The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1871-04-20
sergeant smith Isrentlss.
From the Yicksburg HeralI


The Rev. Mr.. Millburn, the blind
nreacher, has recently been lecturing
+ Memphis, and the late Sergeant s.
Prentiss was the subject of one of his
lectures. The Appeal of that city made
pretty full report of the reverend
rantlemen's lecture, and in that report
We find the following:
As teacher he was very unsettled he
roamed about from one place to another,
remaining nowhere long. He was
received well everywhere; for he had the
stamp of natures nobility impressed upon
him. Besides, genius is the passport of
human preferment and honor.
We are sorry to spoil pretty story,
but the foregoing is pure bosh. Mr.
Prentiss never had more than two schools,
and we are not sure that he had more
than one. He may have taught a
school in Natchez, but If he did it was
for brief period only, when he accepted
the position of teacher In the family
of Judge Shields, of Adams county, and
there his career as a teacher ended.
While a member of the family of Judge
Shields, and q teaching the young idea
how to shoot, he studied law, and
prepared himself for the splendid post
ion he soon achieved at the bar. He
located at Natchez as an attorney, but
soon removed to this city, where at a
single bound he leaped to the front rank
and the highest position as orator and
advocate, a place he held against all
competitors until that sad hour when the
grandest intellect this continent has ever
seen was shrouded in DEATH Some of
the pupils of Mr. Prentiss still live to
reverence his memory, and many are the
stories told of the brilliant intellect, spark
ling wit, and kindly, generous nature Of
the young pedagogue. All who came in
contact with the young teacher, recog-
nzed in him man of superior intellect,
but none dreamed of the giant mind and
Wondrous genius that lay per du under
the broad brow of the handsome
New Highlander. Thomas, Gabriel and
Joseph d. Shields, all of Adams
county, are among the surviving pupils
Of Mr.. Prentiss.
OF the pause, which Mr.. Prentiss
made at the then young and thriving city
of the West, Cincinnati, the Reverend
lecturer is reported to have said:
On the way he stopped at Cincinnati.
No man gave him hand nor woman a
smile of welcome; the fact was they were
better engaged fattening pigs and getting,
as well as struggling humanity might,
from bare log shanties with unhewn
furniture, into frame ones with planned
bed posts and closejointed floors.
They had, therefore, no time and less
inclination to bother about the meteoric
Prentiss, then in embryo. He left the
place in disgust, and ever afterward
called it the metropolis of pork.
This is not correct, and does injustice
as we'll to the memory of Mr.. Prentiss, as
10 the people of Cincinnati with whom
he came in contact. Mr.. P. had letters
OfintrOduction to several gentlemen there
and among them was John G. Wright,
a very eminent lawyer, by whom he was
most kindly received. Mr.. p. always
spoke in terms of kindness and respect of
Judge Wright, but we have often seen
his eyes dance and sparkle, as he told us
how kindly and seriously Judge Wright
advised him to abandon the idea of
making lawyer of himself The Judge
failed to fathom the young mind that lay
open before him; he failed to discover the
exhaustless mine of genius, wit and
eloquence which he diverted from the
Buckeye State and sent to more CON
genial home; but there was no unkind-
ness in it. In after years, in the fullness
Of his glorious fame-when his name was
q household word from the Arostook to
the Rio Grande, from the Atlantic to the
Rocky Mountains used to amuse his
friends by telling them why he did not
stop in Cincinnati. One reason was that,
having FIVE dollars in his pocket, he fear
ed, with such vast means in his possession,
combined with the low price of every
thing in Cincinnati he might become too
fond of champagnel The other was that
as Judge Wright did not think he had
sense enough to make lawyer, he had
better go where less brain would be
aquiredl