The morning call., 1890-10-10
a CURIOUS CAREER.

Governor Hill OF New York has just ap-
pointed Mr.. Roger y. Pryor to be Judge of
The Court of Common Pleas in the room of
Judge LarremOr1, who has resigned. There
are few men IN active life in this country
who have had as varied a career as Pryor.
He began life as an editor, first in Wash
ington and then at Richmond, Va, and
made his mark as a bold, daShing writer,
who proposed to have no secrets from the
public Being a Yirsinian his views on
slavery We're those of NEST people in his
State; but he saw enough Of Northern fee!-
ing during his residence at Washington to
convince him that there was line which
1.-THE South could not safely cross, and whea
William /. Yancey stated his scheme for
the reOpenirg OF the slave trade Pryor
fiercely denounced it as prepOsterous, and
fought Il duel or two in support of his
opinion. In 1858, when he was thirty, he
entered Congress and acquired continental
notoriety by i quarrel with james Gordon
Bennett of the New York Herald. In a
speech which he delivered in denunciation
of the great journalist he was so i'll bred as
to launch some SareasmS at Mrs. Bennett,
the mother Of the present editor Of the Her.
aid. Bennett, the elder, Tesorted to curl
GUS node OF reply. In his daily report Of
Congressional proceedings he inserted four
or five times such sentences as, Il ger \.
Pryor, the dirty liar from Virginia, SAID not
a word, " Roger a. Pryor, the f0ul-mOuthed
slanderer from Virginia, made no remark, y
This he kept up fer weeks together, and
Pryor eoadCd to madness by the daily sting,
vainly appealed 10 Congress for protection.
The Fourth Virginia, which he repre-
senied, was, like most Virginia districts, op-
posed 10 secession, and reelected Pryor to
Congress az the election which made Lin
coin President; bnt Pryor himself, who was
a type Of tie youthful fire-eater, with flash
ing black eyes and long lack bair streaming
down his back, WAS red-hnt for a separate
Coufederacy, and dragoonCd his constituents
into sharing his views. he became a men,
Der of the Confederate Congress, ana subse-
quently accepted from Governor Letcher a
commission n the Confederate army.
At the close OF the war he was dead
broke" with hopes shattered, friends dis
persed, vocation gone and q goodly array of
enemies exulting over his downfall There
was no room for him in the South. He re-
paired to New York, where he very nearly
actually starved. After tine he obtained
admission to the bar and a few small fees
found their way to his purse He had been
so truculent and oyerbearing in the days of
his prosperity, and he had established such
a reputation as a duel!st, that his welcome
among the New FORK lawyers was faint.
But it was soon discovered that. like many
another man, he had learned from adversely
the lesson of humility, and was prepared to
conduct cases in court without quarreling
or br0wbeating. The kindliness which is
peculiar to New Workers came to his help,
business was thrown in his way, and in a
few years he found himself in possession of
practice which secured him the material
comforts Of life.
He never rose to the first rank in the pro-
fession, but among the lawyers Of the sec
ond rank he stood high aud was retained in
some important cases. He was esteemed a
man of clear mind and industrious habits
He mixed in politics and occasionally spoke
ON the stump, but he never became leader
in Tammany. He used to say that he had
| played his hand in the game of politics long
ago, and had lost his pile; he had no desire
to tempt the cards again.
Not many OF the leaders of the Confed-
eracy who had stood shoulder to shoulder
with him in the old war times wound up
| their career as well as he. Reagan, who was
| Postmaster-General under JEFF Davis, is still
| in the Senate, where his vagaries escape sat.
| ire in consequence of his age and infirmities.
| Benjamin died the other day in London, rich
| and leaving vacancy among the leaders of
the British bar. Almost all the others are
now where " them nor carketh care nor
/ SANDER" Pryor, as Judge of the Common
Pleas il New York, will perhaps be able to
say that he has atoned for the sins of his
| youth and repaired the wrongs of his man.
hood as completely as any of them.