Gallipolis journal. [volume] (Gallipolis, Ohio) 1837-1919, 1854-12-07

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sweet, clear, ringing, and mournful.
The first sensation, however, wa:
changed into general laughter, wher
tall, gaunt, spectral figure, that no
body present remembered to have seer
before, elbowed his way through the
crowd and placed himself within the
bar. His appearance was problem to
puzzle the sphinx himself. His pale
brow, and nervously twiching face
seemed alive with the concentrated es-
sence and cream of genius; but then,
his infantile blue eyes, looked dim,
dreary, almost unconscious; and his
clothing was SO shabby, that the court
hesitated to let the case proceed under
his management.
"Has your name been entered on the
rolls of the State?" demanded the
Judge suspiciously.
"It is immaterial about my name
being on the rolls" answered the stran-
ger, his thin lip curling up into fend-
ish sneer. 81 may be allowed to ap-
pear once by the courtesy of the court
and bar. Here is my license from the
highest court in Americal'' and he
handed Judge Mills broad parchment.
The trial Immediately went on.
In the examination of witnesses the
stranger exhibited but little ingenuity as
we thought-sufered each one to tell
his own story without interruption.
though he contrived to make each tell
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, only serve to embarrass.-
The examination being ended, as coun-
sci for the plaintiff be had right to the
opening speech as well as the close; but
to the astonishment of every one he de-
clined the former, and allowed the
defense to lead off. Then a shadow
might have been observed to fit across
the features of Pike, and to darken the
bright eyes of Prentiss. They saw they
chad caught Tartar" but who it was,
or how it happened it was impossible to
guess.
Col. Ashley spoke first. He dealt
the jury dish of that dry logic which
years afterwards made him famous in
the Senate of the Union.
The poet, Albert Pike, followed, with
rich vein of wit, and torrent of ridi-
cule, in which you may be sure neither
the plaintiff nor the plaintiffs ragged
counsel we're either forgotten or spared.
The great Prentiss concluded for the
defendant, with a glow of gorgeous
words, brilliant as a shower of falling
stars, and with final burst of oratory
that brought down the house in cheers,
in which the sworn jury themselves
joined, Notwithstanding the stern order
of the bench. Thus wonderfully sus-
ceptible are the southwestern people TO
the charms of impassioned eloquence.
1t was then the strangers turn. He
had remained apparently abstracted du-
ring the previous speeches. Still and
straight and motionless, he sat in his
seat, his pale smooth forehead, shooting
up high, like mountain cone of snow,
but for the eternal twitch that came and
went perpetually on his sallow cheek,
you would have taken him for mere
man of marble, or human form carved
in ice. Even his dim, dreary eyes were
invisible beneath those gray and shaggy
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 a measureless scorn, slightly |
apart, and the voice comes forth.
At first it is low and sweet, insinua-
ting itself through the brain, as an art
less tune winding its way into the deep
est heart; like the melody of magic |
incarnation; while the speaker proceeds
without a gesture or the least sign of
excitement to tear in pieces the argu-
ment of Ashley, which melts away be- |
fore his touch like frost before the sun
beam. 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
kindled up; and his eyes began to open,
dim and dreary ne longer; but vivid as
lightning, red as fire globes, and glaring
ike 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 con-
trasted with the inimitable sallies, and
exterminating sarcasms of the stranger,
interspersed with jest and anecdote that
filed the forum with roars of laughter.
Then, without as much as bestowing
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 invec-
tive 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 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
u