The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1859-09-16

folly, and his finest satire horrible profani-
ity when coptrasted with the inimtaLIe
sallies and exterrninating carcasm Of the
stranger, interspersed with jeSts and anec-
cotes, that filled the forum with roars Of
laughter. gs..Es s-sF
Then without so much as bestowinr an
allusion upon Pren.iss, he turned round
short on the prejured witnesses of Hopkins
tore their testimony into atoms, and hurl,
Cd into their faces such iuYe9tivas that al
trembled as with sgue, and two of them
actually fled in dismay from he court
house.
The excitement of the crowd was becom-
ing tremendous. Their united life and
soul seemed to hang upon the burning
tongue of the stranger. lie inspired them
with the power of his own passions. He
saturated them with the poison ofh;s own
malicious feelings. He seemed to have
stolen natures long hidden secret of at
traction. He was the son of the sen ofal
thought and emotion which lose and fell,
and boiled in the pillows as he chose. But
his greatest triumph WAS to come.
His eyes began to glance furtiyely at
the assassin Hopkins, as his lean taper fin
gers assumed the same direction. lie
hemmed the wretch with a decentralization
of strong evidence and impregnable argu-
ments, cutting of all hopes of escape.
lie piled up huge bastions ofinsurmount-
able facts. lie dug beneath the murderer
and slanderer'a feot, ditcLes of djlemmas,
such as 10 sophistry could overleap, and
no secrets of ingenuity evade; and thus
having, as one might say, impounded his
victim, and girt him about like a scorpion
in circle Of fire, he stripped himself to
the work of massacre.
Oh. then it was vision both glorious
and sublime to behold he orator. His ac-
tions before graceful as the wave OF gol-
den willow III the breeze, grew impetuous
as the motion of an OAK N a hurricane.
His voice became a trumpet filed with
wild whirlpools, deafening the ear with the
chrashes Of power, aud yet intermugIed all
the while with song of the sweetest and
softest cadence. His face was ed as
drunkard's. His foaehead glowed like
heated furnace; his countenance was hag-
ard like that of maniac; aud ever and
anon he flung his long and bony arms on
high, as if grasping after thunderbolts.
lie drew a picture Of murder in such
appalling colors that in comparison, he'll it.
self might be considered beautiful He
painted the slanderer so blacl, that the sun
seemed dark, at MONDAY, when shining on
| such an accused monster, and then fixing
| both portraits on the Shrinking Hopkins,
he fastened them there forever. The agi-
! re- 1
madness.
All at once the speaker descended from
the perious hight His voice walled out
for the murdered dead and living-the
beautiful Mary, more beautiful every mo-
ment as the tears flowed faster--tiiI men
wept and sobbed like children.
He closed by strange exortation to the
jury, and through them to the bystanders.
He advised the panel after they should
bring in verdict for the plaintiff, not to
offer violence to the defendant, however
richly lie might deserve it; in other words
not to lynch the villain, but to lea7e lis
| punishment with God
This was the most arttul trick of all,
and the best calculated to insure vengeance
The jury rendered verdict Of fifty thou
sand dollars; and the night afterwards
Hopkins was taken out of bed by lynchers
and beaten almost to death
As the court adjourned, the stranger
made known his name, and called the at
tention of the people with the announce
ment-John Taylor will preach here this
evening at early candle light.
The crowd all turned ont, and TayIor's
sermon equalled if it did not surpass tho
splendor Of his forensic effort. This is not
exageration. | have listened to Clay,
Webster and Cahoun-to Dewey, Tying
and Bascomb-bnt never heard anything
in the form ofsubime words even remotely
approxilnating to the eloquence Of John
Iay aylor-massiye rs a mountain, and wie!d-
ly rushing as cataract Of fire. And this
is the opinion Of all who have heard this
marvellous man.