Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1883-01-30
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stars, and with q burst of oratory that
brought the house down in cheers, in
which the sworn jury themselves
Joined, Notwithstanding the stern
order OF the bench" Thus wonder
fully susceptible are the Western pec-
pie to the charms of the impassioned
eloquence.
Il was then the strangers turn. He
remained apparently distracted dur
ing all the previous speeches. Still
and straight and motionless in his
seat, his pale, smooth forehead shoot-
ing up high, like a mountain cone Of
snow; but for that eternal twitch that
came and went perpetually in his
sallow cheeks, you would have taken
him for merely a man of marble, or a
human form carved in ice. Even his
dreamy eyes we're invisible beneath
those gray, shaggy eyebrows.
But now, at last, he rises-before
the bar railing, not behind-and so
near to the wondering jury that he
might touch the foreman with his
long, bony finger. With eyes still half
shut, aud standing rigid as a pillar Of
iron, his thin lips curl as in a measure
less scorn, slightly part, and the voice
comes forth. At first is low and sweet,
insinuating itself through the brain as
an %artless tune winding its way into the
deepest heart, like the melody Of a
magic incarnation; Will the speaker
proceeds without a GESTURE or the least
sign OF excitement to tear in pieces the
argument Of Ashley, that melts away
at his touch as frost before the sun
beam.
Every one looked surprised. His
logic was at once so brief and lumi-
nously clear that the rudest peasant
could comprehend it without an ef.
fort.
Anon he came to the dazzling wit OF
the poet lawyer, Pike. Then the curl
OF his lip grew sharper, his sallow face
klndled up,and his eyes began to open,
dim and dreary no longer, but vivid
rs fire globes, and glaring like twin
meteors.
The whole soul was in the eye. The
whole heart streamed out on his face.
In five minutes Pixies wit seemed like
tolly,and his finest satire horrible pro-
tanity when contrasted to the inimita-
BILE sallles and exterminating sarcasm
OF the stranger, interpreting the Jest
and anecdote that filed the room with
roarS Of laughter.
Then, without so much as bestowing
an illusion on Prentiss, he turned
short on the perjured witnesses of
Hopkins, tore their testimony into
atoms, and hurled into their faces
such terrible invectives that all trem.
bled as with an ague, and two of them
actually fled dismayed from the court
house.
The excitement of the crowd was
becoming tremendous. Their united
life and soul appeared to hang on the
burning tongue Of the stranger. He
inspired them with the power of his
own passions. He saturated them
with the poison OF his own malicious
feelings. He seemed to have stolen
natures long hidden secret of attrac.
ton. He was the sun of the sea of all
thought and emotion, which rose and
fell and boiled in pillows as he chose
But his greatest triumph was to come.
His eyes began to glare furtively at
the assassin, Hopkins, and his lean
taper fingers slowly assumed the same
direction. He hemmed the wretch
with a decentralization Of strong eyi
dence and i%mpregnable argument,
cutting off all hope Of escape. lie
piled up huge bastisns Of unsurmount.
able facts.
He dug beneath the murderer and
slanderer's feet bitches Of dilemmas
such as no sophistry could overIeap
and no stretch of ingenuity invade
and having thus, as one might say
unbound his victim, and GRIT hin
about like a scorpion in a circle Of fire
he stripped himself to the work O
massacre.
Oil then it was a vision both glo
rious and dreadful to behold III
orator. His actions, before graceful
as the wave Of a golden willow in tn
breeze, grew impetuous as the motion
OF the oak in a hurricane. His voicl
, became a trumpet filled with whirI
pools, deafening the ear with crashe
OF powder yet intermingled withAal
the softest cadence. His face wa
as red as a drunkard's-his iorehea
glowed like a heated furnace--hi
countenance looked haggard--like
maniac--and ever and anon he flung hi
bony arms on high, as if graspin
after thunderbolts. He drew a pictur
Of murder in such appalling color
that hell itself might be considere,
beautiful. He painted the slandere
so black that the sun seemed dark a
MONDAY when shining on such al
accused monster, aud then fixed boil
portraits on the brow of Hopkins, ant
he nailed them there forever. Til,
agitation of the audience nearl,
amounted to madness.
All at once the speaker descended
from this perilous hight. His voice
walled out for the murdered dead, aLC
living the beautiful Mary, mort
beautiful every moment as her tear
flowed faster-tall men wept and love
ly women sobbed like children.
He closed by a strange exhortatior
to the jury and bystanders. He on.
treated the panel, after they should
bring in their verdict for the plaintiff
not to offer violence to the defendant
however richly he might deserve it
in other words, mot to lynch tn,
villain, Hopkins, but TO leave it q
God" This was the most artful tricI
of all, and best calculated to insur,
vengeance.
The jury rendered a verdict of fit,
thousand dollars; and the night after
ward Hopkins was taken of his bee
and beaten almost to death.
| have listened to Clay, Webste
aud Calhoun, to Denver, King an,
BascOm, and have never heard In tn,
form Of sublime words anything ever
remotely approximating the eloquencr
Of John Taylor, massive as a mountain
and wildly rushing as a cataract of fire
And this is the opinion Of all who eve
heard the marvellous man.
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