, 1860-01-06
ther the plaintiff nor her ragged attorney were

ther the plaintiff nor her ragged attorney were
forgotten or spared.
The great Prentiss concluded for the defendant,
with glow Of gorgeous words, brilliant as
shower Of falling stars and with bursts Of oratOry,
that brought the house down in cheers, in which
even the sworn jury themselves Joined, notwith-
standing the stern order Of the bench. Thus
wonderfully susceptible are the southern people to
the charms Of impassioncd eloquence.
II was the strangers turn. He had remained
apparently distracted during all the previous
speeches Still and straight and motionless in
his seat, his pale smooth forehead shooting high
like mountain cone Of snow, and but for that
continued twitch that came and went perpetually
In bis lace, you would have taken him for mere
man Of marble, or a human form carved in ice
Even his dim dreary eyes were invisible beneath
those gray shaggy eyebrows
But now at last he rises-before the bar, not
behind it-and so near the wondering jury that
he might touch the foreman with his long bony
fingers. With eyes half shut and standing rigid
as pillar Of iron, his thin lips curled as IL in
measureless scorn. slightly apart, and the sound
came forth.
At first it is low and sweet, insinuating itself
into the brain, as an artless tune winding its way
into the deepest recessess Of the heart like the
melody Of magic Incarnation, while the speaker
proceeds without gesture or the least signal o!
cNCltetueuL W IcaE " pleCeS Juo argument VI
Ashley, which melts away at his touch as frost
before the sunbeam. Every one looked surprised.
His logic was at once brief and so luminously
clear, that the rudest peasant could comprehend
it without an effort
Anon he came to the dazzling wit Of the poet
lawyer Pike. Then the curl Of his lips grew
sharper, his smooth face began to kindle up, and
his eyes 10 Open-dim and dreary no longer;
but vivid as Lightning, red as fire globes as gar-
ing as twin meteors. The whole soul was in
his eye-the full heart stIeamed out Of his face.
In five minutes Pixies wit seemed like foam Of
folly, and his finest satire horrible profanity, when
compared with the inimitable sallies and exter.
minatirg sarcasm Of the stranger, interspersed
with jests and anecdotes that filled the forum
with laughter.
Then, without so much as bestowing an al
lusion upon Prentiss, he turned round short at
the periured witnesses Of Hopkins, tore their
testimony into atoms, and hurled into their faces
such invectives that all tremblcd as with ague,
and two of them actually fed in dismay from
| the court house.
The excitement Of the crowd was becoming
| tremendous. Their united life and soul seemed
to hang upon the burning tongue Of the stran-
ger. He Inspired them with the power Of his
own passions. He saturated them with the poi
son Of his own malicious feelings. He seemed to
have stolen natures long hidden secret Of attrac-
ton. lie was the son to the sea Of oil thought
and emotion, which rose and FELL and toiled in the
pillows as he chose. But his greatest triumph
was to come.
His eyes began to glance furtively at the as
sassin Hopkins, as his leah taper fingers assumed
the same direction. He hemmed the wretch
with circumvallatiOn Of strong evidence and
impregnable argument, cutting of all hope Of
escape.
He piled up large bastions Of insurmountable
facts. lie dug beneath the murderer and SIAN
derer's feet bitches Of demmas, such as no
sophistry could overleap, and no secrets Of in-
genuity ever evade; and thus having, as one
might say, impOunded his victim, and girt him
about like scorpion in circle Of fire, he strip
ped himself to the work Of massacre.
OIL then il was . vision both glorious and
dreadful TO behold the orator. His actions, be-
fore graceful as the waves Of q golden willow in
the breeze, grew impetuOus as the motion Of an
oak in hurricane.
His voice became trumpet filed with wild
whiTlpOOls, deaiening the ear with the crashes
Of power, and yet interiningling all the while
with a sweet undersong Of the soltest cadence.
His face was as red as a drunkard's-his l0re-
head glowed like heated furnace, his eounte.
nance was haggard like that Of . maniac, and
ever aud anon he flung his long and bOny arms
on high, as il grasping after thunderbolts.
ing cOlors that, in comparison, hell itself might
be considered beautiful He painted the slAn-
derer 20 back that the sun seemed dark at noon
day, when shining on such an accursed monster,
and then fixing both portraits on the shrinking
Hopkins, he fastened them there forever. The
agitation Of the audience amounted almost "
madness
All at once the speaker descended from his
perilOus height His voice walled out for the
murdered dead and hving--the beautiful Mary,
more beautiful every moment as her tears flowed
laster-till all wept and sObbed like children.
lie closed by strange exhortation to the jury,
and through them to the bystanders. He advis-
cd the panel, after they should bring In verdict
for the plaintiff not to offer violence to the deien
dant, however richly he might deserve IL; in
other words, not tO lynch the villain, but leave
his punishment with God.
This was the most artful trick Of all, and the
best calculated to insure vengeance
The jury rendered q verdict Of twenty thou
sand dollars, and the night afterwards Hopkins
was taken out Of his bed by lynchers, and beaten
almost to death.
As the court adjourned, the stranger made
known his name, and called the attention Of the
public with the announcement-John Taylor
will preach this evening at early candle-light
The crowd all turned out and TaylOrs sermon
equaled If 1t did not surpass the splendOr Of his
forensic effort This is not exaggeration. lhaye
listened to Clay, Webster and CaIhoun-t0
Dewey, Tying and Baseom-but never heard
anything in the form Of sublime words even re-
motely approximating to the elOquence Of John
TaylOr-massive as q lnountain-and wildly
rushing as a cataract Of fire. And that is the
opinion Of all who have heard this marvellous
man.