Portage sentinel. [volume] (Ravenna, Ohio) 1845-1854, 1854-07-05

tSSHStal1i Wnell gdllp Bdunt bPecual u
gpres that nobody present remembered having
seen before elbowed his way through the crowd
and placed himself within the bar, His appear
ance was problem to the sPhynx himself His
high pale brow, and small, neivously twitehing
face seemed alive with the concentrated essence
and cream Of genius; but than his infantile blue
eye, hardly visible beneath thrir massive arches,
looked dim, dreary, almost unconscious; and his
clothing was so shabby that the court hesitated
| to let the case proceed under his management.
f" Has your name been entered upon the rolls
of this State ?" demanded Judge Mills, suspi-
cously.
"It is immaterial about my name being upon
your rolls,'' answered the stranger, his thin lips
curling up into aifendsh sneer. (" 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" handing Judge Mills a
broad parchments The trial Immediately went
1 on .?Hl u! lgsrg s.sI.s foa 89a5i #2,sDf-~s7t
In the examination of witnesses, the stranger
evinced but little ingenuity, as was commonly
thoughts He suffered each to tell his own story
without interruption, though he contrVed to make
each telf'it over two or three times. He put a
few cross-questions, which, with keen witnesses,
only serve to correct mistakes, and'he made no
notes, which, in mighty memories, always tend to
1enrbarrass: The exalnisation being ended, as
counsel for plaintiff he, had right to the opening
speech aswell as the close;j but to the astonish-
ment of every one, he declined the former, and
allowed the defense to lead off. Then Shadow
| might have been observed to fit across the Iea-
lures of Pike, and to darken even the bright eye
| of Prsntiss. They,saw that they had '"caught a
Tartar" but who it was, or how il happened, was
impossible to conjecture.
Col Ashley spoke first. He dealt the jury a
dish of that close dry logic which years after,
rendered him famous ia the Senate Of the Union.
The poet, Albert Pike, followed with a rich
vein Of wit, and d hail torrent of ridicule, in
which you may be sure neither the plaintiff nor
the plaintiffs ragged attorney, were either for
gotten or spared. F f'!a ''.' j0E s #".
The great Prentiss concluded for the defend
ant with glow Of gorgeous words, brilliant as a
shower of falling stars and with filial burst OF
horatory that brought the house down with ap-
pause, in which the sworn jury themselves join
led, notwithstanding the stern g order" of the
. Bench THUS wonderfully susceptible are the
/ Southwestern people to impassioned eoquence
1t was then the strangers turn He had re-
manned apparently abstracted during all the pre-
yiotls speeches. Still, and straight and motion
less in his seat, his pale, smooth forehead shoot
ed up high like a mountain cone ofsnow; but fol
that eternal twitch that came and went perpetual.
ly in his shallow cheeks, you would have taken
4 him for q mere man of marble, or human form
carved in ice, Even his dim, dreamy eyes were
invisible between those gray. shaggy eyebrows
But now, at last, he rises before the bar:raling
4 not behnd-and SO near to the Wonderi. G jury
that he might have touched the foreman with his
long bony fingers. Witheyes still half shut, an.
standing rigid as pillar of iron, his thin lips, il
meastireless scorn, Slightly apart, and the voice
comes forth. At first it is low and sweet, insinu
ating itself through the brain as an artless tune
! winding its way into the deepest heart, like thu
; melody of magic incarnation; while the speak
er proceeds without gesture or the least sign Q
excitement to tear in pieces the argument of Ash
) ley, that dissolves and melts away at his touch d
frost before the sunlight. Every one looked sur
prised. His logic was at once so BRIEF and ST
lumnously true, that the rudest peasant could ca
silly. comprehend it. y. s,,a.ifl,as ed. s-a,,e
Anon he came to the dazzling wit of the poe
: lawyer, Pike. Then the curl of his lip, grew
r sharper, his sallow face kindled up, and his eye
began to open, dim and dreamy no longer, bu
vivid as lightning, red as fire globes, and glarn
. like twin meteors, The whole soul was in tn
eye-the full heart streamed out on the face
. In FIVE minutes Pixies wit seemed the foam c
folly, and the finest satire, horrible profanity
when contrasted with the inimitable sales an
exterminatjng sarcasm Of the stranger, interspers
: ed with jests and anecdotes that filled the forur
!, with roars Of laughter att ,sl s,EQ 8s .-aa,
u Then, without SO much as bestowing an allr
sion on Prentiss, he turned short on the perjure
= witnesses Of Hopkins; tore their testimony int
atoms, and hurled in their faces such terrible il
s. vectives that all trembled as with an ague, an
2 two of them actually fled dismayed from the cou
2 house. na'H| ,}rs ~ h'%' 'N' "
70 The excitement of the crowd was becomn
'r tremendous Their life and soul appeared
t. hang on the burning tongue Of the stranger. +
IL inspired them with the powers of his own mali
e ious feelings. He seemedto have stolen nature
y long hidden secret of attraction. He was the 81
4 to the sea Of emotion, which rose and fell as
le chase, But his great triumph was to come. la
'p His eyes began to glare furitively at the assa
8. sin Hopkins, and 3histlean taper fingers slow
Isl assumed the same direction. He. henmed 7
wretch inswith, a, decentralization of strong e'
m dence and impregnable argument, cutting OFF,
IT. hopes Of escape. He piled up huge bastions
insurmountable facts.
ll-Ea He dug beneath the murderer and slandere
ms feet bitches of diIemas,q such as no sophist
he could overleap and no stretch Of ingenuity evat
and having thus, as one might say, impounded