Spirit of the age. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1849-1865, 1861-04-10


years afterwards, rendered him famous in the
Senate of the Union.
The poet, Albert Pike, followed. with
rich vein Of wit, and a haiI-torrent of canstic
ridicule, in which you may be sure neither
the plaintiff nor the Plaintiffs ragged attor-
ney was either forgotten or spared.
The great Prcntiss Noncluded for the de-
fendanf, with a glow of gorgeous words,
brilliant as showers oe falling stars. and with
final burst Of craiory that brought the
house down Ia che6rss, in which the sworn
jury themselves joiaH notwithstanding the
stern orslerp Z, ]. 9sn af The bench
Thus wonderfully (, : iDie,. are the south .
western people to the charm 81 impassioned
eloquence!
1t was then The strangers turn He had
remained apJreftly 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 perpetually in his sallow
cheeks, you would have taken him for
mere man of marble, or human form cary
ed in ice. Even his dim, dreamy eyes were
invisible beneath those gray, shaggy eye
browS.
But now at last he rses-befo,e the bar
railing, not behind it-and so near to the
wondering jury that be might touch the fore
man 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 meas
ureless scorn, slightly part, and the voice
comes forth. At first, it is low and sweet,
inslnuatlng itself through the brain as an
a'tiess tune, winding its way into the deep
est heart like the melody of magic incan=
tatlon, while the speaker proceeds without
gesture or the least sign of excitement to
tear IN pieces the arguments of Ashley,
which met away st his touch as frost before
the sunbeam. Every one looks surprised.
Ills logic was at once so brief and so lumin-
ously clear, that the rudest peasant could
comprehend it Without effort.
Anon, he came to the dazzlius wit of the
poet-lawyer, Pike. Then the curl Of his lip
grew sharper, his sallow face kindled up;
and his eyes began to open, dim and dreamy
no longer, but vivid as lightning, red as
tire, and glaring like twin meteors The
whole soul was in the eye-the full heart
Streamed out in the face Ia five minutes
Pixies wit seemed the foam of folly, and his
finest satire horrible profanity, when con-
trasted with the inimitable sallies and ex-
terminating sarc asm of the stranger, inter
spersed with jest and anecdote that filled the
Jornm with roar of laughter
Then without so much as beStoWing an
allusion on Prentiss he turned short on the
perjured witnesses of Hopkins, tore their
testimony into atoms, and hurled in their
faces such terrible invectives that all trem
bled as with an ague, and two of them ac-
tually fled dsmayed from the court house
pearcd 10 hang hais 81 .as e Burning tongue Of the
stranger. He inspired them with the pow
ers Of his own passion. He saturated them
with the poison Of his malicious feelings
He seemed to have stolen natures long hid
den secret of attraction. He was the sun
to the sea Of all thought and emotion, which
/ rose and fell and boiled IN pillows as he
chose. But his greatest triumph was to
! come.
His eye began to g'are furtively at the as.
sassin, Hopkins, as his lean, taper finger
assumed the same direction. He hemmed
J the wretch around with a decentralization
Of stfong evidenced and impregnable argu-
ment, cutting off all hope of escape. He
piled up huge basions of insurmountable
facts He dug besath the murderer and
slanderer's feet ditcits of dilcmmas, such as
no sophistry could Ferleap and no stretch
of ingenuity cvade I; and having thus, as one
might say, ilnpoundd the victim, and ciit
/ him about like scopion in a circle Of fire.
he stripped hims elf tsthe work ofmassacre
Oh then, hut it vas vision both g!ori-
GUS and dreadful to lehold the orator. His
action, before gracefl as the wave of a gol-
den willow in the, breZe, grew impetuous as
the motion of an oal in the hurricane His
, voice tecame trumpet filled with wild
whirlwinds, deafenlng the ear with crashes
of power, and yet. ntermingled all the while
, with a sweet undT song of the softest ca
dence. His face Wis tred as drunkard's-
his forehead glowa like heated furn ace
his countenance loced haggard like that of
maniac and eva and anon he flung his
long, bony arms onhigh as if grasping af-
ter lhunderbolts He drew a picture of
, murder in such appalling coors that in COM
parSon hell itself nlht be considered beau
q tiful lie painted BE slanderer so black,
4 that the sun seemcdark at MONDAY when
n shining on such an sccursed monster; and
: then he fixed both prtrats on the shrink
> ing brow Of Hopkif and he nailed them
there forever Thy a1tation of the audi
4 ence nearly amounN to madness.
+ All at once the bealer descended from
!, bis perilous height His voice walled out
s for the murdered dd and described the
IF sorror- of the wiaAe li----o
}. ful Mary, more bedqul every uouheii'' 90
her tears flowed fast--tlH men Wept, anu
~ lovely women sobbehke children.
g lie closed by a stfag exhortatlon 10 the
= Jury and through tha to the bystanders. =
= He entreated the patk after they should
st bring in their verd:cbr the plaintiff, not to
y offer violence to the aendant, however flch,
- ly he might deserve I in other words not
: to lynch the villain Npkins, but leave the
~ ~ nunishment to God IThis was the most
j. artful trick of all, an best calculated TO IN
sure vengeance.
The inJy render, IA verdict for fifty thou
in sand dollars, and thdight afterwards, 1iol
= - kins was aiken out | his bed by lyncher'
~. and beaten almost ttiea h.
NJ As the court adlouhed, the Stranger ihat
a. known his name anicallcd the attention
: the people with the lnnouneement- Jon
"a Tayior will preach he this evening at ear
candle light!
!, The crowd ef eokse. all turned out, al
.ue Tavlor : sermon emilled, if it did not ST
vac vac nass the snlendor ojthe forensic eff5rt. Tt
1ne " is no noexaoaeration Il have listened to Cla
= ~, !. Webster. and Calhokn, to Dewey, Tying a
,ss. Bascomb; but have hever nearu any .n,ns
My the lorm OF suoiiineF" F"olus of Iohn Tavio,
10 massive as mounam. and wildly rush
.ing as cataract of fire And thiS Is Tie ot
"a ion of all who ever heard that marVeii
SO man.
med --7 .sss'--
lead In most o,arrels there is fault on
eV- sides. Both flint and steel are nso'
and w to The production of spark; eithe
t!ss. them NAV hammer on wood forever, an