Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1873-07-19
THE OLDEN TIME.
The Men and Customs of a Former
Generation.
"Reminiscences of the Turf i'm Middle
Tennessee e-"Old Kings" Great
Race-Y0ung Lawyers In Luek.


"Reminiscences of the Turf i'm Middle
Tennessee sold Kings" Great
Race-Y0ung Lawyers in Luck.
From the Nashville Union and American
Fifty years ago a trip to New Orleans
and back was performed in broad
horns floating the produce of the coun-
try to market, ascending the river in
keel boats bearing the sugar, coffee
salt and other supplies in return, and
took four months to make the trip
The merchant reached Baltimore and
Philadelphia on horseback, carrying
his silver by pack horses, and received
his goods, transferring them across
the Alleghanies in wagons drawn by
the big six horse teams of that day.
Many came from the old world to
the new in sailing ships, which requir-
ed voyage of from three to six
months. Scarcely any ever returned
from the new to the old country. The
amusements of the day were mainly
athletic sports, the country frolics, the
log rollings, the house raisings, the
meetings in the harvest fields with the
reap hooks, the quilt making in the
day and the dance and cotton picking
at night, then the country weddings
with the large infairs, interspersed
with the best of fighting and fine horse
racing, and unequalled shooting match
es and squirrel hunts and fish fries
We then had bold peasantry, a hap
py and united people, the men who
bore the flag under Jackson through
the Indian wars and gave an undying
lustre to our country in the decisive
and glorious battle of New Orleans.
Now how changed the times. The
commercial world is revolutionized by
the American discovery of applying
the irresistible power of steam to ma
chinery, giving propelling power that
stems the Mississippi river and within
six days brings the Southern products
from the Crescent City to Nashville,
and returns with Tennessee products
in less than that time. We mount
the iron horse whose muscles never
tire, and traverse the continent at the
rate of 40 miles an hour, faster time
than Lexington ever made in four
mile race.
We land in New Orleans or New
York in 40 or 30 hours. We can bathe
upon the shores of the distant Pacific
in less than six days.
By means of the telegraph we hold
communications with distant friends
and relations, thousands of miles apart.
We can speak to them across the great
deep, and within few hours receive a
response.
We now have our rings, mOnied
rings, bank and bond rings, credit
mobillier rings, Congressional grab
rings, and corporation rings, railroad
rings, and every kind of rings that
dispense with labor and place the yoke
upon the toilling millions.
These reflections upon old times
have induced me to give short sketch
of two races of the Old King, sad
die horse with which Judge Guild rode
the circuit when young lawyer
in 1925 and 1926. These races were
made and run by the Hon. Bailie Pey-
ton and Judge Guild in the fall of
1926. These young men had been
schoolmates, read law together, and
commenced the practice at the same
time. In those times any young law
yer who had expectations took cir
cult, frst-rate horse, Blackstone,
and the Statutes, with an old pair Of
saddle bags containing his wardrobe as
his outfit, relying much upon his vim
and natural genius, and these young
men had full portion of each, with a
high resolution and untameable will.
They were courageous and spirited,
and fine match, hard to handle in
they undertook. They have
been thrown together for more than
fifty years, and during that time they
have been inseparable friends. They
met in the Circuit, the gifted Burton
and Caruthers of Lebanon, and Rucks
and Overton of Carthage, and for many
years broke lance with these able
men. They met on the Circuit Felix
Grundy. then in his glory as an adyo-
cate. with the rising Samuel Houston
and the great land-lawyers, jenkins.
Whitesides and Patrick Darby.
FELIX GRUNDY.
1t was a great intellectual feast to
hear Booth in his Richard the Third,
Forrest in his Macbeth or King Lear,
Miss Cushman in Lady Macbeth, or
J o. Jefferson in his Rip Van Winkle,
but to hear Felix Grundy in a closely
contested case of homicide, when all
his fires were burning, his passions
aroused, to see his actions, the flash of
his gray eyes, the vivid food of light
ming bursting from his lips, at times to
witness his scathing scarcasm, and
then his sparkling wit, take it all in
all, it was the grandest exhibition that
any Tennesseean ever witnessed. he
found himself carried away by storm
of eloquence that was irresistible
He felt that he was aroused by the
same feeling and passion that moved
the Godlike advocate. | have heard
Felix Grundy speak hundred times.
If he was alive. | would go thousand
miles to hear him again. Under the
influence of his voice [ have seen great
assemblies tremble and shudder. |
have seen the judge on his bench for
get his position, l0ll out his tongue
and clap his hands for joy, and refined
and enlightened galleries have, wept
and tainted in the excess of feeling
| have heard most of the American
orators, read the speeches af the an
clients as weli.as the great orators of
France, England and Ireland, and my
opinion is that Felix Grundy was the
greatest advocate the world has pro-
duced. He died in 1910. What
calamity that so much intellect per-
ished with him, and that eloquent
tongue is forever silenced, and will
never again stir the American heart.
America has produced two great
natural orators, Patrick Henry and
Felix Grundy. Their speeches were
never written out like those of Cicero
or Demosthenes. Their genius could
not be chained down to paper or fairly
represented by the copyist. 1t is a
wasteful and ridiculous excess
"To gild refined gold, 10 paint the lily;
To throw a perfume on inc VloISt,
To smoothe the ice, or add another hue
Unto the rainbow, or with taper light,
To seek the beauteous eye'of heaven 10
garnish."
The fame of Patrick Henry and Fe-
lix Grundy rests IN tradition, and will
be handed down from sire to son for
many generations yet to come.
MRS. FELICIA GRUNDY PORTER,
his yongest daughter, yet lives-a wo-
man of talents and fine accomplish
n5tnts-the same general contour of