that in comparison hell itself nigh
| be considered beautiful.
He painted the slanderer so black that the SUI
| seemed dark at nOOday when shining on such az
accursed monster; and then he so fixed both por.
traits on the shrinking brow OF Hopkins that NJ
nailed them there forever.
The agitation of the audience now nearly
amounted to madness.
All at once the speaker descended from his per.
ilous height. He walled out for the murdered
dead. and the living beautiful Mary, more beauti-
| full every moment, as her tears flowed taster-un.
til men wept, and lovely women sobbed like chill
dren.
| He closed by strong eXhortatiOn to the jury
and through them to the bystanders. He en-
treated the panel, after they should bring in 9
verdict for the plaintiff, not to offer violence to
their defendant, however he might deserve it; il
other words not to lynch the villain Hopkins, bu
leave his punishment with God!
This was the most artfaktrick of all, and wa:
best calculatedto insure vengeance.
The jury returned verdict of fifty thousand
dollars, and the night afterwards Hopkins was ta
ken of his bed by lynchers, and beaten nearly tt
death.
| have listened to Clay, Webster and Calhoun
to Dewy, Tying and Bacon-but have never heart
anything in the form of sublime words even re-
motcly approximating to the eloquence of JOIN
Taylor-massive as a mountain, and wildly, hot
ly rushing as q cataract of fire. And this is thu
unanimous opinion of all who ever heard that tru
| ly marvellous man.