The Panola star. ([Panola] Panola County, Miss.) 1856-1857, 1856-07-09
NO, a.,

the bar railing, not behind it-and
so near to the wondering jury,
that he might touch the foreman
with his long bony finger. With
eyes still half shut, and standing
rigid as pillar of iron, his thin
lips curl as if in measureless scorn,
slightly part, and the voice comes
forth. At first, it was low and
sweet, insinuating itself through
the brain as an artless tune, wind
ing its way into the deepest heart
like the z1elody of magic incan-
tation; wade the speaker praeeeds
without a 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 surprised. His logic was
so brief, and so luminously clear,
that the rudest peasant could COM
| prehend it without effort.
Anon he came to the dazzling
wit of the poet-lawyer, Pike
Then the curl of his lip grew sharp
er; his sallow face kindled up;
and his eyes began to open, dim
and dreamy no longer, but vivid as
lightning, red as fre-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 sarcasm of the stranger, IL
terspersed with jest and anecdote that
filled the foruna with rOars of Ia gb
| ter.
Then, without so much as bcst9w-
ing an allusion on Frentiss, he tQrRed
short on the perjured witnesses Of
Hopkins, tore their testimony into
| atoms, and hurled in their faces suea
terrible invective, that all Tembled
as with an ague, and two Of them ac-
tually fed, dismayed from the court
| house.
The excitement of the crowd was
becoming tremendous. Their united
life and soul appeared to hang on the
burning tongue of the stranger He
| inspired them with the powers af hie
own passions. He saturated them
with the poison of his own malicious
feeling. He seemed to have stolen
natures long hidden secret of attrac-
ton. But his greatest attraction was
to come.
His eye began to glare furtively at
the assassin Hopkins, as his lean, taper
finger slowly assumed the same direc-
ton. He hemmed the wretch aroiAnd
with a decentralization of strong evi-
dence, and impregnable argument, cut
ting off all hope Of escape.
Oh then, but it was vision both
glorious and dreadful to behold the ora
tor. His action, before graceful as the
wave of a golden willow in the breeze,
grew impetuous as the motion of an oak
in hehurricane. His voice became a
trumpet filled with wild whirlwinds,
deafening the ear with crashes ofpower,
and yetintermingled all the while with
a sweet undersound of the softest ca
dence. His face was red as = drunk
ard's-his countenance looked haggard
like that of maniac; and ever and
anon, he flung his long, bony arms on
high as if grasping after thunder-bolts.
He drew picture of murder in such
| llsxo. onIorC 4hat in o,.,so
hell itself might be considered beauti-
full. He painted the slanderer so black
that the sun looked dark at noon-day,
when shining on such an accursed mon
ster; he then fixed both portraits on
the shrinking brow of Hopkins, and he
nailed them there forever. The agita-
tion of the audience amounted nearly
to madness.
All at once, the speaker descended
from his perilouS height. His voice
walled out for the murdered dead, and
described the widowed hcimg--the
beautiful Mary, more beautiful every
moment, as her tears flowed faster---till
men wept, and lovely women sobbed
like children.
He closed by strange exhortation
to the jury, and through them to the
by-standers. He entreated the panel
after they should bring in their verdict
for the plaintiff, not to offer violence to
the defendant, but to leave his punish
ment with God This was the most
artful trick of all, and the best calcula-
ted to insure vengeance.
The jury rendered verdict of fifty
thousand dollars and the night after
wards Hopkins was taken from his bed
and beaten almost to death.
AS the court adjourned, the strang-
er made known his name, announcing
that John Taylor would preach there
that evening at early candle-light.
i The crowd of course all turned out,
| ord To vla r,s cary,r,, couollad ;f n did