The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1882-06-14
PRENTICE'S CID house.
a Mansion Bought by Blood Pro-
life of Misfortune.
The Story Of the Great Editors SOr-
rows and RemOrse.
Ekloodv Mondays Scenes-The Inside of the
KnON-Nothing Work.
Louisville commercial.l

is traditions and its memories. i remem-
Der when It was one of the finest places in
town. - said Mr.. Henry Russell yesterday to
a commercial reporter. The place he sllud-
cd u was the old George d. Prentice house
On the north side of Walnut street, just
above Floyd, which had been sold by Mar
shsl Bailey few days ago. The purchaser
was Mr.. G. w. Conway, and the price he
paid for It was 81, 500
1t is house with history. There is not
perhaps in the whole city place about
which hangs more gruesome tales. 1t stands
there near the center Of this busy workaday
CITY, and has nothing in common with the
dull, DonotonOUs houses about it. For six
teen years it shaped the destinics of George
D. Prentice He crossed its threshold young,
vigorous, In the MONDAY of his glory, and
he left i. shattered by disease and with his
splendid intellect shaken, after enduring 81
the tortures of the damned. A strange place
IS is inoeed-
To explain the influence of this most
singular house upon the life and thought
sud actions OF Prentice it will be necessary
to 80 back a little beyond his first entrance
within its iIl-omeaed walls.
In the spring of 1880 there came to Ken
lucky from the North man who, though
Is years of age, hao gained a National rep
gufuGtiou- A charming tslker, brilliant
writer. and s man of transcendent powers OF
wit and humOr. He came to write the life
Of henvy Clsy, who then ruled Kentucky
IS The PIantaCanets ruled England or the
Bourbons France. Presented thus TO Ken
tuckisns, Prentice had little difficulty in
gaining their ear. One bright september
morning he found himself in Louisville.
Soon after wards he started the Journal
and driving every competition from the
feId, he soon ruled the literary world with
su the capricious tyranny and IRON frmness
with which his idol, Clay, ruled the politi-
cal world 1t was
The ERA OF PERSONALITY,
and over the personal writers Of that day
Prentice lowered head and shoulders. No
man knew better than he how 10 give point
60 8 paragraph that would rsnkle for years.
Many snd famous were his fights. Shadrach
Penn, the editor eff the Advertiser, opened
fire on Prentice. OF course the fire was re-
turned. The fight which followed was the
talk of the Nation. Never before or since
was such brillisncy of wit, such well-rounded
periods and stately sentences, employed in a
newspaper quarrel. Prentice poured forth
aU his erudrtion, al his eloq1ence, upon
Penn. who was The eoest writes IN the
South. at length Penn admitted his defeat
Other iights followed, for sighting was then
the order OF the dsy JScksOn bad killed
Dickinson; Randolph had done hig best &c
xii Clay Every man worth anything SGs
politician; ana tne-e were few politicians
who had MOI killed their man and who were
~. willing TO kill another. No abuse was
-; = ! fo1 an enemy no fsttery too gross
for 8 lie ID. Prentice entered into the very
spirit Of the times. His paper soon became
sli-pOwerfal in Kentucky. 1t made and
unmadc Governors and Congressman His
wit earned like q hot iron, and he was not
ST ali sparing in The use Of it. On literary
subjects ne was no less master. 1t was the
ElizabethaD period OF American literature
Poe hsd just published "The Raven" His
short etc. were the talk of the country.
Hawthorne was sending out his quaint re-
msnces, and was the idol of the cultured
few LOngfellOw was achieving a European
reputation by his poems. Dozens of others
whose names are now household words were
rising into note. Prentice became the center
Tor all the literary talent of the South. The
columns of his paper Overhowed with poe
try. good. bsd, and Indifferent Some of the
best srticles in his paper we're written by
1saS=zTe young men. glad to have a nod from
The famous editor.
This eAs Prentice previous to that ever
memorable year Of 1856, when he entered
me door Of that house across whose thresh-
sid was the trail Of the serpent. Up to this
line he wss temperate and happy. Years
before he had married brilliant woman,
Miss Benham, daughter of Joseph S.
Ben'han, a prominent lawyer of this city.
They lived together very happily, and two
sO1s, Clarence and CORTLAND, had come to
seal their union. From the day he
ENTERED ITS ACCUSED WALLS
misery marked him for her own. The way
he became possessed of the house was toe
singular TO be passed over hastily. 1t may
IN some means account for that continuou;
stream of iIl-fortune which ever sfterward
followed him
In the spring of 1854 a crowd of dissolutt
young college boys at Nashville formed 8
secret society, whose object was the extinc
Go7 0f the Roman Catholic and foreign in
dGe7ce in this country. A few designing
poiiGci4zs in that city saw the influence Of
such questions over the minds of the igno
rant and bigotted. and they determined tc
fLuIb Dy bucil. 10 OOCIIlu6 Was utIdlUeO
abroad that America was for Americans;
that the Catholics were engaged in secret
and reasonable plots; that the foreigners
were ruling and running the land. The
effect Of this was immediate and terri
fble- The whole country became In.
haue1- 1t was like England during
one afthe no-Popery riots of the eighteenth
Csntury. A secret society was formed
whose solo object was tho destruction of the
C&sbooe aud Foreign influence. Oaths deep
and binding were imposed. It was party
of prescription The man who did not be.
long tOit wSs an enemy and was to be hun.
ted down. The old Wing party was just
lfaIIing TO pieces, and it was glad to enter
any party opposed to its old enemy, the
jackson Democracy. While the excitement
was great all over the Union it was intense
IN kentucky. We can have no idea at this
late date Of the fanaticsm preached and
prscticed. Known othingism was some
thing worse than civil war; it was strug.
gle into which all the worst elements of pol
Ifics and religion entered.
INITIATED EEow-NoTHING.
Prentice soon joined the society.
xeVVa initiated him into the ordar at the