Spirit of the age. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1849-1865, 1856-10-15
OCTOBER a. 1856

as q shower of falling stars, and with 6nal
burst of oratory that brought the house down (
with applause, In which the sworn jury them
selves Joined, Notwithstanding the stern " or
der of the Bench Thus wonderfully suseep
tible are the Southwestern people to inpass-
Toned eloquence.
Ii was then the strangers turn. He had
remained apparently nbstraeted during all the
previous speeches. Still, and straight, and I
motionless in his seat his pale, smooth fore
head shooting up high like mountain cone
of snow but for that eternal tw;tch that
came and went perpetually in his sallow
cheeks, you would have taken him for a mere
man Of marble, or q human form carved in |
ice, Even his dim, dreamy eyes were invisi-
BE !, eath tfIose gray siIaggS ey -UsOWs.
But now, at last, he rises before the bar
railing-not behind-and so near the won-
dering jury, that he might have touched the
foreman with his long honey finger. With
eyes still half shut, and stan ding rigid as a
pillar of iron, his lips, in measureless scorn,
slightly apart, and the voice comes FORTH
At first it is low and sweet, insinuating itself
through the brain as an tune winding its way
into the deepest heart like the melody of a
magic incarnation while the speaker pro-
ceeds, without a gesture or the least sign of
excitement, to tear in pieces the argument
of Ashley, that dissolves and melts away at
his touch as frost before the sunlight. Eve
ry one looked surprised. His logic was at
once brief, and so Unanimously true that the
rudest peasant could easily comprehend it.
/ Anon, he came to the dazzling wit of the
! poet lawyer Pike. They cured of his lips
grew sharper, his sallow face kindled up, and
his eyes began to open, dim and 4 eamy no.
longer but vivid as lightning, red as fire
globes, andglaring like twin meteors. The
whole soul was in the eye-the full heart
streamed out ON the face. In five minutes
Piks's wit seemed the foam of folly, and fl
nest satire, horrible profanity, when con-
trasted with the inimitable sallies and exter-
minating sarcasm of the stranger interspers-
cd with jests and anecdotes that filed the
forum with roars of laughter.
Then, without so much as bcstowing an
allusion on Prentiss, he turned short on the
perjured witnesses of Hopkins, tore their testi-
, mony in aboms, and hurled in their faces such
I, terrible invectves that all trembled as with
an ague and two of them actually fed dis
1 mayed from the court house.
The excitement of the crowd was becoming
tremendous. Their life and soul appeared
e to hang on the burning tongue ofthe stranger.
{ He inspired them with the power of his own
malicious feelingns. He seemed to have sto-
: len natures long hidden secret of attraction.
He was the sun to the sea of motion which
: rose and fell as he chose. But his great trl-
umph was to come.
n His eyes began to glare furtively at the
assassin Hopkins, and his keen taper fingers
+ slowly assumed the same direction. He hem
II med the wretch in with a circumvall alton of
d strogg evidence and impregnabfe argument
e cuttlnr off all hope Of success. He piled uE
: i:sgs fdg aas isssssss {:
81 dereg rect bitches Of dilemmas, as nesopHHhss
a trv could overleap, anl no stretch of ingen
uity evade; and having thus, as one Nigh
I'd say, impounded his victim and glrt him abou
rs like a scorpion in circle of fire, ne stripped
m himself to the massacre.
w Oh then, but it was vision both gloriou
I'd and dreadful to behold the orator. His &C
'st tions before graceful as the waves of a gold
ID, en- willow in the breeze, grew as impetuou
he as an oak in the hurricane. His voice bt
as came trumpet filled with wild whirlpool'
at deafening the ear with crashes of power, an
ny vet intermingling all the while with swee
rp under-song of the softest cadence. Ills fac
OF was as red as drunkards-his countenanc
looked haggard like that of maniac; an
ge' ever and anon he flung his long, bony arm
on high as if grasping after thunderbolt
L He drew picture of murder in sucn appal
ry, ing colors, that in comparison hell itself mig
be considered beautiful He painted the sla
" derer so black that the sun seemed dark
= MONDAY, when shining on such an accurs'
a. monster and then he so fixed both portrai
on the shrinking brow of Hopkins that
nailed them there forever The agitation
nee the audience now nearly amounted to ma
teu ness.
All at once the speaker descended from
lalt perilous height. His voice walled out
I'M the murdered dead, and the living, beautli
lck- Mary. mere beautiful every moment. as b
ng, tears flowed faster, till men wept and love
women sohhed like children.
ged He closed by strong exhortation to {
pee, Jury, and through them to the bystanders.
red entreated ths pannel, after they should bri
ugh in verdict for the plaintiff, not to offer V
the lence to the defendant, tho he might desel
the it in other words, not to lynch the will
and Hopkins, but to leave his punishment
liVe God This was the most artful trick OF
OF and best calculated to insure vengeance.
ard The jury returned verdict of fifty tn
ooa- sand dollars, and the night afterwards Ii
his kins was taken off his bed by lynchers,
sta beaten nearly to death.
age have listened to Clay, Webster, and
houn-to Dewey, Tying and Bascom-
the have never heard any thing in the form
Ills, sublime words even remotely approximai
to the eloqnence of John Taylor-massiy
eing cataract of fire. And this is the unanim
:, his opinion Of all who ever beard that truly n
er,- vellous man.
tho