The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-10-26
1JEgET .nSTT >. EFgJAJTBIW,

! tumult, and probably saved rival office and
n very fine Catholic cathedral from destruc-
ton. On several occasions, however, he
has himself been compelled to flee before
the wrath of the people During the WARD
riots,a when Matt. Ward, who murdered
the school teacher Butler, was the object Oh
\ vengeance, Mr.. Prentice, who defended ward
/ in his columns for reasons never definitely
known, took horse at midnight and galloped 10
place Of safety
When the news of the Bull Run fight
/ reached Louisville. the intensest exc temeht
I prevailed, and the Rebel population paradeIai
| the streets swearing vengeance against Az
! loyal men who came in contact Win IneIh'
! The ,E1UlH0I Office had long been floating u
! limited States fac from a staff on the roof,
! Int the staff being too short for the flag, a
! cornenter had been sent for early in the day to
! mt mn n longer one He arrived at the tlme
quite threatening demonstration was being
Il,nnde in front The toNF5er othce whlch
was on the opposite side of the same street,
was intensely Rebel and 1t was ibrulted ABOUT
that Confederate flag would be,hoisted upon
il during the day. The crowd between the
two Offices was clamorous for the raising Of
one flag and the lowering of the other. At
this iuncture, Mr.. Prentice was informed by
an excited employe from the counting-room
that somebody was on the roof pulling down
the flag. The old mans eyes flashed fire.
Then, by c. said he, go mp there aud
throw the scoundrel down among the mob
Up rushed the willing employe. The flag
was already half-masted, and the carpenter,
intent mainly on earning his wages, though
not insensible to the cries of the admiing
crowd beneath, was busily engaged in unity
ing it from the ,hayards.4 To hissinfinite dis
gust. however, before his work was COM
pleted, he found himself hurled back ard by
a strong hand, which in the next breath firted
the flag again to the peak and tied the hall
yards in an insoluble knot to the staff The
honest carpenter was then Justify kicked
down the skylight, and thrust the rest of the
way down two pairs of stairs to the street
door, where he received an energetic parting
salute, and found himself landed among his
late admirers, without having single chance
to receive or tender an explanation. This
bold stroke touched the generous impulses
of the mob, if they had any, and all demon
strations against the J0Hrnm and its flag
ceased The crowd. in fact, turned its ria-
cule on the unotfending carpenter who with
difficulty made his way TO his shop with an
broken bones
Notwithstanding his frequent personal rem
contres, Mr. Prentice never accepted a; chal-
lenge OF fought duel. James b. Clay, the son
of the Sage of Ashland. once challenged him
for remarks made in his paper in animadver-
sion on Clays sale of his fathers homestead
In his reply declining, Mr.. Prentice made
probably the most effective argument ever
urged against duelling After offering as
a side issue the fact of his arm being para
lyzed and young James being the son of one
Of his dearest friends, he urged that the
anxious nights preceding duel were fortunes
that he could not endure. He would be will
ing to fight on sight, but he could not delibe-
rately plan how, when, and where. ,r'E
Wordy retortS between rivals of note gene
rally make pretty good reading in newspapers
that contain but little startling news and few
solid editorials, and they become particularly
interesting when all parties are personally
known to. nearly every reader Mr. Prem
tice was an adept in the art, and usually
found foemen worthy of his steel among
the editorial fraternity in Kentucky.
- Shadraeh Penn was one of these worthy foe
men, and the battle generally ragged tercely
between the two. He and Prentice We're in
Innate friends and almost continually to-
gether. but they would time and again violate
each others most sacred condolences for the
purpose Of some paltry joke OF home thrust
On one occasion the two were bathing in
''sanitamum,3 and Mr.. Prentice fell fast asleep
in his ,bath-tub. Penn saw him, and Laughing
immoderately at the prospect of good joke
the next morning, betook himself, to his office,
where he prepared an elaborate sketch for
publication. detailing the fact that Prentice
was drunk in bath-tub He had no foolish
scruples about mentioning names. Prem
tice, however, was awakened by Penn's
prolonged . laughter, and, beclouded
as his brain was, he immedi-
ately comprehended the situation. He also
returned instantly TO his office and prepared
an elaborate account of the affair, embellish-
ing and coloring tito suit the desperate cir
cumstances under which he labored, but sub
stituting the naineof Penn for Prentice in
the cast of characters. Both paragraphs ap-
peared next morning each in It's respective
sheet, but as Prentice S was the most highly
7 colpfedStlje people gladly accepted jt'as the
true narrative.
! On one toccasion,~ however, Mr.. Prem
fiee was the victim of a shrewder Joke
than any he, had ,praciiced on Others. p For
. a long time yhe was engaged TO contribute
of ''Wit and &isdom, original and selected" "
annually, which, in times of gold and silver
and considering that the wit was more selected
! than original, Was.Nery good pay. Jasper H.
A.Iohnson. a qneer. genius and rare humorist
who has said many funnier things than Prem
| tiGe, Artenlus Ward and the army of hui
/ morists put together, and who does not know
/ his ownworth, was an editor-of-all-work on the
! CoUliCl at the time and succeeded admirably
in hulesquing Prertice's half column in the
/ Ledgfr by n similar half column in the
| carrier. The Lcdgcr is usually out two or
three weeks before its natural time, being
dated well into the future Johnson saw III
this a chance for point, and after eriptimatipq
| several times that'the public and the Letyq6f
were swindled by wholesale plagiarisms from
! tbe (0bj5(J on the mart of Mr. prenfice ba