The Buchanan County guardian. (Independence, Buchanan County, Iowa) 1858-1864, 1860-03-08

prehend 1t without an eHort.
Anon he came TO the dazzling wit of
the poet lawyer Pike. Then the curl of
his lip grew sharper, his smooth face be-
gan to kindle up and his eyes to OPEN
dim and dleary no longer, but vivid as
lightning, red as fire globes, as glaring
as twin meteots. The whole soul was in
his eye, the full heart stFeamed out of his
face. In five minutes Pike's wit seemed
like foam OF folly, and bis. finest satire
horrible profanity, when compared with
the inimitable sallies and exterminating
sarcasm Of the stranger interspersed with
iests and anecdotes that filled the forum
with laughter.
Then, without so much as bestowing
an allusion on Prentiss, he turned round
short at the perured witnesses of Hop
kins, tore their testimony into atoms, and
hurled into their faces such invectiyes
that all trembled as with ague, and two
of them actually fed in dismay from the
court house.
The excitement of the crowd was be-
coming tremendous. Their united life
and soul seemed to hang upon the burn
ing tongue OF the stranger. He inspired
them with the power of his own passions.
He saturated them with the poison of his
own malicious feelings. He seemed to
have stolen natures long hidden secret
Of attraction. He was the sun to the sea
of all thoughts and emotions 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 assassin Hopkins, as his lean taper
fingers assumed the same direction He
hemmed the wretch with circumyalla
ton of strong evidence and impregna-
ble argument, cutting off all hope of es
cape.
He piled up large bastons of insur-
mountable fact He dug beneath the
murderer and slanderas's feet ditches of
dilemmas, such as no 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 a circle of fire, he
stripped himself for the work Of massa-
ere.
Oh then it was vision both glori-
Gus and dreadful to behold the orator.
His actions before graceful as the waves
of golden willow in the breeze, grew
impetuous as the motion of an oak in n
hurricane.
His voice became trumpet filled with
wild whirlpools, deafening the ear with
crashes Of power and yet intermingling
all the while with a sweet undersong of
the softest cadence. His face was as red
as dlunkard 's-his forehead glowed
like heated furnace; his countenance
was haggard like that of maniac, and
ever and anon he flung his long and
bony arms on high, as if grasping after
thunder bolts.
He drew picture of murder in such
appalling colors, that, in comparison,
hell itself might be considered beautiful.
He painted the slanderer so black that the
sun seemed dark at MONDAY, when shin
ing on such an accursed monster, and
then fixing both portraits on the shrink
ing Hopkins, he fastened them there for
amounted almost TO madness.
All at once the speaker descended from
his perilous height. His voice walled
out for the murdered dead and living
the beautiful Mary, more beautiful every
moment as her tears flowed faster-tll
all wept and sobbed like children.
He closed by a strange exhortation to
the jury. and through them to the by
standers. He advised the panel, after
they should bring in a verdict for the
plaintiff, not 10 offer violence TO the de-
lendant, however lichly he might deserve
il; in other words not to lynch the viii
lain, but TO leave his punishment with
God.
This was the most artful trick of all,
and the best calculated to insure venge-
ance.
The jury rendered verdict of twenty
thousand dollars, and the night after
wards 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 at
tenton of the public with the announce
ment-" John Taylor will preach this
evening, at early candle light
The crowd turned out, and Taylor'S
sermon equalled if it dld not surpass the
splendor of his forensic effort. This is
not exaggeration. | have listened to
Clay, Webster and Calhoun-to Dewey,
Tying and Bascom-but never heard any
thing in the form of sublime words even
remotely approximating to the eloquence
of John Taylor-massiye as mountain
and wildly rushing as cataract of
fire. And that is the opinion of all who
have heard this marvellous man.
"Jane," said wag, "it's all over
town
What's al over town %
Mud"