The independent press. (Abbeville C.H., S.C.) 1853-1860, 1859-12-09
ut is immaterial about nv name being

~ ID ihmalerial aoout my name DclnR
upon your rolls" answered the stranger,
his thin bloodless lips curling up into sort
offiendish sncer. 81 may be allowed to
appear once by the courtesy Of the court
and bar. Here is my license from the
highest tribunal in America" and he han
ded Judge Mills broad parchment. The
trial Immediately went on.
In the examination of the witnesses the
stranger evinced but little ingenuity, as was
commonly thought. IIo suffered each
one to tell his own story without Interrupt
tion, though he contrived to make each one
tell it over two or three times. He put
few cross questions, which with keen
witnesses, only serve to correct mistakes !;
and he made no notes, which in mighty
memories, always tend to embarass. The
examination being ended, as counsel for
the plaintiff, he had right 10 tho opening
as we'll as the close, but to the astonish-
ment Of every one he declined the former,
and allowed the defence to lead off. Then
a shadow might have been observed to fit
across the fine features Of Pike a.d to
darken the bright eyes of Prcntiss. They
saw that they had caught Tartar; but
who it was, or how it happened, was i'm
possible to guess.
Col. Ashley spoke first. lie 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
rich rain of wit, and hail torrent of caus-
tic ridicule, in which you may be sure
neither the plaintiff nor the plaintiff ragged
attorney was either forgotten orsparcd.
The great Prentiss concluded for the
defendant, with a glow Of gorgeous words,
brilliant 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, notwith-
standing the stern "order!" Of the bench.
Thus wonderfully susceptible are the south
western people to the charm of impassioned
eloquence.
1t was then the strangers turn. lie lad
remained apparently abstracted during all
the previous speeches. Still, and straight
and motionless in his seat his pale, smooth
forehead shooting up high like mountain
cone Of snow; but for that eternal twitch
that came and went pcrpetually in his
sallow cheeks, you would have taken him
for mere man of marble, or human
form carved in ice. Even his dim, dreamy
eyes were invisible beneath those gray,
shaggy eyebrows.
But now at last lie rises before 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
his eyes still half shut, and Standing rigid
as pillar of iron, his thin lips curl as if in
measurcless scorn, slightly part, and the
voice comes forth. At first it is low and
sweet, insinuating itself therefore tie brain
as an artless& tune, vending its way into the
deepest heart ike the melody of magic
while the speaker proceeds
without gesture or the least sign of ex-
element to. tear:in pieces the arguments Of
Ansley, which fell away at his touch as
frost before the sunbeam. Every one
looks surprised. His logic was at once SO
brief and SO luminously clear that the
rudest peasant could comprehend without
effort
I, Anon, he came to the dazzling wit of the
poet lawyer, Pike. Then The curl Of his
lip grew sharper, his sallow face kindled
lp; and his eyes began to open, dim aud
lreamy no longer, but vivid as lightning.
ed as fire, and glaring like twin meteors.
The whole soul was in the eye-full heart
dreamed out in the face. In five minutes
Pixies wit seemed the foam Of folly, and his
inest satire horrible profanity, when con.
rasted with the inimitable sallies and ex-
erminating sarcasm of the stranger, inter-
'ersed with jest and anecdote that filed tho
Drum with the roar of laughter.
Then without 80 much as bestowipg an
Illusion on Prentiss, he turned short on the
layured witnesses Of Hopkins, tore their
estimony into atoms, and hurled in their
aces such terrible invectives that all trem-
led as with an ague, and two ofthem .ac-
ualIy fed dismayed from the Court House.
The excitement of the crowd was be.
oming tremendous. Their united life and
oul appeared to hang in the burning
ougue Of the stranger. He inspired them
nth the powers ofbis own; passion. He
aturated them with the poison Of his own
aalioi GUS feelings. He seemed to have
tolen natures long hidden secret of at
raction. Hs was the spn Of the sea Of all
bought and emotion, whichrose and fell
nd boiled in billows as he chose. But the