The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1865-10-15

He suffered the witnesses TO- tell
then o,sn story, and he allowed the
defence to lead off: Ashley spoke
first, followed by Pike and Prentiss.
Tie latter brought the house down in
cheers, in which the jury joined.
It was now the strangers turn. He
rises-before the bar, not behind it
and so near the wondering jury that
he might touch the foreman with his
long bony finger. He proceeded. to
tear to pieces the arguments of Ash
ley, which melted away at his touch
like frost before sunbeam; every
one looked surprised. Anon he came
to the dazzling wit Of the poet lawyer,
Pike. Then the curl of his lip grew
sharper, his smooth face began to
kindle, and his eyes to open, dim and
dreary no longer, but vivid as light
ming, red as hre-globes, and glaring
as twin meteors. The whole soul was
in the eye; the full heart streamed
out of his face. Then without be-
slowing an ;liiii,lsion to Prentiss, he
turned short around on the perjured
witnesses of Hopkins, tore their tes-
timony into shreds, and hurled into
their faces such terrible invectives
that all trembled like aspens, and two
of them fed from the court house.
The excitement of the crowd was be-
coming tremendous. Their united
souls seemed to hang upon the burn
ing tongue of the stranger; he in
spired them with the power of his
malignant passions; he seemed to
have stolen, natures long hidden
secret of attraction. But his greatest
triumph was to come.
His eye began to glance at the as
sassin Hopkins, as his lean taper fin
gers assumed the same direction. He
hemmed the wretch with wall of
strong evidence and impregnable ar
gument, cutting off all hope of escapei
He dug beneath the murdcrer's feet
bitches of dilemma, and held the
slanderer up to the scorn and con-
tempt of the populace. Having thus
girt him about with O. circle of fire,
he stripped himself to the work of
massacre.
Oh! then it was a vision both glo-
rious and dreadful to behold the
orator. His actions became as impe-
tuous as the motion of an oak in o
hurricane. His voice became trum-
pet filed with wild whirlpools, deaf
ening the ear with crashes of power,
and yet intermingled all the while
with sweet undersong of the softest
cadence. His forehead glowed like
heated furnace, his countenance was
haggard, like that of a maniac, and
eyer and anon he, flung his long and
bony arms on highsas if grasping
after thunderbolts.
He drew picture of murder in
such colors, that, in comparison, he'll
itself might be considered beautiful;
he painted the slander SO black that
the sun seemed dark at MONDAY,
when shining on such an accursed
monster, and then fixing both por-
traits on the sinking Hopkins, fast
ened them there forever. The agita-
tion of the audience nearly amounted
to madness.
All at once the speaker descended
from the peril height. Els voice
walled out for the murdered dead and
iving-the beautiful Mary more bsau-
tiful every moment as her tears flowed
faster-tiu men wept and sobbed like
children.
He closed with strange exhorta-
ton to the jury, and through them to
the bystanders; he advised the panel,
after they should bring in verdict
for the plaintiff, not to offer violence
to the defendant, however richly he
might deserve; in other words, mot
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 returned veydict of fifty
thousand dollars; and the night af-
forwards Hopkins was taken out of
bed and beaten ALMOST to death. AS
H. o,,,~4 i, ,l;o,,na1 tho ctra,, crar. cold.