The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1869-04-02

The T'OIunseer Counsel.

John Taylor was licensed, when youth
of twenty one, to practice at the bar He
was poor but well educated and possessed of
extraordinary genius. He married beau
ty who afterward deserted him for another.
On the 9th of April, 1S49, the court house
in GAINESVILLE, Texas, was crowded to over
flowing. An exciting case was to be tried.
George Hopkins, wealthy planter, had
offered a gross insult to Mary Ellison, the
young and beautiful wife of his evereer.-
The husband threatned to ehsstise him for
the outrage, when Hopkins went to E1li-
sons house and shot him in his own door.
The murderer was arrested and bailed to an
swer the charge. This occurrence produ-
ced great excitement, and Hopkins, in or
der to turn the tide Unpopular Indignation,
had circulated reports against her charac-
ter, and she had sued him for SANDER
Both suits were pending-for murder and
Islander.
The interest became deeper when it was
known that Ashley and Pike, of Arkansas,
and s. s. Prentiss, of New Orleans, by enor-
nous fees, had been retained to defend
Hopkins.
Hopkins was acquitted. The Texas
lawyers were overwhelmed by their oppo-
nents. 1t was fight of dwarf against
giants.
The SANDER suit was for the 9th, and the
throng of spectators grew in numbers as in
excitement. Public opinion was setting in
for Hopkins; his money had procured wit
nesses who served his powerful advocates.
When the SANDER case was called, Mary
Ellison was left without an attorney-all
had Withdrawn. ... ..... ...
Have you no counsel y inquired Judge
Mills, looking kindly on the plaintiff.
mo, sir; they have all deserted me, and
I am too poor to employ any more" replied
the beautiful Mary, bursting into tears.
ain such case, will not some chivalrous
member Of the profession volunteera" said
the judge glancing around the bar.
The thirty lawyers were silent.
~ will, your honor" said q voice from
the thickest part of the crowd, behind the
bar. a1 ~ 4ra .s.I-s't'
At the sound ofthe voice many started
it was so uneartf1y, sweet and mournful.
The sensation was changed into laugh
ter when tall, gaunt, spectral figure ell
bowed his way through the crowd, and
placed himself within the bar. His clothes
looked SO shabby that the court hesitated
to let the case proceed under his manage
ment.
"Has your name been entered on the rolls
of the State 2" demanded the Judge.
"It is immaterial," answered the stranger,
his thin bloodlcss lips curling up with a
sneer. lRgIt3 la.s7r "a ya
"Here is my license from the highest tri-
bunal in America !'' and he handed the
Judge broad parchment.
The trial went on, tH
He suffered the witnesses to tell their own
story and he allowed the defense to lead
off. Ashley spoke first, followed by Pike
and Prentiss. The latter brought the house
down in cheers, in which the jury joined.
1t was now the stranger's turn. He rose
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 Ashley, which melted away at his touch
like frost before sunbeams. 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 up and his
eyes to open, dim and dreary no longer,
but vivid .as lightning, red as fire globes
and glaring as twin meteors The whole
soul was in the eye; the full heart stream.
ed out of his face. Then without bestow-
ing an allusion to Prentiss, he turned short
round on the perjurcd witnesses of Hop
kins, tore their testimony 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 becom-
ing tremendous. Their united life and soul
seemed to hang upon the burning tongue
of the stranger, and he inspired them with
the power of his passions. He seemed to
have stolen natures long hidden secret OF
attraction. But his greatest triumph was
10 come.