The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1859-09-16
VOLUME 1, NO 10.

ion now ran decidedly for Hop plins. His
money had procured witnesses who served
his powerful advocates. Indeed, so trium-
phant had been the success on the previous
day, that when the slander case was called
Mary Ellison was left without an attorney
all had withdrawn.
The pigmy pettifoggers dared not brave
the sharp wit of Pike, and the seathing
thunder of Prentiss.
"llave you no counsel?' inquired Judge
Mills, looking kindly at the plaintiff
"No, sir they have all deserted me, and
[ am too poor to employ any more,'' re-
piled the beautiful Mary, bursting into
| tears.
In such case, will not some chival-
rous member Of the profession volunteer"
asked the Judge, glancing around the bar
The thirty lawyers were silent.
81 will, your honor" said voice from
the thickest of the crowd, situated behind
the bar.
At the tone of that voice many started
half from their seats, and perhaps there
was not a heart in the intense throng that
did not beat somewhat quicke-it was so
unearthly, sweet ringing and mournfu.
The first sensation, however, was chang
Ell into laughter, when tall, gaunt, spec
tral figure, that no person present remem-
bered to have seen before, elbowed his way
through the crowd, and placed himself with
in the bar.
His appearance was problem to puzzle
the sphynx herself. His high, pale brow,
and his small nervously twitching face,
seemed active with the concentrated es-
sence and cream ofgenius; butthen his in
fantine blue eyes, hardly visible beneath
their massive arches, looking dim. dreamy
almost unconscious, and his clothing was
50 shabby that the court almost hesitated
to let the case proceed under his manage
ment.
Has your name been entered on the
rolls of the State?" demanded the Judge
suspiciously.
cit is immaterial about my name being
on your rolls answered the stranger, his
thin lips curling up into fiendish sneer.
s. may be allowed by the courtesy of the
court and bar. Here is my license, from
the highest tribunal of fAmerica"- he
handed Judge Mills broad parchment.
The trial Immediately went on. In the
examination Of the witnesses the stranger
evinced very little ingenuity as commonly
thought. He suffered each one to tell their
own story, without interruption, though
he generally managed to make each one
tell it over two or three times. He put a
few cross questions, which with keen wit
nesses only served to correct mistakes, and
he made 10 notes, which, in mighty mem
ories only tend to embarrass
The examination being ended, as coun-
sci for the plaintiff, he had right to the
opening as well as the closing speech; but
to the astoni9hment of every one, he de
cIined the former, and allowed the defence
to lead off.
Then a shadow might have been seen to
fit across the features of Pike, and to dark
Ell the bright eyes OF Prentiss. They saw
that they had caught a Tartar but
who it was, or how it happened, was i'm
! possible to guess.
i Col. Ashley spoke first. He dealt the
jury dish Of that close, dry logic, which
years afterwards rendered him famous in
the Senate Of the Union.
The poet, Albert Pike, followed with a
in which neither the plaintiff or her ragged
attorney were forgotten or spared.
The great Prentiss concluded for the de-
fendant, with a glow of gorgeous words,
brilliant as a shower Of fallen stars, and
with bursts of oratory that brought the
house down in cheers, in which even the
sworn Jury themselves joined, notwthstan-
ding the stern order OF the bench. Thus
wonderfully susceptible are the southern
people to the charms Of impassioned elo-
quence.
1t was the strangers turn. He had re.
mained apparently abstracted during all
the previous speeches. Still, and straight
and motionless in his seat, his pale, smooth
forehead shooting high, like a mountain
cone of snow. and but for that continued
twitch that came and went perpetualIy III
his sulIen face, YOU would have taken him
for a mere man Of marble, or a human
form carved in ice Even his dim, dreary
ewes were invisible beneath those grey
shaggy eyebrows.
But now at last he rises-before the ban
not behind it-and so near the wondering
inrv that he might touch the foreman with
/ hIs long pony Hhger. W ltIl ey Is nan sntt'
and standing like rigid pillar of iron, his
thin lips curIed as if in measureless scorn,
: slightly apart, and the sound comes forth.
At first it is slow and sweet, insinuatln9
Itself into the brain, as an artless tune win
ming its way into the deepest recesses o.
tie heart like the melody of magic in.
carnation, while the speaker proceeds with
out q gesture or the least signal Of excite
rnent to tear to pieces the arguments o
Ashley which melt away at his touch, a:
frost before the sunbeam. Every one look
Ell surprised. His logic was at once Sc
brief, and so luminously clear that the ru
dest peasant could comprehend it without
All effort. a
Anon he came to the dazzling wit o
, the poet lawyer, Pike. Then the curl 0
. his Ii p grew sharper, his smooth face begal
, to kinde up. and his eyes to open-din
ard dreary no longer, but vivid as light
ming. red as fire globes, and glaring as twll
meteors. The whole soul was in the eye
the full heart streamed out of his face. Il
five minutes Pike Wit seemed the foam @