The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-01-26
Prentiss' Wonderful Oratorv

A writer in the Philadelphia Times saws:
Twenty thousand people We're assembled in
the public square at Nashville, Tenn, to
hear the merits of Henry Clay, ''the gallant
AIillboy of SlasheS, discussed. Jones led
off in one of his brightest, witticst spec hes,
for he was n most entertaining stump
speaker and favorte orator among the
Wings of the olden-time, who reverenced
Clay with beautiful idolatry. But the
audience, after hearing Gov Jones an hour.
grew loudly impatient and clamored for
Sergeant 5 PrentiSS. Gov. Jones grace
fully yielded to the only man who could
mold the hearts and minds of tine Tennessee
ans in the leash OF his wondrouS eloquence,
in closer bonds than their own faVoritc
orator. PrentisS hmped to the front of the
grand stand. and looked like a lion shaking
the dews of the morning from his magnh.
cent name. For five minutes the wild huz-
2as of political idolatry rent the air
Prentjss showed in his flushed cheeks how
he enjoyed the splendid triumph of the
hour. He removed his broad panama hat
and took from his vest pocket small vial.
containing some elixir, or possibly small
glass of old Otaid brandy. Gov. Jones
himself told me the story thus:
For two mortal hours this orator. greater
than Bolngbruke and with more fascina-
ting witchery of speech than Charles James
Fox possessed, whose silVery eloQuence no
man ever correctly reported. Sergeant s.
PrentiSs held this vast audience spell-bouud
i'll the tightening grip of his fiery eloquence
He talked like an angel He argued like
Lord Bacon.
"One moment the great crowd was in
tears, and the next moment mems hats
We're thrown in the air and the women for
the fair sex abound at Southern meetings.
waved their cambria and Derfumed hand
kerchiefs in the breeze The speaker never
paused. He arose from splendor to SPLEEN
dor, and carried his audience in the mid
heaven of his magic elOQuence His audi
ence bowed their heads and went at his pa
thetlc bursts of Oratory, or shouted them
selves hoarse at his terrific philhpics, as lac
eviscerated and annihilated, with inspired
eloquence, the enemies OF the man they
all loved-Henry Clay"
lie had spoken for over two hours: and i'm
one of his grand climaxes, Sergeant :. Prem
tiss' spirit, which 'oer informed his tene-
ment of clay left his body, and he fell
fainting in the arms of Gov. Jimmy Jones.
The Governor, with tears chasing each
other down his face while the breathleSs
audience rose on their feet clasped the
glorious orator to his bosom and exclaimed:
Die, Prcntiss die, What glorious hour
for "A statesmanS apotheOSism
But Prentss didn't die. That scene beg
CarS description. But the fame of that
speech Travelled by the strange and ra id
transit, the Freemasonry of mind, from hill
TO valley, all over Tennessee, and it carried
the pendingelection. Two years later Prem
tlsS did die in New Orleans. As Boiling.
broke left no speech equal to his fame.
neither did Prentiss One great Con,
grevsional speech remains in which he won
his right to a seat IN Congress against JEFF.
ferson Davis, but this speech won by the
power of argument alone. It is to be re-
GREETED that there is no enduring monument
left to perpetuate the immortal memory of
thus greatest and most marvelously gifted
Of American orators.