The weekly register. [volume] (Point Pleasant, Va. [W. Va.]) 1862-1909, 1879-02-19

t'aA. <, 4. ~
The first sensatlons ho ~
Changed into q genera agktefI
when d tall guant, spss Isile
that nobody present rem sEa1 b
have seen before eIbowea way
through the crowd and p him;
self within thebsr. His sAiahee
was d problem to puzzle bhnix
himself. His high pnle 5hd
small neryopsIy tWiichia HqIp;
Eed alive with the cones is.
senoe and cream Of geqiq then
Ibis infantile blusseyesi 4 dim,
dreary, almost uncQnsei nn2 bis
IcIothins Tasso saabby Court
hdsitasdd q let the casp proceed lh-
derhis management.
'Has your name been entered on
the rolls Of the state?' demanded the
Judge suspiciously.
"It is immaterial about my name
appearingon the rolls, aansweredthe
stranger, his thinlip curling up ina
fiendish sneer. ~ NAV be allowedto
appear once by the courtesy Of the
court and bar. Here is my license
from the highest court in America
And he handed Judge Mills q broad
parchment. The trial Immediately
went on.
In the examination ofthe witness.
es, the stranger exhibited but little
ingenuity as We thought. He suffer-
ed each one to tell his own story
without interruption, though he con-
triyed to make each to tell it over
two or three times. He put a few
cross questions, which with keen
witnesses only served tocorrect mis-
takes, and made no notes, which in
mighty memories, serve to embar-
rass. The examination being ended.
as counsel for the plaintiff, he had q
right to the opening speech as well
as the close, but to the astonishment
ofevery one he declined the former,
and allowed the defense to lead
Then a shadow might have been OBJ
served to fit across the features Of
Pike, and darken the bright eyes Of
Prentiss. They saw they "had
caught a Tartar" but who it was, or
how it happened, was impossible to
guess.
Col. Ashley spoke FIRST: lie dealt
the jury Q dish of that dty logic
which years afterwards made him
famous in the Senate Of the Union.
The poet, Albert Pike, followed
with a rich vein of wit and atorrent
Of ridicule, in which you may be
sure neither the plaintiff nor the
plaintiffs counsel were either for
gotten or spared.
The great Prentiss concluded for
the defendant, with a glowof gor-
geous words, brilliant as a shower Of
falling stars, and with a burst Of ora.
tory that brought down the house in
cheers, in which the sworn jury
themselves, joined, Notwithstanding
the stern order of the bench Thus
wonderfully llysusceptible are the south
western people, to the charmsof i'm
passloned eloquence.
1t was then the strangers turn
He had remained apparently ab.
stracted during the pfevious.speech-
es. Still and straight and motion
less he sat in hisseat, his pale smooth
forehead, shooting up like o noun.
tain cone ofsnow-but for the eter-
nal twitch that came and went per-
petually on his sallow cheek, you
would have taken him for a mere
man Of marble or a human form
carvedin ice. Even his dim dreary
eyes were invisible beneath those
gray and shaggy eyebrows.
But now, atlast, he has risen be-
fore the bar railing, not behind and
SO near the astonished jury,that he
might touch the foreman with his
long, bony finger. With his eyes
half shut, and standing rigid as a
pillarof iron, his lips curl,a if in
measureless scorn, slightly spartand
the voice comes forth.
AT first it is low, sweet, insinua-
ting itself through the braiti, as an
artless tune winding its way into
the heart; like the melody Of q mag
ic incarnation; while the speaker
a