The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Stroudsburg, Pa.) 1853-1911, 1860-04-26

handed Judge Mills broad parchment.
The trial im ediately went on
In the examination of witne ,ses, the
stranger evinced but little ingenuity, a,
was com monty thought. He suheaed each
one to tell his own story without interrup-
ton. though be contrived to make each
tell it over two or three times He put
. few cross questions, which, with keen
witnesses, only served to correct mistakes.
and be made DO notes, which, in mighty
memories, always tend to enbarra>.-
The examination being ended, as the
counsel for the plaintiff he bad right to
the opening speech as we'll as the close;
but, to the astonishment of every o1e. he
declined the former, and allowed th ?fe-
fence to lead of Then shadow oflight
might have been observed to fit across
the features Pike. and then to darkcn c.
ven the bright eyes of aPrentiss. They
saw that they had "caugbt Tartar" ut
who 1t was or bow it happened ii. was
impossible to guess. e
Col Ashley spoke frat He dealt the
jury a dish of that close. dry logic, shieh,
years Afterwards, rendered him famous
in the Senate of the Union
The poet, Albert Pike. followed with
rich vein Of wit, and whole torrent OF rid
icule, in which you may be sure neither
the plaintiff nor the plaintiffs ragged at
attorney were either forgotten or spared.
The great Prentiss concluded for the
defendsnt; with glow of gorgeous words
brilliant as shower of falling stars, and
with final burst of oratory that brought
the house down in cheers, iD which the
sworn jury themselves joined, notwitb
standing the stern "order" Of the bench.
Thus wonderfully susceptible are the
south western people to the charms Of in-
passoned eloquence.
Il was now the strangers turn. He
bad remained apparently distracted du-
ring allthe previous speeches. Still end
straight, and motionless in bis seat, bis
pale, smooth forehead shooting up high
like mountain cone of snow; but for the
eternal twitcbing that came and went in
his sallow checks, you would have ia.
ken him for mere man of II marble, or
human ian carved 10 ice. Even bis dim,
dreary eyes were invisible beneath those
gray, shaggy eyebrows.
But now, at last. be rises before the bar
railing, not behind, and so near the won
dering, jury that he might touch the
foreman with his long bony finger. With
eyes still half shut, and standing rigid as
pillar Of iron, bis thin lips curled as if
in measureless scorn, slightly apart, and
the voice comes forth. At first it is slow
and sweet, insinuatipg itself through the
brain as an artless tune winding its way
into the deepest heart, like the melody of
a magic incantation; while the speaker
proceeds without gesture, or the least
sign Of excitement, to tear in pieces the
argument of Ashley, that melts away at
his touch as frost befare the sunbeam.
Every one looked surprised. His logic
was at once SO brief and so luminouSly
clear that the rudest peasant could COM
preheDd it without an effort.
, ADon, he came to the dazzling wit of
the poet-lawyer, Pike. Then the curl Of
bis lip grew sharper-bs sallow face kin
died up-and his eyes began to open dim
and dreamy no longer, but vivid as light
ming, red as FIRE globes, and glaring like
twin meteors. The whole soul vas in
the cye-thc full heart streamed out OF
the face. In fge minutes Pixies wit
seemed the foam of folly, and his finest
satire horrible profanity, when oontrasted
with the ininitable sallies and extermina
ting sarcasms of the stranger, iuteFspersed
with jest and aneetdote that 6ied the To-
! run with roars of laughter.
Then, without SO much as bestoEing
an allusion to Prentiss, be turned short
on the perjured witnesses of Hopkins,
tore their testimony iuto atoms, and hurl-
ed in their faces such terrible invectives
that all treWbled as with an sgue, and
two of them astually fed, dismayed, from
the court house.
The excitement of the crowd was be
coming tremendous. The united life and
soul seemed to hang on the burning tongue
of the strInger, lie inspired them with
the powers OF bis own passions. He sat
urated them with the poison of bis own
malicious feelings. He seemed to have
stolen natures long hidden secret of at
traction He was tue sun to the sea of all
thought and emotion which rose and fell,
and boiled in billows as he chose. But
his greatest triumph was to come.
His eyes began TO glare furtiyely at the
the assassin, Hopkins, aud bis lean, taper
6nger slowly assumed the sane direction.
He hem med the wretch with circumsal-
latiou Of strong evidence and impregna
BILE argument, cutting of all hope of es-
cape He piled up huge bastioDs of un-
surmountable facts.
He dug beneath the mutderers and
sIanderer's feet bitches of dilem as such
as no sophistry could overleap. and no
stretch of ingenuity evade; and having
thus, as one might say, iUpounded his
victim, and girt bin about likes scorpi-
on in circle of fire-he stripped himself