Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1857-08-20

thickest part of the crowd situated behind
the bar. At the tones of that voice many
started half way from their seats; aud per-
haps there was in the immense throng no
heart which did not beatsomething quicker
it was so unearthly, sweet, clear, ringing,
and mournful.
The first sensation, however, was changed
into general laughter, when tall, gauut,
spectral figure, that nobody present remem-
bered ever to have seen before, elbowed his
way through the crowd, and placed himself
within the bar. His appearance was prob
lem to puzzle the sphinx herself. His high,
pale brow, and small, nervousl y-twiching
face seemed alive with the concentrated es-
sence and cream of'genius; but then his in
finite blue eyes, hardly visible beneath their
massive arches, looked him, dreamy, almost
unconscious; and his clothing was so exceed
iugly shabby that the court hesitated to let
the cause proceed under his management.
"Has your name been entered on the rolls
Of the State ?" demanded the Judge, suspi-
ciously.
at is immaterial about my names being
on your rolls" answered the stranger, his
thin, bloodless lips curling up into sort of
6endish sneer. 81 may be allowed to ap-
pear once by the courtesy Of the court and
bar Here is my license from the highest
tribunal in America p and he handed Judge
Mills broad parchment. The trial imme-
diately went on. ..
In the examination of the witnesses the
stranger evinoed but little ingenuity, as was
commonly thought He suffered each one
to tellhs own story without interruption,
though he contrived to make each one tell
it over two or three times. He put few
oss.questions, which, with-keen witnesses,
only serve to correct mistakes and he made
no notes, which, in mighty memories, always
tend to embarrass. The examination being
ended, as counsel for the plaintiff he had a
right to the opening speech, as we'll as the
close; but to the astonishment Of every one
he declined the former, and allowed the de-
fence to lead off. Then shadow might
have been observed to fit across the fine
features of Pike, and to darken even the
bright eyes Of Prentiss. They,saw that they
had caught a Tartar but who it was, or
how it happened, was impossible to guess.
Col. Ashley spoke first He dealt the ju-
ry dish of that close, dry logic, which,
years afterwards, rendered him famous in
the Senate of the Union.
The poet. Albert Pike, followed, with
rich rain of wit, and hail.torrent of caustic
ridicule, in which you may be sure neither
the plaintiff nor the plaintiffs ragged astor-
ney was either forgotten or spared.
The great Prentiss concluded for the de-
fendant, with glow of gorgeous words bril-
liant as showers of falling stars, and with
final burst of oratory that brought the house
down in cheers, in which the sworn jury
themselves joined, Notwithstanding the stern
"order" "orderp' of the bench. Thus
wonderfully susceptible are the southwestern
people to the charms of impassioned elo-
quence
1t was then the strangers turn. He had
remained apparently ahstracted during all
the previous speeches. Still, and strait, and
motionless in his seat, his pale smooth fore
head shooting up high like mountain-cone
of snow but for that eternal twitch that
came and went perpetually in his sallew
cheeks, you would have taken him for mere
man of marble, or a human form carved in
ice. Even his dim, dreamy eyes were in-
visible beneath those gray, shaggy eye brows.
But now at last he rises-before the bar
railing, no behind it-and so near to the
wondering jury that he might touch the fore
man with his long honey finger. With his
eyes still half shut, and standing rigid as
pillar of iron, his thin lips curl as ifin meas
ureless scorn, slightly part, and the voice
comes forth. At first, it is low and sweet,
insinuating itself through the brain as an
artless tune, winding its way into the deep
est heart like the melody of magic incan-
tation while the speaker proceeds without
gesture or the least sign of excitement to
tear in pieces the arguments of Ashley,
which melt way at his touch as frost before
the sunbeam. Every one looks surprised
His logic was at once so brief and so lumin-
ously 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 eyes began to open dim and dreamy no
longer, but vivid as lightning, red as fire,
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 sa-
tire horrible profanity, when contrasted with
the inimitable sallies and exterminating sar-
casm of the stranger, interspersed with jest
and anecdote that filled the forum with roar
of laughter.
Then, without so 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 invective that all trem-
bled as with an ague, and two of them ac-
tually fed ''ismayed from the court house.
The excitement of the crowd was becom-
ing tremendous. Their united life and soul
appeared to hang on the burning tongue of
the stranger. He inspired them with the
powers of his own passion. He saturated