The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1892-11-05

uldT nOtel ana III
vested his bottom dollar" according to
the custom of the country, in treating him
self and the landlord to the good things of
life, and then declared himself an appli-
can't for chance to earn his bed and
board. Eighteen years from the date of
that incident distinguished young law
yer and public man of Mississippi re-
moved 10 New Orleans to find n broader
field for his abilities
His departure from His old home Mt
Vicksburg was signalized by public din
ner, and he carried with him the regrets
anu Well wishes OF the whole people. His
arrival ut the new destination was marked
by another popular demonstration; a
salute of twenty-six guns greeted him and
committee of citizens met him at the
wharf to tender him the freedom of the
city. The penniless and frendless emf
grant boy ut Natchez and the distinguish
Ell MissiSsippian toasted and feted ut
FicksbUrg and New Orleans were one and
the samoa crowded out New Highlander
who had anticipated the Greeleyan advice
and floated west to grow up with the
country.
Meanwhile, between his lone pilgrimage
into Natchez in 1897 and his ceremonious
welcome at New Orleans in 1915, he had
served term in congress, had been his
will us well, for the United States senate,
had carried off the palm for oratory in
congress, on the rostrum and at the bar,
and that, too, in an age of orators, and in
frequent travels from the Mississippi to
the COASTS of his native Maine the JOURNEYS
had been turned into triumphal process
SONS by the spontaneous uprising of tho
people to welcome and honor him, to see
him and listen to his eloqucnce. Now
Mississippi i'll the thirtics was the last
community in the Union to codde pre-
cocious and sentimental sophomore from
Classical New England. Its male popula-
tion was popularity summed up in two
clnsScs-nnmely, aristocratic planters and
river blacklegs-and certainly it wa,
neither brute force nor the magnetism of
wealth and lineage that enabled the penni-
less and friendless Yankee STRIPPING to sub
que and vault over the one class and forge
his way TO the top through the respect and
Endorsement of the other
Neither was it luck nor phenomenal
genius, but courage of intense convic-
lions, that tipped that lisping tongue with
lire and turned that stunted form into the
figure OF u giant whose frown was as the
scowl of a demon and whose smile was MS
the favor of god. Young Prentiss won
his first case at the bar by an exhibition of
S'"'"SS iihS oiuO vi OdVlu. re naU READ
law Mt Natchez while supporting himself
by teaching in the family of planter, and
was retained in an apparently hopeless case
in a backwoods circuit. When the case
was called he entered demurrer to some
OF the proceedings. and the Judge coolly
announced that he wouldn't allow argu-
ment on the subject, as his mind was al
ready made up. Prentiss was n stranger
to MI the court, a beardless youth of stunt
ed physique, and when the Sldgc made
that crushing ruling he modcstly but
firmly insisted that although technicalities
were against him and argument could not
change facts, yet the higher law of justice
and fair dealing demanded that his clients
case be heard, and it was heard and in !.
speech that astounded the court and all
present he convinced the judge of his error
and won the case.
1t was 10 accident that Prentiss' person
atty had such power OH occasions. His
auditors would often call out to him dur
ing speech, Look this wayp Once he
arose in political meeting to reply to a
foeman that put him to his mettle and
whose argument had apparently taken the
ground from under the feet of the oppos-
ton. leaving Prentiss no foothold to begin
An eyewitness said of the scene: Ills
whole sou! was aroused; his high, smooth
forehead fairly coruscated. lie remained