Arizona weekly miner., 1875-03-05
TOM MERRY, ON E. D. B1KER.

Thos. B. Merry, who has edited severa
 interior California papers, is now writin.
 "Sketches of Men have Known" for hi
 paper, the Coos Bay News, in Oregon. Thi
 one we print, and if it is not appreciated i
 will be the fault of the reader and not of tho
 writer, for it is certainly masterly piece O
 pen-painting:
 A few yet remained tC
 tell tale of the days when all were Argo- nauts and every man Jason. But the great
 mass of sturdy young Titans, with their
 hides of bronze and hearts of oak are gone vanished for ever. Let us cherish the re. maining few for the love we bore the de- parted many, who blazoned to an admiring world the rude chivalry of Forty-Nine. The first one of whom l must speak was
 EDWARD DICKINSON BAKER,
 His eye was different from that of Joe Hooker, the graRd SaJ,euy of the American army Rockers eye had the flashing bril- liancy of a meteor; but Bakers was the calm radiance of the evening star. He was a refined and cultivated man in every unit that went to make up the sum total of true manhood. As a soldier he had borne the highest laurels on the plains of Mexico, un- der the flag of his adopted country; as a statesman, his votes had always been given in Congress on the side of progress and in tegrity; as a lawyer, so full of the great pre- cepts of justice upon which the great com mon law is based, that he seemed tO read the hearts, rather than the books, of our great est jurists; as a civil engineer the Panama railroad bore inenaceable marks of his skill {: as musician, possessed of rich voice which enabled him to render the gems of our lan- guage with unparalleled pathoS; and as an orator, the inferior of no man whose tones ever woke the slumbering rapture of assem- bled thousands, beneath our sunset skies. In fine, it might be said of him as was said of Alexander Hamilton: "IIe was born to be great. Pre-emnence, in whatsoever he undertook, was always his prerogltive. Whoever else was second, lc must be first"
 l one day found myself in Downieville: It was "court week. and there was to be a murder trial that day. The culprit was an Italian, who had killed another man under circumstances of singular atrocity He had Baker to defend him; but from the over whelming evidence adduced and the merci- less pertinacity with which the public prose cutor argued the case for the S;ate, could not believe the prisoners escape worth the price of cigar. l never shall forget when that majestic old man rose to address the jury. There was an awful stiffness such as they say prevails on man O wars decks, as they scatter sand about them before going into battle; or the faint rustic of dry leaves in the forest, at the approach of a mighty tempest. The rich baritone voice first mur- mured, and then rose like the swell of an organ. The great searcher of mems hearts was probing for human sympathy. He next branched off and reviewed. tie opposing counseps argument, upsetting every pre- supposition and refuting every material point. Then back he came to the hearts of the jury with prayer for mercy in their judgment, that seemed like an echo from i Calvary. Strong men wept, and the great l pleader himself was almost choked with ! emotion. An hour later came that awful 1 when twelve mems fat was to set | the culprit free or seal his doom The omin- | GUS silence came again only to be broken by | the words "Not guilty,n as the freed priso- | ner fell fainting into the arms of the gifted | man who had borne him in triumph, as it were, from the verge of the gbbet.
 Tho next time l saw him was in San Fran cisco, in 1858, on the 18th of September. | The Golden City had on her holiday carb to celebrate the laying of the Atlantic cable by the English frigate Agamemnon and the American ship Niagara. I had viewed the procession and was about to % into the Theater 10 hear the oration. when friend warned me that the building was unsafe. While delberating as to wheth- CT should risk my precious bones in testing Joe Trench's skill in architecture. Frank PXley came out bare-headed and said, as he saw me: Tom, come in quick; the old man IS talking like God m Mechanically ,beyed him. and reached the auditory just in time to hear that matchless worri-pic;ure, the parting in mid-ocean of the two ships:
 The spectacle which marked the moment xhen' the cable was first dropped in the 1eep sea was of absorbing interest Two stately ships of different and once hostile nations bore the precious freight. Meeting n m,d-ocean, they exchanged the courteSieS 'f their gallant profeSsion-ea bore ;he flag # St George, each carrying the flowing tripes and blazing stars-on each deck that partial band bowed reverentlv in prayer to he great Ruler of tine tempest; exactly in l 'rder, perfect in discipline, they waited the suspicious moment to seek the distant shore
 
 me Niagara, with force resistlessas ourown ! ataract; the other Agan,emnon, "the King : f Men," as constant in purpose. as resolute $ n trial as the great leader of the Trojan war. tight well, oh gallant crews have YOU full He'd your trust, Favoring were the gales nd smooth the seas that bore you to the md and oh if the wish and prayer of the ood of all the earth may avail, your high V nd peaceful mission shall remain forever \ erfect, and those triumphant standards, so 'ng shadowing the earth with their glory, ,all wave in united folds as long as the Ho- eric story shall be remembered among men -or the thunders of Niagara reyerberate bove it's arch ofspray."
 1 never saw such majesty as Bakers pres nee while delivering that gem of thought A crty cities of England and America cele- 'ated this suspicious event. but the honor